The Week That Was: June 30, 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:

Matt Vasgersian called play-by-play of his 274th MLB national telecast on Sunday when the Yankees beat the Red Sox in London. That ties him with Josh Lewin, who was working Red Sox radio that day, for 16th-most on record.

(We may have as many as four milestones in this space next week.)

This Date In History:

Tuesday, July 2 is the sixth anniversary of Homer Bailey's 2013 no-hitter, which aired nationally on MLB Network with Vasgersian, Sean Casey and Sam Ryan on the call.

This Week in the Tennis Section:

The year's third major begins at Wimbledon, with 10 hours a day of coverage (6 a.m. to about 4 p.m.) on the ESPN linear networks. Almost 160 hours of action each of the first four days!

This Week on the Playoff of Dreams:

Philadelphia leads New York 2-0 in the 1909 World Series after vanquishing the Tigers in the ALCS.

The Week That Will Be:

Monday, July 1
7:00 -- ESPN -- MLB: Cubs at Pirates

Tuesday, July 2
3:00 -- Fox -- Women's World Cup semifinal: USA vs. England
7:00 -- MLB Network -- MLB: Yankees vs. Mets
10:30 -- FS1 -- Gold Cup semifinal: Haiti vs. Mexico

Wednesday, July 3
3:00 -- FS1 -- Women's World Cup semifinal: Netherlands vs. Sweden
7:00 -- ESPN -- MLB: Yankees vs. Mets
9:30 -- FS1 -- Gold Cup semifinal: Jamaica vs. USA

Thursday, July 4
4:00 -- ESPN -- MLB: Cubs at Pirates
7:20 -- ESPN -- MLB: Phillies at Braves

Friday, July 5
This date intentionally left blank.

Saturday, July 6
11:00a -- Fox -- Women's World Cup third place match
7:15 -- Fox -- MLB: Cubs at White Sox
7:15 -- Fox -- MLB: Phillies at Mets
7:15 -- Fox -- MLB: Angels at Astros
10:00 -- FS1 -- MLB: Rockies at Diamondbacks

Sunday, July 7
11:00a -- Fox -- Women's World Cup final
1:00 -- TBS -- MLB: Rays at Yankees
2:00 -- Fox -- MLS: Atlanta United vs. Red Bulls
6:30 -- FS1 -- MLS: NYCFC vs. Timbers
9:15 -- FS1 -- Gold Cup final
No Sunday Night Baseball due to All-Star Break

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

French Open Schedule: Tuesday, May 28, 2019

20 men's singles first-round matches (55 hours)
20 women's singles first-round matches (33.3 hours)
16 men's doubles first-round matches (44 hours)56 matches (132.3 hours) on the original schedule. 1 men's singles match (~0.1 match, 0.3 hour) held over from Monday
. 1 women's singles match (~0.4 match, 0.7 hour) held over from Monday58 matches (133.7 hours of tennis)

15 initial warmups (3 hours)
43 changeovers between matches (14.3 hours)
  9 on-court interviews (0.75 hours)

150.9 hours of court activity
Men's singles: 9 seeds, 2 Americans, plus a seed held over
Women's singles: 10 seeds, 3 Americans, plus a seed held over

Men's #25 seed Felix Auger-Aliassime withdrew, so there are only 31 seeds. This is the day he would have played.

Weather: Cloudy, high 76, winds 6-9 mph

Sunset: 9:42 local (3:42 EDT)

TV: Tennis Channel, 5 a.m. to 3 p.m.

French Open Schedule: Monday, May 27, 2019

28 men's singles matches (77 hours)
28 women's singles matches (46.7 hours)
56 matches (123.7 hours) on the original schedule
  2 women's singles matches (1 hour) held over from Sunday
58 matches (124.7 hours of tennis)

14 initial warmups (2.3 hours)
46 changeovers between matches (15.3 hours)
  9 on-court interviews (0.75 hours)
142.4 hours of court activity

Men's singles: 11 seeds, 5 Americans
Women's singles: 12 seeds, 8 Americans, plus one of each in holdovers

Weather (from Meteo France): Cloudy, high 78, winds 6-12 mph

Sunset: 9:39 local (3:39 EDT)

TV: Tennis Channel, 5 a.m. to 3 p.m.; NBC, noon to 3 p.m.

TV Commentators:


Tennis Channel:
Studio: Brett Haber, Chanda Rubin
5:06 a.m. -- Caroline Wozniacki vs. Veronika Kudermetova -- Bill Macatee, Tracy Austin
7:23 a.m. -- Rafael Nadal vs. Yannick Hanfmann -- Ian Eagle, Jim Courier
9:49 a.m. -- Novak Djokovic vs. Hubert Hurkacz -- Ted Robinson, Paul Annacone, Martina Navratilova
11:48 a.m. -- Serena Williams vs. Vitalia Diatchenko -- Ted Robinson, Lindsay Davenport
1:38 p.m. -- Dominic Thiem vs. Tommy Paul -- Ted Robinson, Paul Annacone
3:03 p.m. -- Kyle Edmund vs. Jeremy Chardy -- Robinson, Annacone

NBC:
12:02 p.m. -- Serena Williams vs. Vitalia Diatchenko -- Mary Carillo, John McEnroe
1:36 p.m. -- Dominic Thiem vs. Tommy Paul -- Mary Carillo, John McEnroe

French Open Schedule: Sunday, May 26, 2019

16 men's singles matches (44 hours)
16 women's singles matches (26.7 hours)
32 matches (70.7 hours of tennis)

8 initial warmups (1.3 hours)
24 changeovers between matches (8 hours)
  9 on-court interviews (0.75 hours)
80.75 hours of court activity

Men's singles: 9 seeds, no Americans
Women's singles: 8 seeds, 6 Americans

Weather (from Meteo France): Cloudy to very cloudy, high 72, winds 6-12 mph

Sunset: 9:39 local (3:39 EDT)

TV: Tennis Channel, 5 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Studio hosts - Brett Haber, Chanda Rubin
5:08 a.m. - Garbine Muguruza vs. Taylor Townsend (SM) - Bill Macatee, Martina Navratilova
7:12 a.m. - Stefanos Tsitsipas vs. Maximilian Marterer (PC) - Mary Carillo, Paul Annacone
8:49 a.m. - Roger Federer vs. Lorenzo Sonego (PC) - Ted Robinson, Jim Courier
10:48 a.m. - Marco Cecchinato vs. Nicolas Mahut (SM) - Mary Carillo, Tracy Austin
11:22 a.m. - Elina Svitolina vs. Venus Williams (SM) - Mary Carillo, Tracy Austin
1:35 p.m. - Goffin/Berankis and Kohlschreiber/Haase - Ian Eagle, Jim Courier
2:01 p.m. - Jennifer Brady vs. Ivana Jorovic - Ian Eagle, Lindsay Davenport
3:05 p.m. - Sign-off

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

Dick Enberg: 1935-2017

The fickle fingers of fate and aging silenced Dick Enberg on Thursday, three weeks before his 83rd birthday.

According to San Diego Union-Tribune columnist Bryce Miller, who broke the news on Twitter at 9:32 p.m. Pacific Standard Time, the cause was believed to be a heart attack.

Enberg, who former broadcast partner Dan Dierdorf described as "a monument to sports broadcasting," handled play-by-play duties for eight Super Bowls: at the time he retired, only Pat Summerall had done more (Al Michaels matched Enberg in 2012). He spent nine seasons in the 1980s as the television voice of the Rose Bowl and anchored NBC's Wimbledon coverage for nearly a quarter-century before working all four majors for ESPN and CBS in the new millennium.

Enberg also made his mark on the hardwood, calling half a dozen Final Fours on NBC from 1976-81 after serving as the voice of UCLA basketball for most of a decade prior. For the last four of those tournaments, he was the traffic cop in a three-man booth with Billy Packer and Al McGuire; in 2016, Awful Announcing named that trio the top NCAA Tournament announce team of all-time.

Two decades later, Enberg was reunited with March Madness at CBS: he called 11 straight regionals, the last six with Jay Bilas.

A Mount Clemens, Michigan, native, Enberg spent his entire career in sports, but started out on a different path. He graduated from Central Michigan University in 1957 before matriculating at Indiana University, leaving in 1965 with a doctorate in health sciences (while also voicing the first radio broadcast of the Little 500 bicycle race — think Breaking Away).

From 1961-65, he was an assistant professor and baseball coach at San Fernando Valley State College, which is now Cal State Northridge. In the mid-1960s, he jumped to radio for an 12-year tenure with the Los Angeles Raiders and a 10-year stint with the Los Angeles Angels. KMPC was the flagship station for both teams and used Enberg, Dave Niehaus and Don Drysdale on both of them.

Enberg's network television NFL debut would come on October 23, 1977; with the Rams playing on Monday Night Football, NBC had a seven-game slate that day and paired Enberg with Merlin Olsen for a Broncos-Bengals game in Cincinnati. He made another cameo on December 18, again with Olsen as the Patriots faced the Colts in Baltimore: the Rams had played in Washington the day before.

Curt Gowdy remained NBC's lead announcer in 1978, handling the Super Bowl and AFC Championship Game; however, Enberg and Olsen worked the Thanksgiving game in Detroit and games in the first two playoff weekends.

With Gowdy on CBS in 1979, Enberg slid into the lead chair: he and Olsen worked together 157 times through 1988, at which point only Frank Gifford and Howard Cosell had done more games together. Bill Walsh, Bob Trumpy, Phil Simms and Paul Maguire all spent time in the lead analyst chair over Enberg's last dozen years at NBC.

NBC lost the AFC's television rights to CBS in 1999; after a year away from the NFL, Enberg made the same leap in 2000. While he was never the lead man there, playing second fiddle to Greg Gumbel and Jim Nantz, he spent six further years in the #2 spot, calling a divisional round game every January from 2001-06.

Enberg retired from the NFL with 491 play-by-play appearances, a figure that trailed four men (Dick Stockton, Don Criqui, Charlie Jones and Pat Summerall); Al Michaels has since passed them all.

At NBC, Enberg also drew a handful of Olympic assignments on basketball, gymnastics, and as a studio host; he covered several dozen NBA games as well, including the All-Star Game from 1992-94. He also handled play-by-play duties for close to 50 MLB games, voicing the American League Championship Series in 1979 and the National League set two years later.

From 1978 to 2000, Enberg manned NBC's Centre Court broadcast booth at Wimbledon and the French Open, working alongside Bud Collins (and later John McEnroe and Mary Carillo). While at CBS, he spent 12 years on the US Open, joining ESPN for the other three majors from 2004-11.

In 2010, Enberg made a return to baseball, stepping into the broadcast booth alongside Mark Grant for about three-fourths of the season. That arrangement lasted through 2016.

The media center at UCLA's Pauley Pavilion is named in Enberg's honor; with Curt Gowdy, he is one of two men to win the broadcasting honors of the football, basketball and baseball halls of fame.

Enberg was a nine-time pick for National Sportscaster of the Year by the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association, which inducted him into its hall of fame in 1996. He won 13 Sports Emmys, including the inaugural award for outstanding play-by-play in 1993, and earned a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.