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. 18, 2019

Welcome back to The Week That Was, where we're two weeks away from the beginning of the only sport where every game makes the databases.

Milestones:

The Brewers-Pirates game on Wednesday, Aug. 7, was the 11,500th MLB telecast in our database. Jon Sciambi, David Ross and Ryan Howard called it for ESPN.

On Saturday, Aug. 10, Eric Karros was the analyst for his 224th MLB national telecast, a Phillies-Giants game from San Francisco on FS1 with Eric Collins. That broke a tie with Bob Brenly and Jeff Torborg for 14th on the MLB analyst list, but created a new tie for 13th with Maury Wills.

Less than 24 hours later on Sunday, Aug. 11, Ron Darling took hold of #11 on the same analyst list, breaking a tie with Orel Hershiser as he broke down the Angels and Red Sox from Fenway Park. Ernie Johnson was the play-by-play man on TBS.

Friday, Aug. 16, was Jon Morosi's turn in the spotlight for the second straight post. He handled field-reporter duties for an Indians-Yankees game in New York, moving him past Chris Myers into 10th place on the list of MLB field reporters. It was his 74th such game.

Kenny Albert assumed the title of 15th-most-frequent MLB commentator on Saturday, Aug. 17, with the Brewers-Nationals game on FS1. With Albert's 405th national MLB game, he passed Gary Thorne to take that spot, working alongside Joe Girardi and Ken Rosenthal.

Database Updates:

Dec. 4, 1990: Ron Thulin and Hubie Brown move from guesses to confirmations on the Suns-Bulls game.

This Date In History:

Thursday, Aug. 15 marked the 29th anniversary of Terry Mulholland's no-hitter, called for ESPN by Steve Zabriskie and Bob Gibson.

This Week in the Tennis Section:

Nothing this week as the tours play low-level events in New York and Winston-Salem ahead of next week's US Open.

This Week on the Playoff of Dreams:

The 1911 World Series began Saturday between the Tigers and Giants.

The Week That Will Be:

Monday, Aug. 19
None scheduled.

Tuesday, Aug. 20
10:00 -- ESPN -- Yankees at Athletics

Wednesday, Aug. 21
3:30 -- YouTube -- Rockies at Diamondbacks
8:00 -- TUDN-UDN -- DC United vs. Red Bulls
10:00 -- ESPN -- Yankees at Athletics
10:30 -- TUDN-UDN -- LAFC vs. Earthquakes

Thursday, Aug. 22
9:30 -- ESPN -- Sporting KC vs. Minnesota United

Friday, Aug. 23
8:00 -- ESPN -- Orlando City vs. Atlanta United
10:00 -- ESPN -- Timbers vs. Sounders

Saturday, Aug. 24
4:00 -- FS1 -- Yankees at Dodgers
7:00 -- FS1 -- Rockies at Cardinals
7:00 -- ESPN2 -- NYCFC vs. Red Bulls

Sunday, Aug. 25
2:00 -- TBS -- Nationals at Cubs
6:00 -- FS1 -- Cincinnati vs. Crew
7:00 -- ESPN -- Yankees at Dodgers
8:00 -- FS1 -- Dallas vs. Dynamo
10:00 -- FS1 -- LAFC vs. Galaxy

The Week That Was: July 14, 2019

Welcome back to The Week That Was, where we'd like to remind you that you aren't supposed to eat the little packets of silica gel that come in your shoes.

Milestones:

A pair of ESPN commentators hit milestones this week on the same games as Matt Vasgersian and Buster Olney double-dipped (Thursday and Sunday) for ESPN. Thursday night, the Astros visited the Rangers, and Sunday night, the Dodgers met the Red Sox. Jessica Mendoza and Alex Rodriguez were the analysts in both cases.

Vasgersian called his 275th and 276th national MLB telecasts, passing Josh Lewin (274) for 15th place and Vin Scully (275) for 14th among known play-by-play men. (Please note that Matty V did not pass Vin Scully on the Being Vin Scully scale, just ... numerically.)

Olney handled field-reporter duties for his 240th and 241st MLB games, tying and then passing Bob Harwood of OLN and Versus for the 12th-most field reporter credits among the four major U.S. sports.

In between those appearances, Eric Karros pulled into a tie for 13th among MLB color commentators on Saturday. The White Sox-Athletics game he called with Justin Kutcher was his 223rd, matching Bob Brenly and Jeff Torborg on that list.

From the Department of Round Numbers: the Thursday game was the Rangers' 600th national TV appearance and the Saturday game was the Athletics' 700th.

Database Updates:

The Padres-Phillies game on May 21, 1983, was rained out. Bob Costas and Tony Kubek are no longer credited with this appearance.

The Royals-Yankees game on July 21, 1983, was also rained out. We have removed that from the database, but it does not affect any top-16 lists.

This Date In History:

Tuesday, July 16 is the 25th anniversary of Joe Buck's network telecast debut. He called a Cardinals-Rockies game on this date in 1994, pairing with Dave Campbell on an ABC regional game. His first NFL game was that fall.

This Week in the Tennis Section:

The Hall of Fame Classic at Newport, Rhode Island. (For the next two weeks, we're claiming home-court advantage and tracking U.S.-based tournaments that don't fit our usual criteria.)

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. (This is last week's summary as well. We got sort of tied up watching tennis.)

The Week That Will Be:

Monday, July 15
7:00 -- ESPN -- Dodgers at Phillies

Tuesday, July 16
7:00 -- MLB Network -- Dodgers at Phillies

Wednesday, July 17
7:00 -- ESPN -- Rays at Yankees

Thursday, July 18
12:30 -- YouTube -- Dodgers at Phillies
7:00 -- MLB Network -- Rays at Yankees
8:00 -- ESPN -- FC Cincinnati vs. DC United
10:00 -- ESPN -- Timbers vs. Orlando City

Friday, July 19
10:00 -- ESPN -- Galaxy vs. LAFC

Saturday, July 20
4:00 -- FS1 -- Mets at Giants
7:15 -- FS1 -- Nationals at Braves

Sunday, July 21
1:00 -- TBS -- Rockies at Yankees
4:00 -- ESPN -- Atlanta United vs. DC United
7:00 -- ESPN -- Nationals at Braves
7:30 -- FS1 -- Orlando City vs. Red Bulls
9:30 -- FS1 -- Timbers vs. Galaxy