The Week That Was: September 1, 2019

Welcome back to The Week That Was, where we feel like it was August as recently as yesterday.

Milestones:

Tuesday, Aug. 27 saw Bob Costas call his 450th national MLB telecast as a play-by-play announcer when the Cubs visited the Mets in Flushing Meadows. Jim Kaat and Joe Girardi rounded out the telecast's crew. Costas is the fifth person to 450 play-by-play appearances, trailing Jon Miller, Joe Buck, Dave O'Brien and Dan Shulman.

Later that same evening, Eric Karros called his 225th game as an MLB analyst, passing Maury Wills for 13th among color commentators. Justin Kutcher handled the play-by-play for the Rangers-Angels telecast from Orange County.

This Day In History:

September 5: As of Thursday night, it will have been 47 years since the infamous day in Munich. I yield the balance of my time to Jim McKay, who delivered this summary at 10:24 p.m. EDT:

"When I was a kid, my father used to say our greatest hopes and our worst fears are seldom realized. Our worst fears have been realized tonight. They have now said that there were 11 hostages. Two were killed in their rooms this m—yesterday morning. Nine were killed at the airport tonight.

"They’re all gone."

This Week in the Tennis Section:

The second week of the year's fourth major at the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in New York. Quarterfinals begin Tuesday, with the women wrapping up Thursday-Saturday and the men Friday-Sunday.

This Week on the Playoff of Dreams:

On hiatus because our time is being taken up by tennis and football; will return on Tuesday, Sept. 10.

The Week That Will Be:

Monday, Sept. 2
1:00 -- ESPN -- Rangers at Yankees
4:00 -- ESPN -- Astros at Brewers

Tuesday, Sept. 3
12:00 -- ESPN -- US Open quarterfinal
2:00 -- ESPN -- US Open quarterfinal
7:00 -- ESPN -- US Open quarterfinal
8:00 -- ESPN2 -- USWNT vs. Portugal at St. Paul, Minn.
9:00 -- ESPN -- US Open quarterfinal

Wednesday, Sept. 4
12:00 -- ESPN -- US Open quarterfinal
1:00 -- YouTube -- Mets at Nationals
2:00 -- ESPN -- US Open quarterfinal
7:00 -- ESPN -- US Open quarterfinal
9:00 -- ESPN -- US Open quarterfinal

Thursday, Sept. 5
7:00 -- ESPN -- US Open women's semifinal (Tuesday winners)
7:00 -- YouTube -- Blue Jays at Rays
8:20 -- NBC -- Bears at Packers
9:00 -- ESPN -- US Open women's semifinal (Wednesday winners)

Friday, Sept. 6
4:00 -- ESPN -- US Open men's semifinal (Tuesday winners)
7:00 -- ESPN -- US Open men's semifinal (Wednesday winners)
8:30 -- FS1 -- USMNT vs. Mexico at East Rutherford, N.J.

Saturday, Sept. 7
3:30 -- Univision/TUDN -- NYCFC vs. Revolution
4:00 -- FS1 -- Yankees at Red Sox
4:00 -- ESPN -- US Open women's final
7:00 -- FS1 -- Phillies at Mets

Sunday, Sept. 8
1:00 -- TBS -- Phillies at Mets
1:00 -- Fox -- Rams at Panthers
1:00 -- CBS -- Titans at Browns
1:00 -- CBS -- Chiefs at Jaguars
1:00 -- CBS -- Ravens at Dolphins
1:00 -- Fox -- Falcons at Vikings
1:00 -- CBS -- Bills at Jets
1:00 -- Fox -- Redskins at Eagles
4:00 -- ESPN -- US Open men's final
4:05 -- CBS -- Colts at Chargers
4:05 -- CBS -- Bengals at Seahawks
4:25 -- Fox -- Lions at Cardinals
4:25 -- Fox -- Giants at Cowboys
4:25 -- Fox -- 49ers at Buccaneers
8:00 -- ESPN -- Yankees at Red Sox
8:20 -- NBC -- Steelers at Patriots

(Monday night: Texans at Saints, Broncos at Raiders)

The Week That Was: Aug. 4, 2019

Welcome back to The Week That Was, where last week had an off night and this week has two.

Milestones:

On Monday night, Jon Morosi handled MLB field-reporting duties for the 73rd time as the Angels hosted the Tigers on YouTube. Morosi's 73rd game in that capacity matched Chris Myers for the 10th-most on record.

Tuesday night's Cubs-Cardinals tilt was a double milestone, as John Smoltz passed Buck Martinez for sixth on the list of MLB color commentators with his 353rd game and Bob Costas tied Dan Shulman for 10th on the total list with his 454th game. Jackie Redmond was the field reporter.

Costas went on to pass Shulman on Friday night with the Red Sox-Yankees game.

Finally, on Sunday, Ron Darling worked the Brewers-Cubs game at Wrigley Field alongside Brian Anderson for TBS. His 228th game as a national color commentator tied Orel Hershiser for 11th on that list.

Database Updates:

Oct. 25, 1979: Don Meredith, not Fran Tarkenton, worked Monday Night Football with Frank Gifford and Howard Cosell at the Oakland Coliseum.

This Date In History:

Friday, Aug. 9 is the 31st anniversary of the first official night game at Wrigley Field. While you may have seen the YouTube footage of the first night game's pomp and circumstance on Aug. 8, that game was rained out and the one that counted was 24 hours later. Vin Scully and Joe Garagiola called it and Marv Albert hosted on site.

This Week in the Tennis Section:

We return to the men's Masters 1000 events and the women's Premier tier in the Rogers Cup at Toronto and Montreal.

This Week on the Playoff of Dreams:

Beginning on Saturday, it's the 1911 League Championship Series.

The Week That Will Be:

Monday, Aug. 5
8:00 -- ESPN -- Athletics at Cubs

Tuesday, Aug. 6
None scheduled.

Wednesday, Aug. 7
3:00 -- YouTube -- Cardinals at Dodgers
7:00 -- ESPN -- Brewers at Pirates

Thursday, Aug. 8
9:30 -- YouTube -- Phillies at Giants

Friday, Aug. 9
None scheduled.

Saturday, Aug. 10
4:00 -- FS1 -- Phillies at Giants
8:30 -- FS1 -- Rockies at Pirates

Sunday, Aug. 11
1:00 -- TBS -- Angels at Red Sox
4:00 -- ESPN -- Atlanta United vs. NYCFC
7:00 -- ESPN -- Phillies at Giants
7:30 -- FS1 -- DC United vs. Galaxy
10:00 -- FS1 -- LAFC vs. Red Bulls

The Week That Was: July 7, 2019

Welcome back to The Week That Was, where nothing is made up but you can still argue that some of the points don't matter.

Milestones:

Bob Costas called the 450th national MLB telecast of his career on Tuesday, July 2, in a Subway Series game between the Mets and Yankees. He's the 11th person to hit that plateau. The mark also comes in his 442nd game as a play-by-play announcer, matching Dizzy Dean for fifth-most on record. Analyst Jim Kaat and reporter Tom Verducci were on hand for the historic moment.

Tom Verducci, meanwhile, made his 350th national MLB appearance on Saturday in the Angels-Astros tilt. He becomes the 20th person to hit that mark, doing it with 186 games of color commentary and 164 games as the field reporter. Play-by-play man Don Orsillo and reporter Jon Morosi rounded out the telecast.

(We may again have as many as four milestones in this space next week, despite the All-Star Break.)

Database Updates:

In the process of scrubbing our MLB database to remove games that were scheduled but never played, we have removed four rainouts.

• August 21, 1954: Phillies-Dodgers on ABC (Dizzy Dean, Buddy Blattner) 
• July 13, 1957: Reds-Dodgers on CBS (Dizzy Dean, Buddy Blattner)
• September 23, 1961: Orioles-White Sox on CBS (Dizzy Dean, Pee Wee Reese)
• May 6, 1962: Dodgers-Pirates on NBC (Bob Wolff, Joe Garagiola)

This drops Dean's total from 442 play-by-play games to 439 and from 445 total games to 442. Garagiola's figures fall by one, to 390 color and 645 total. Reese also decrements a single game to 335 appearances.

This Date In History:

Wednesday, July 10 saw two teams carry no-hitters into the seventh inning on national MLB telecasts in 2016. The Mets' Stephen Matz went 7.1 innings without allowing a National to reach safely on TBS; that evening, Madison Bumgarner blanked the Diamondbacks for 7.1 innings in Phoenix.

This week also has two no-hitters broken up in the ninth: Nolan Ryan on July 13, 1979, in a Yankees-Angels game on ABC, and five Padres pitchers against the Dodgers on July 9, 2011, on Fox.

This Week in the Tennis Section:

Second-week action at Wimbledon. The Big Three of Djokovic, Federer and Nadal lead the men's field, which is guaranteed an American in the quarterfinals. Six of the top 11 seeds are left on the women's side where the story has been 15-year-old phenom Coco Gauff.

This Week on the Playoff of Dreams:

The 1910 League Championship Series get underway with the Giants meeting the Cubs and the Athletics facing the Tigers.

The Week That Will Be:

Monday, July 8
No official national telecasts. Wimbledon round of 16 on ESPN and ESPN2. Home Run Derby on ESPN.

Tuesday, July 9
8:00a -- ESPN and ESPN2 -- Wimbledon: women's quarterfinals
10:00a -- ESPN and ESPN2 -- Wimbledon: women's quarterfinals
8:00 -- Fox -- MLB All-Star Game

Wednesday, July 10
8:00a -- ESPN and ESPN2 -- Wimbledon: men's quarterfinals
11:00a -- ESPN and ESPN2 -- Wimbledon: women's quarterfinals

Thursday, July 11
8:00a -- ESPN -- Wimbledon: women's semifinal
10:00a -- ESPN -- Wimbledon: women's semifinal
8:00 -- ESPN -- Astros at Rangers

Friday, July 12
8:00a -- ESPN -- Wimbledon: men's semifinal
11:00a -- ESPN -- Wimbledon: men's semifinal
7:00 -- ESPN -- DC United vs. Revolution
9:00 -- UniMas and UDN -- Dynamo vs. LAFC
11:00 -- UniMas and UDN -- Galaxy vs. Earthquakes

Saturday, July 13
9:00a -- ESPN -- Wimbledon: women's final
4:00 -- FS1 -- White Sox at Athletics
7:15 -- Fox -- Dodgers at Red Sox
7:15 -- Fox -- Giants at Brewers
7:15 -- Fox -- Nationals at Phillies

Sunday, July 14
9:00a -- ESPN -- Wimbledon: men's final
1:00 -- TBS -- Nationals at Phillies
4:00 -- ESPN -- Sounders vs. Atlanta United
6:30 -- FS1 -- Red Bulls vs. NYCFC
7:00 -- ESPN -- Dodgers at Red Sox

The Week That Was: June 23, 2019

Welcome back to The Week That Was, a feature that I do actually intend to run weekly.

Milestones:

Not much going on this front last week -- the slow season on this front is late June through Labor Day, and look where we are now. My best guess at this point is that we get our next milestone, defined as a round  number or someone passing someone else in a top 16, late next week.

John Farrell became the 514th commentator and 288th color analyst in the MLB database on Saturday, when he called Tigers-Indians with Justin Kutcher on FS1.

This Date In History:

Sunday, June 23, is the 35th anniversary of the Ryne Sandberg game, when two late home run from the Cubs second baseman and eventual Hall of Famer powered the Cubs to a 12-11 win over the Cardinals in 11 innings at Wrigley Field. Bob Costas and Tony Kubek called the game on NBC.

Monday, June 24 is the 57th anniversary of CBS cutting off a Yankees-Tigers game at 5 p.m. because the game's broadcast window was ending and CBS didn't want to delay its primetime lineup. The game went 22 innings and finished at 9:14 p.m. with Dizzy Dean and Pee Wee Reese on the call.

Tuesday, June 25: Next season's NHL schedule drops at noon EDT, according to a league announcement from Friday. Last year, the national TV schedule came out in mid-August.

Wednesday, June 26 is the 37th anniversary of the NBC truck losing power in the middle of the ninth inning at Fenway Park in Boston. The Brewers were playing the Red Sox and Joe Garagiola and Kubek were left to finish the game with one camera.

On Saturday, June 29, the Baseball and the Media Committee of the Society for American Baseball Research meets in San Diego. Good luck and pleasant wishes to all involved and I hope to join you in person the next time you're in a Central Division city.

That meeting will start at 8:30 p.m. Eastern time (5:30 Pacific), which places it squarely in the middle of ESPN's no-hitter doubleheader on that date in 1990. At 7:30 EDT, the Worldwide Leader in Sports showed Dave Stewart's no-no in an Athletics-Blue Jays game called by John Sanders and Tommy Hutton. At 10:30, it was Fernando Valenzuela's turn in a Cardinals-Dodgers game called by Gary Thorne and Norm Hitzges.

This Week in the Tennis Section:

At Eastbourne, England, the Nature Valley International is a WTA Premier event and an ATP 250 event.

This Week on the Playoff of Dreams:

Philadelphia and New York look to close out 2-0 leads in the 1909 MLB playoffs.

The Week That Will Be:

Monday, June 24
12:00 -- FS1 -- Women's World Cup R16: Spain vs. USA
3:00 -- FS1 -- Women's World Cup R16: Canada vs. Sweden
9:45 -- ESPN -- Rockies at Giants

Tuesday, June 25
12:00 -- NHL schedule release
12:00 -- FS1 -- Women's World Cup R16: China vs. Italy
3:00 -- FS1 -- Women's World Cup R16: Japan vs. Netherlands
9:45 -- ESPN -- Rockies at Giants

Wednesday, June 26
8:00 -- MLB Network -- Braves at Cubs
9:00 -- FS1 -- Gold Cup: USA vs. Panama

Thursday, June 27
3:00 -- Fox -- Women's World Cup quarterfinal: Norway vs. England

Friday, June 28
Wimbledon singles draws made today
3:00 -- Fox -- Women's World Cup quarterfinal: Spain/USA vs. France
8:00 -- UniMas/UDN -- Red Bulls vs. Fire
10:00 -- UniMas/UDN -- Rapids vs. LAFC

Saturday, June 29
9:00 a.m. -- FS1 -- Women's World Cup quarterfinal: Netherlands/Japan vs. Italy/China
12:30 p.m. -- FS1 -- Women's World Cup quarterfinal: Sweden/Canada vs. Germany
1 p.m. -- Fox -- Yankees vs. Red Sox at London
4 p.m. -- FS1 -- Nationals at Tigers
4 p.m. -- ESPN -- Minnesota United vs. FC Cincinnati
7 p.m. -- FS1 -- Gold Cup quarterfinal: Costa Rica/Haiti winner vs. Mexico, Canada or Martinique
8:15 p.m. -- Fox -- Mariners at Astros
8:15 p.m. -- Fox -- Dodgers at Rockies
8:15 p.m. -- Fox -- Pirates at Brewers
10 p.m. -- FS1 -- Gold Cup quarterfinal: Mexico, Canada or Martinique vs. Costa Rica/Haiti loser

Sunday, June 30
10 a.m. -- ESPN -- Yankees vs. Red Sox at London
5:30 p.m. -- FS1 -- Gold Cup quarterfinal: Jamaica, El Salvador or Curacao vs. USA/Panama loser
7 p.m. -- ESPN -- Braves at Mets
8:30 p.m. -- FS1 -- Gold Cup quarterfinal: USA/Panama winner vs. Jamaica, El Salvador or Curacao
11 p.m. -- UniMas/UDN -- Timbers vs. FC Dallas

Monday, July 1
6:30 a.m. -- First ball at Wimbledon

The Week That Was: May 19, 2019

Welcome to The Week That Was, a new feature at Un/Necessary Sports Research that solves all of our problems a couple of our problems.

First of all, there's fresh content on the blog side of things.

Second of all, the cable and Internet went out in our bunker (well, our below-street-level apartment) on Monday night before Trusty Laptop 2.0 passed into the great beyond on Thursday evening. All of our announcer data is backed up in the cloud, so that was never in danger, but we haven't been able to access it and tweet nuggets in almost a week.

Third, when we do tweet nuggets, they don't really get archived. (TW)^2 can serve as a one-stop shop for all that went down in the world of esoteric sports ... discoveries over the previous half of a fortnight.

So, as they say over at the Hydraulic Press Channel, with Trusty Laptop 3.0 acquired, here we go.

Sunday, May 12

• Craig Simpson ties Greg Millen for #8 on the Canadian NHL commentators list with his 783rd game, the second game of the Hurricanes-Bruins series.
• Ed Olczyk works his 700th American NHL national telecast in the same game 2. (Two of these were as a sideline reporter, setting up something on Thursday.)

Monday, May 13

• Kenny Albert handles play-by-play for his 1,050th American national telecast across the four major sports. At this time of the year, he's doing hockey, specifically game 2 of the Blues-Sharks series.
• Pierre McGuire makes his 821st appearance on a U.S. national telecast of the four major pro sports, matching Curt Gowdy for 14th-most all-time.

Tuesday, May 14

• Simpson passes Millen for #8 on the Canadian NHL commentators list with his 784th game in game 3 of the series.
• Simpson matches Tim McCarver with his 804th appearance as a color man on the four major pro sports. Only six men have more.
• Game 3 is Mike Emrick's 1000th American national telecast as a play-by-play announcer, encompassing every major pro sport except the NBA. He's the sixth person to reach this milestone.

Wednesday, May 15

• McGuire worked his 822nd game, passing Gowdy after tying him on Monday.

Thursday, May 16

• Simpson finishes the pass he started on Tuesday, eclipsing McCarver for seventh on the list of color men across all four sports.
• Olczyk works his 700th American national NHL telecast as a color commentator, becoming the third person to accomplish that behind McGuire and Bill Clement.

Friday, May 17

• The Red Sox played the Astros in a game that still sends up the "interleague" flag in my brain. Bob Costas, who remembers when the Astros didn't exist in either league, calls his 445th national MLB telecast, tying Dizzy Dean for #11 in our database.
• Garry Galley calls his 473rd national NHL telecast in Canada, matching John Garrett for the eighth-most by a color analyst.

Saturday, May 18

• Jeff Van Gundy calls his 650th national NBA telecast, all of them as a color analyst. He's the third analyst to reach that mark, trailing Doug Collins and Hubie Brown, and the seventh person overall.

Sunday, May 19

• Galley passes Garrett with his 474th appearance after having been tied since Friday.

The Week Ahead...

Below is the national broadcast schedule for the four major pro sports; MLS, the U.S. national soccer team; and major professional golf and tennis tournaments. Asterisks denote "if necessary" games.

Monday, May 20
8:00 -- MLBN -- Phillies at Cubs
9:00 -- ESPN -- Warriors at Blazers, game 4

Tuesday, May 21
7:00 -- ESPN -- Phillies at Cubs
8:00 -- NBCSN, CBC, SN -- Sharks at Blues, game 6
8:30 -- TNT -- Bucks at Raptors, game 4
9:45 -- ESPN -- Braves at Giants

Wednesday, May 22
9:00 -- ESPN -- *Blazers at Warriors, game 5

Thursday, May 23
1:00 -- French Open singles draws.
We get excited over tournament brackets. We will not apologize for this.
8:30 -- TNT -- Raptors at Bucks, game 5
9:00 -- NBCSN, CBC, SN1 -- Blues at Sharks, game 7

Friday, May 24
7:00 -- UniMas, UDN, Twitter -- Orlando City vs. Galaxy
9:00 -- ESPN -- *Warriors at Blazers, game 6
9:00 -- UniMas, UDN, Twitter -- Real Salt Lake vs. Atlanta United

Saturday, May 25
3:30 -- Univision, UDN, Twitter -- Fire vs. NYCFC
4:00 -- FS1 -- Diamondbacks at Giants
7:15 -- Fox regional -- Red Sox at Astros
7:15 -- Fox regional -- Dodgers at Pirates
7:15 -- Fox regional -- Braves at Cardinals
8:30 -- TNT -- *Bucks at Raptors, game 6

Sunday, May 26
5:00 a.m. -- Tennis Channel -- French Open, first round
12:00 -- ESPN -- USWNT vs. Mexico at Harrison, N.J.
12:00 -- NBC -- Indianapolis 500
Green flag at 12:45 after "Back Home Again in Indiana" at 12:36.
6:00 -- FS1 -- Sounders vs. Sporting Kansas City
7:00 -- ESPN or ESPN2 -- Braves at Cardinals
9:00 -- ESPN -- *Blazers at Warriors, game 7