Major League Baseball on CBS#1990–1993 version

CBS has aired Major League Baseball telecasts in several variations dating back to the 1950s.{{cite book |author=Walker |first=James Robert |title=Center Field Shot: A History of Baseball on Television |author2=Bellamy |first2=Robert |date=June 2008 |publisher=U of Nebraska Press |isbn=978-0803248250}}

{{See also|Baseball broadcasting firsts}}

CBS broadcast Games 3–4 of the 1947 World Series (the first World Series to ever be televised) with Bob Edge on the call. However, the 1947 World Series was only seen in four markets{{Cite book|title=The Public Image of Henry Ford: An American Folk Hero and His Company|url=https://archive.org/details/publicimageofhen0000lewi_q8o6|url-access=registration|page=[https://archive.org/details/publicimageofhen0000lewi_q8o6/page/466 466]|first=David L.|last=Lewis|year=1976|location=Detroit|publisher=Wayne State University Press}}{{Cite news |last=Stewart |first=B.W. |date=October 5, 1947 |title=Television, Despite Some Handicaps, Scores in World Series Coverage |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1947/10/05/archives/baseball-on-video-television-despite-some-handicaps-scores-in-world.html |access-date=February 9, 2016 |newspaper=New York Times |page=X11}} via coaxial inter-connected stations: New York City; Philadelphia; Schenectady, New York; Washington, D.C.; and, environs surrounding these cities. Outside of New York, coverage was pooled, which continued through 1950. By that point, World Series games could be seen in most of the country,{{Cite news|title=Television All Set to Hit Line for Grid Fans|date=September 16, 1950|first=Larry|last=Wolters|newspaper=Chicago Tribune|page=A1}}{{Cite news|title=Television Comes of Age and Stars Flock to Sign Up|date=October 1, 1950|first=Larry|last=Wolters|newspaper=Chicago Tribune|page=NW_B1}}{{Cite news|title=TV Strikes Out on Two Innings of World Series|date=October 5, 1950|first=Larry|last=Wolters|newspaper=Chicago Tribune|page=A1}} but not all.

On July 12, 1949, CBS broadcast the All-Star Game from Ebbets Field in Brooklyn, New York. Red Barber,{{cite web |url=http://sabrmedia.org/databases/network-tv-broadcasts/searchable-network-tv-broadcasts/|title=Searchable Network TV Broadcasts|last= |first= |date= |website=SABR Baseball and the Media Research Committee|publisher= |access-date= |quote=}} who was the primary broadcaster for the Brooklyn Dodgers at the time, provided play-by-play. Barber had already, by 1946, added to his Brooklyn duties a job as sports director of the CBS Radio Network, succeeding Ted Husing and continuing through 1955. There, his greatest contribution was to conceive and host the CBS Football Roundup, which switched listeners back and forth between broadcasts of different regional college games each week.

On August 11, 1951, CBS' flagship television station WCBS-TV in New York City broadcast the first baseball game ever televised in color between the Brooklyn Dodgers and Boston Braves from Ebbets Field, in which the Braves beat the Dodgers 8–1. As were all color programs at the time, it was transmitted via a field-sequential color system developed by CBS. Signals transmitted this way could not be seen on existing black-and-white sets. Four years prior on July 21, WCBS used a prototype version of the Zoomar Lens (the first commercially successful zoom lens) to cover a Brooklyn Dodgers/Cincinnati Reds game.{{Cite news|url=http://www.americanradiohistory.com/hd2/IDX-Business/Magazines/Archive-BC-IDX/47-OCR/1947-07-28-BC-OCR-Page-0032.pdf#search=%22zoomar%22|title=Fairbanks Reports Favorable Response To First Zoomar Lens Demonstration|date=July 28, 1947|work=Broadcasting / Telecasting|access-date=September 12, 2017}}

Later that year, CBS televised Game 1 of the National League tie-breaker series between the Dodgers and the New York Giants. Red Barber and Connie Desmond called that particular game and John Derr served as a field reporter. The remaining two games (including the legendary "Shot Heard 'Round the World" that ended Game 3 to send the Giants to the World Series) were broadcast by NBC with Ernie Harwell and Russ Hodges on the call.

By {{baseball year|1955}},{{cite web |url=https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/rec.sport.baseball/gdo2ay0_6nA|title=Searchable Network TV Broadcasts – CBS Sports|website=rec.sport.baseball}} Dizzy Dean{{cite news|title=Dizzy Dean Wants More Time to Enjoy Life|agency=Associated Press|newspaper=Hartford Courant|date=December 22, 1957}} and the Game of the Week would move from ABC to CBS{{Harvp|Walker|Bellamy|2008|p=103}} (the rights were actually set up through the Falstaff Brewing Corporation{{cite web |url=http://a-falstaff-collector.com/Media%20ads/falstaffnewspapb.html|title=Falstaff Newspaper Ads 1950-60's|website=A Falstaff Collector}}{{cite news|title=Sports Brief|newspaper=Los Angeles Times|page=B3|date=March 6, 1954}}{{cite web|url=http://www.tvradiomovies.com/wp-content/themes/raindrops/images/011615pic8.jpg|title=TV Radio Movies 1/16/15|last1=Sieler|first1=Pete|date=May 8, 2015|website=TRM – TVRadioMovies.com|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150518094409/http://www.tvradiomovies.com/wp-content/themes/raindrops/images/011615pic8.jpg|archive-date=May 18, 2015|url-status=dead}}). "CBS' stakes were higher" said Buddy Blattner, who left the Mutual Broadcasting System to rejoin Dean.{{cite book |last=Rader|first=Benjamin G.|author-link= |title=Baseball: A History of America's Game|year=2002|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LRTU0n3IcEYC&dq=CBS+SPELLS+TROUBLE+FOR+BASEBALL+FAN&pg=PA193|location= |publisher= University of Illinois Press|page=193|isbn=9780252070136}} Ron Powers wrote about the reteaming of Dean and Blattner, "they wanted someone who'd known Diz, could bring him out." Gene Kirby, who had worked with Dean and Blattner at Mutual and ABC, produced the telecasts and also filled in on announcing duties.

Bob Finnegan, who along with Bill McColgan had called backup games for ABC, performed the same role for CBS, working with a variety of color men including future Wide World of Sports host Jim McKay{{cite news|title=Standby Telecasters Know Answers|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1755&dat=19570518&id=MngcAAAAIBAJ&pg=7307,3439052|newspaper=Sarasota Herald-Tribune|agency=United Press International|date=May 18, 1957}} and future World News Tonight anchor Frank Reynolds.

In 1956, CBS Sports director Frank Chirkinian devised an earplug called an Intercepted Feed Back (or IFB) in order to connect the announcer, director, producer and thus, smoothing on-air flow.{{cite book|title=The Cambridge Companion to Baseball|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aH0vrlA5K5UC&q=CBS|isbn= 9781139826204|page=229|last1 = Cassuto|first1 = Leonard|last2 = Partridge|first2 = Stephen|date = February 21, 2011| publisher=Cambridge University Press }}

In {{baseball year|1957}}, CBS added a Sunday Game of the Week.{{cite news |date=December 17, 1957 |title=Sunday Baseball TV Plan Proceeds Despite Minors' Pleas |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1957/12/17/archives/sunday-baseball-tv-plan-proceeds-despite-minorspleas-cbs.html |newspaper=The New York Times |page=61}}{{cite news|title=Major League Sunday Game of the Week TV Problems Rages|newspaper=Hartford Courant|date=December 22, 1957}}{{cite news|title=Minor Prexy Raps CBS for Sunday TV Plans|agency=Associated Press|newspaper=Los Angeles Times|page=C5|date=December 26, 1957}} ABC's Edgar Scherick said "In '53, no one wanted us. Now teams begged for "Game"'s cash." That year, the National Football League (NFL) began a US$14.1 million revenue-sharing pact. By {{baseball year|1965}}, Major League Baseball ended the large-market blackout, got $6.5 million for exclusivity, and split the pot.

With CBS now carrying the Game of the Week,{{cite news|title=Baseball Will Collect Record Radio-TV Money|newspaper=Christian Science Monitor|agency=Associated Press|page=21|date=March 22, 1957}} the network's stations in Phoenix (KOOL-TV), Little Rock (KTHV) and Cedar Rapids (KGAN-TV) were finally receiving the broadcasts. Bud Blattner said "America had never had TV network ball. Now you're getting two games a week [four, counting NBC, by {{baseball year|1959}}]."

In {{baseball year|1958}}, Dizzy Dean ruffled the feathers of CBS Sports head Bill MacPhail when he said "I don't know how we come off callin' this the 'Game of the Week'. There's a much better game – Dodgers–Giants – over on NBC." Dean also once refused a Falstaff ad because the date was Mother's Day. When United Airlines backed CBS' Game of the Week telecasts, Dean – who hated to fly – said "If you have to, pod-nuh, Eastern is much the best." That year, George Kell served as host for the pregame show. During one broadcast, Kell hoped to ask guest Casey Stengel about the Yankees' batting order. When asked about how it went, Kell said, "Fine. But in our 15 minutes, Casey didn't get past the leadoff batter."

Jack Whitaker and Frankie Frisch announced the backup games from 1959 to 1961. They usually did games that took place in Philadelphia, New York City, Washington, D.C. or Baltimore. Whitaker once said in three years, he would only broadcast three innings because CBS would not switch away from Dizzy Dean. However, he said that he learned a lot of baseball just sitting next to Frisch. CBS had other backup crews for games featuring the Chicago Cubs and White Sox, Cleveland Indians and Cincinnati Reds. In these cases, Bob Finnegan would handle the play-by-play duties with various analysts depending on the city. CBS did not have Game of the Week rights from any other ballparks in those years.

Pee Wee Reese{{YouTube|title=1961 CBS GOW San Francisco Giants at Cincinnati Reds|id=An0FeHOkNs4}} replaced Blattner as Dean's partner in {{baseball year|1960}}. That year, Jerry Coleman hosted the pregame show for CBS' Game of the Week broadcasts. A rather embarrassing incident for Coleman occurred when he was interviewing Cookie Lavagetto when the "Star-Spangled Banner" started. Coleman later said, "Believe me, when the Anthem starts, I stop, whether I'm taping, talking, or eating a banana."{{cite news|title=Bob Addie's Column...|first=Bob|last=Addie|newspaper=The Washington Post|page=D1|date=August 12, 1960}}

In 1962, CBS dropped the Sunday baseball Game of the Week{{cite web |url=http://profootballresearchers.com/archives/Website_Files/Coffin_Corner/26-03-1032.pdf|title=A Chronology of Pro Football on Television: Part 1|last=Brulia|first=Tim|website=Pro Football Researchers}} once the NFL season started, dropping the option clause for affiliates to carry baseball or football in place since 1957.

In 1963 and 1964, viewers in San Francisco were unable to see certain baseball telecasts aired by CBS on KPIX-TV locally, although the games aired on stations in markets adjacent to the Bay Area. In 1963, KPIX pre-empted the July 13 game between the San Francisco Giants–Philadelphia Phillies (at 10:15 a.m.),{{cite web|title=No TV baseball in San Francisco in 1963 and 1964??|url=http://www.radiodiscussions.com/showthread.php?682442-No-TV-baseball-in-San-Francisco-in-1963-and-1964|website=RadioDiscussions.com|date=December 10, 2014}} and the Los Angeles Dodgers-Phillies game on July 14 (at 9:30 a.m.); in 1964, the station pre-empted the Kansas City Athletics–New York Yankees game on May 16 (at 10:45) and the Milwaukee Braves–St. Louis Cardinals game on May 17. All four games did air on NBC affiliate KSBW in Salinas, KXTV in Sacramento and ABC affiliate KHSL-TV in Chico (the games also aired on KOLO-TV in Reno, Nevada, however it joined the two July 1963 games in progress, at 10:25 and 9:55 a.m. on the respective dates).

By {{baseball year|1964}},{{cite news|title=Baseball Gets Slightly More for TV Rights|newspaper=Chicago Tribune|publisher=Tribune Publishing|page=B2|date=February 25, 1964}} CBS' Dean and Reese called games from Yankee Stadium, Wrigley Field, St. Louis, Philadelphia and Baltimore. The New York Yankees got a $550,000 share of CBS' $895,000. Six clubs that exclusively played nationally televised games on NBC were paid $1.2 million. The theme music used on the CBS telecasts during this era was a Dixieland styled rendition of "Take Me Out to the Ballgame".

In {{baseball year|1966}}, the New York Yankees, which in the year prior played 21 Games of the Week for CBS (which had actually just purchased the Yankees{{cite news |last=Gould |first=Jack |date=August 14, 1964 |title=Yank Deal's TV Rating; Purchase by C.B.S. May Be Only First Of Many Under a Not-So-New Concept |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1964/08/15/archives/yanks-sale-to-cbs-stirs-senate-moves-for-inquiry.html |access-date=February 9, 2016 |newspaper=The New York Times |page=14}}{{cite news |last=Jicha|first=Tom|date=September 25, 2004|title=One Error, No Hits for CBS Baseball Drama Clubhouse|url=https://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/fl-xpm-2004-09-25-0409231069-story.html|work=South Florida Sun-Sentinel}}), joined NBC's television package. The new package under NBC called for 28 games compared to the 123 aired across the three networks in 1960.

Play-by-play

• Dizzy Dean ({{baseball year|1955}}–{{baseball year|1964}}; {{baseball year|1965}} (Yankee Baseball))
• Bob Finnegan ({{baseball year|1955}}–{{baseball year|1961}})
• Bill McColgan ({{baseball year|1955}}–{{baseball year|1956}})
• Jack Whitaker ({{baseball year|1959}}–{{baseball year|1961}})

Color commentators

• Bud Blattner ({{baseball year|1955}}–{{baseball year|1959}})
• Frankie Frisch ({{baseball year|1959}}–{{baseball year|1961}})
• Gabby Hartnett ({{baseball year|1959}}–{{baseball year|1960}})
• Jim McKay ({{baseball year|1955}}–{{baseball year|1957}})
• Pee Wee Reese ({{baseball year|1960}}–{{baseball year|1964}}; {{baseball year|1965}} (Yankee Baseball))
• Frank Reynolds ({{baseball year|1958}})

Hosts/field reporters

• Jerry Coleman ({{baseball year|1960}})
• George Kell{{cite news|title=CBS Hires George Kell|newspaper=Baltimore Sun|date=March 25, 1958}} ({{baseball year|1958}})

As previously alluded to, on October 19, 1966, NBC signed a three-year contract with Major League Baseball. NBC paid roughly US$6 million per year for the 25 Games of the Week,{{cite web |url=https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/rec.sport.baseball/h2HakNjCHYU |title=Searchable Network TV Broadcasts - NBC Sports (1960s) |website=rec.sport.baseball }} $6.1 million for the 1967 World Series and All-Star Game, and $6.5 million for the 1968 World Series and 1968 All-Star Game. In replacing CBS, NBC traded a circus for a seminar. Pee Wee Reese said "Curt Gowdy was its guy (1966–75), and didn't want Dizzy Dean{{cite web |title=The Union Of Baseball And TV Has Been a 'dysfunctional Marriage' |url=http://www.foxbusiness.com/story/markets/industries/media/union-baseball-tv-dysfunctional-marriage/ |first=David B. |last=Wilkerson |website=Fox Business |publisher=News Corp. Digital Media |date=July 15, 2008 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081211112345/http://www.foxbusiness.com/story/markets/industries/media/union-baseball-tv-dysfunctional-marriage/ |archive-date=December 11, 2008}} – too overpowering. Curt was nice, but worried about mistakes. Diz and I just laughed." Falstaff Brewery hyped Dean as Gowdy in return said "I said, 'I can't do "Wabash Cannonball." Our styles clash --" then came Pee Wee Reese. Gowdy added by saying about the pairing between him and Reese, "They figured he was fine with me, and they'd still have their boy." To many, baseball meant CBS's 1955–64 Game of the Week thoroughbred.

In 1976, CBS Radio replaced NBC Radio as the exclusive national radio broadcaster for the World Series and All-Star Game. This came after NBC ended its radio association with baseball in order to clear space for its 24-hour "News And Information" service programming.{{cite book |last=Halberstam |first=David J. |date=1999 |title=Sports On New York Radio: A Play-By-Play History |publisher=McGraw-Hill |isbn=978-1570281976}} In {{baseball year|1985}},{{cite news|title=Blast for Soccer Fans: CBS Airs MISL Game|date=May 25, 1985|first=Jim|last=Sarni|newspaper=South Florida Sun-Sentinel|page=5F}}{{cite book |last=Shea|first=Stuart|date= May 7, 2015|title=Calling the Game: Baseball Broadcasting from 1920 to the Present|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=p5QcCgAAQBAJ&q=CBS+Radio&pg=PA47|publisher=SABR, Inc.|page=368|isbn= 9781933599410}} CBS Radio started broadcasting a weekly Game of the Week.{{cite book |last=Walker and Hughes|first=James R. and Pat|date=May 1, 2015 |title=Crack of the Bat: A History of Baseball on the Radio|url=https://archive.org/details/crackofbathistor00jame|url-access=registration|quote=Crack of the Bat: A History of Baseball on the Radio.|publisher=U of Nebraska Press|page=[https://archive.org/details/crackofbathistor00jame/page/215 215]}} CBS Radio usually did two games each Saturday, one on the afternoons and another during the evenings.{{cite news |last=Sarni|first=Jim|date=May 25, 1985|title=Blast for Soccer Fans: CBS Airs MISL Game|url=https://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/fl-xpm-1985-05-25-8501200962-story.html|work=South Florida Sun-Sentinel}} Typically, CBS' markets aired only the afternoon broadcasts. The games covered varied from the ones NBC-TV were offering at the time to games outside of NBC's sight.

In 1987, CBS broadcast the Pan American Games for the fourth and to date, final time. For the baseball coverage, John Dockery{{cite web |url=http://www.oocities.org/tbtho/tchnet.htm|title=The Day I Touched the Net|date=September 13, 2005|website=oocities.org}} handled the play-by-play with Mark Marquess{{cite web |url=https://gostanford.com/sports/baseball/roster/mark-marquess/8029|title=Mark Marquess - Baseball|website=Stanford University Athletics}} on color commentary. One year later, CBS broadcast the championship game for the College World Series. Brent Musburger served as the play-by-play announcer that year as well as in 1989. Joining Musburger in the booth was Rick Monday{{cite web |url=http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/events/hof/y2004/frick_bios.jsp|title=2004 Ford Frick Award nominees|website=MLB.com}} in 1988 and Joe Morgan in 1989.

===1990–1993 version===

By the end of the 1987-88 season, CBS finished in last place{{cite news |last=Mulligan|first=Katie|date=November 12, 1989|title=NBC "Covets" NBA, Wrests Pro Hoops TV Rights From CBS|url=https://www.deseretnews.com/article/72538/NBC-COVETS-NBA-WRESTS-PRO-HOOPS-TV-RIGHTS-FROM-CBS.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180905175549/https://www.deseretnews.com/article/72538/NBC-COVETS-NBA-WRESTS-PRO-HOOPS-TV-RIGHTS-FROM-CBS.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=September 5, 2018|work=Knight-Ridder Newspapers}} and was looking to get themselves out of the slump{{cite news |last=Brennan |first=Christine|date=August 24, 1989|title=CBS Acquires Rights to 1994 Winter Games|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/sports/1989/08/24/cbs-acquires-rights-to-1994-winter-games/f6c3760b-fe28-48a8-867e-6afdb5a53984/|newspaper=The Washington Post}} that they had gotten themselves into. They decided that sports would be a very powerful tool{{cite news |last=Hall|first=Jane|date=October 24, 1990|title=CBS Taking a Bath on Baseball Deal : Television: Despite strong World Series ratings, the network is facing major losses from the first season of its $1-billion investment in the national pastime.|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1990-10-24-ca-2926-story.html|work=Los Angeles Times|location= |access-date=}} to put CBS back on the map. So on that end, they paid a huge sum of money to broadcast Major League Baseball.

On December 14, 1988, CBS announced the results of guidance provided by Commissioner Peter Ueberroth, Major League Baseball's broadcast director Bryan Burns, CBS Inc. CEO Laurence Tisch as well as CBS Sports executives Neal Pilson and Eddie Einhorn in making a decision.{{cite book |date=October 1, 1989|title=Sports Programming and Cable Television: Hearing Before the ..., Volume 4|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Q0HbZaECjqwC&q=cbs+peter+ueberroth&pg=PA389}}

{{cite book |last=Bodley |first=Hal |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hX0kAwAAQBAJ&q=collusion+cbs+peter+ueberroth&pg=PT154 |title=How Baseball Explains America |last2=Will |first2=George |date=May 2014 |publisher=Triumph Books |isbn=9781623688073}}{{cite news |last=Boswell|first=Thomas|date=January 3, 1989|title=Commentary: Peter's Principle: Money Talks|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1989-01-03-sp-170-story.html|newspaper=The Washington Post}}{{cite book |last=Helyar|first=John|date= July 27, 2011|title=The Lords of the Realm|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oILEoJ5tO_EC&q=peter+ueberroth+cbs&pg=PT321|publisher=Random House Publishing|isbn= 9780307801425}}{{cite book |last=Smith|first=Curt|date= February 21, 2011|title=The Cambridge Companion to Baseball|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aH0vrlA5K5UC&q=peter+ueberroth+cbs+1990&pg=PA234 |publisher=Cambridge University Press|page=234|isbn= 9781139826204}}{{cite news |last=Williams|first=Scott|date=March 8, 1991|title=Tisch Takes Blame for CBS' Baseball Contract Losses|url=https://apnews.com/f35bb9564aa4860b5dcedb7934430770|newspaper=The Associated Press}}{{cite news |last=Diamond|first=Edwin|date=April 2, 1990|title=Gamesman: Is CBS's Larry Tisch a "smart sports guy"?|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zZNAA8qenb8C&q=Major+League+Baseball+on+CBS&pg=PA20|newspaper=New York Magazine}}{{cite news |last=Serwer|first=Andrew E.|date=September 6, 1993|title=CBS to Beat the Odds, Stay the Course|url=https://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/1993/09/06/78282/index.htm|newspaper=Fortune}}{{Harvp|Walker|Bellamy|2008|p=154}}{{cite web |last=Johnson |first=William Oscar |date=June 25, 1990 |title=The Cleanup Hitters |url=https://vault.si.com/vault/1990/06/25/the-cleanup-hitters-by-sweeping-up-the-tv-sports-market-neal-pilson-left-and-his-boss-laurence-tisch-could-make-cbs-a-very-big-winner-or-a-very-big-loser |website=Sports Illustrated Vault}} The network paid approximately US$1.8 billion (equivalent to {{inflation|index=US|start_year=1990|value=1.1|r=2}} billion in {{Inflation-year|US}}){{cite news |date=December 15, 1988 |title=A Billion-Dollar Bid By CBS Wins Rights To Baseball Games |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1988/12/15/sports/a-billion-dollar-bid-by-cbs-wins-rights-to-baseball-games.html?sec=&spon=&pagewanted=print |access-date=February 9, 2016 |newspaper=The New York Times |page=1A}} for exclusive over-the-air television rights for over four years (beginning in 1990). CBS paid about $265 million each year{{cite web|url=http://www.medialifemagazine.com:8080/news2002/apr02/apr15/4_thurs/news3thursday.html|title=Waning days of big $ TV sports|last1=Downey|first1=Kevin|date=April 18, 2002|website=Media Life|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150225103228/http://www.medialifemagazine.com:8080/news2002/apr02/apr15/4_thurs/news3thursday.html|archive-date=February 25, 2015}} for the World Series, League Championship Series, All-Star Game, and the Saturday Game of the Week. CBS replaced ABC{{cite news |last=Clark|first=Kenneth R.|date=November 2, 1991|title=CBS Posts Record Loss For Quarter|url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/1991/11/02/cbs-posts-record-loss-for-quarter/|work=Chicago Tribune}} (which had broadcast Monday and later Thursday night baseball games from 1976 to 1989) and NBC (which had broadcast Major League Baseball in some shape or form since 1947 and the Game of the Week exclusively since 1966) as the national broadcast network television home of Major League Baseball.{{cite news|title=Baseball to CBS; NBC Strikes Out: ABC Also Falls Short as 4-Year Package Goes for $1 Billion|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1988-12-15-sp-563-story.html|newspaper=The Los Angeles Times|date=December 15, 1988}}

It was one of the largest agreements{{cite news |last=Shames|first=Laurence|date=July 23, 1989|title=CBS Has Won the World Series......Now It Could Lose Its Shirt|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1989/07/23/magazine/cbs-has-won-the-world-seriesnow-it-could-lose-its-shirt.html|newspaper=The New York Times}} (to date) between the sport of baseball and the business of broadcasting. The cost of the deal between CBS and Major League Baseball was about 25% more{{cite book |last=Erardi |first=John |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vEEAWnCRL6UC&q=1990+baseball+cbs&pg=PA40 |title=The Wire-to-Wire Reds: Sweet Lou, Nasty Boys, and the Wild Run to a World ... |last2=Luckhaupt |first2=Joel |date=September 29, 2010 |publisher=Clerisy Press |isbn=9781578604661 |page=40}} than in the previous television contract with ABC and NBC.{{cite book|title=And There Was Television|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=V4qcZDB8xvMC&q=Major+League+Baseball+on+CBS&pg=PA146|page=146|first=Ernest|last=Cashmore|isbn= 9780415091305|year=1994}} The deal with CBS was also intended to pay each team (26 in {{mlby|1990}} and then, 28 by {{mlby|1993}}) $10 million a year. CBS would also be paying an estimated $7.1 million per game or $790,000 per inning, and $132,000 per out; a separate cable television deal would bring each team an additional $4 million. Each team could also cut its own deal with broadcast and cable television channels and radio stations to serve as their local broadcasters (for example, the New York Yankees signed a cable deal with MSG that would pay the team $41 million annually for 12 years). Reportedly, after the huge television contracts with CBS and ESPN were signed, baseball clubs spent their excess millions on free agent players.{{cite book |last=Erardi and Luckhaupt|first=John and Joel|date= June 15, 2010|title=The Wire-to-Wire Reds: Sweet Lou, Nasty Boys, and the Wild Run to a World ...|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=v1CLAgAAQBAJ&q=Major+League+Baseball+on+CBS&pg=PA40|page=40|isbn= 9781578604654}}

Author and presidential speechwriter Curt Smith however, said that Major League Baseball's deal with CBS Sports was "sportscasting's Exxon Valdez." Had baseball valued national promotion provided by the Game of the Week, said Smith, it never would have crafted a fast-bucks plan that has cut off the widest viewership. "It's an obscene imbalance", Smith also said, "to have 175 games going to 60 percent of the country [in reference to Major League Baseball's corresponding cable deal with ESPN, which at the time was only available in about 60% of the country] and 16 games going to the rest." He added: "Baseball has paid a grievous price for being out of sight and out of mind. It's attacked the lower and middle classes that forms baseball's heart. . . . In the end, the advertising community has come to view baseball as a leper."{{cite news |last=Sandomir |first=Richard |date=April 17, 1992 |title=Sports Weekend: TV Sports; The Young McDonough Plays Ball With CBS |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1992/04/17/sports/sports-weekend-tv-sports-the-young-mcdonough-plays-ball-with-cbs.html |access-date=March 19, 2012 |newspaper=New York Times}}

One possible key factor towards why NBC lost the baseball package to CBS was due to their commitment to broadcasting the 1992 Summer Olympics from Barcelona.{{cite magazine|title=A Golden Opportunity|url=https://www.si.com/vault/1988/12/12/119056/a-golden-opportunity-nbc-surprised-everyone-including-its-own-staff-by-winning-the-tv-rights-to-the-92-games-for-a-record-401-million|author=William Oscar Johnson|magazine=Sports Illustrated|date=December 12, 1988}}{{cite news |last=Walker|first=Joseph|date=December 5, 1988|title=1992 Olympics: Boon for TV Viewers|url=https://www.deseret.com/1988/12/5/18786738/1992-olympics-boon-for-tv-viewers|work=Deseret News|location= |access-date=}} Two weeks prior to the announcement of the baseball deal with CBS, NBC had committed itself to paying $401 million for U.S. broadcast rights to the 1992 Summer Olympics. After the baseball deal was announced, some skeptics surmised that CBS had lowballed the Barcelona bidding so that it would have at least $1 billion to spend on baseball.

According to industry insiders, neither NBC nor ABC wanted the entire baseball package—that is, regular-season games, both League Championship Series and the World Series—because such a commitment would have required them to preempt too many highly rated prime time shows. Thus, ABC and NBC bid thinking that two of the networks might share postseason play again or that one of the championship series might wind up on cable. Peter Ueberroth had encouraged the cable idea, but after the bids were opened, NBC and ABC found to their chagrin that he preferred network exposure for all postseason games. Only CBS,{{cite book |last=Burk|first=Robert Fredrick|title=Much More Than a Game: Players, Owners, & American Baseball Since 1921|year=2001|url=https://archive.org/details/muchmorethangame00robe_0|url-access=registration|publisher=Univ of North Carolina Press.|page=[https://archive.org/details/muchmorethangame00robe_0/page/n273 260]}} with its weak prime time programming,{{cite web |url=http://diginole.lib.fsu.edu/islandora/object/fsu%3A460929/datastream/OCR/view|title='Game of the week' is in the bottom of the ninth|date=September 29, 1989|website=Florida Flambeau}} dared go for that.

Before{{cite news |last=Rubin |first=Bob |date=March 25, 1983 |title=Baseball Bidding in Extra Innings |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-miami-herald-baseball-bidding-in-ext/167999315/ |access-date=2025-03-15 |newspaper=Miami Herald |page=10F |via=Newspapers.com}} the previous television contract (which ran from {{baseball year|1984}} to {{baseball year|1989}}) with Major League Baseball was signed, CBS{{cite book |last=Shea|first=Stuart|date= May 7, 2015|title=Calling the Game: Baseball Broadcasting from 1920 to the Present|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=p5QcCgAAQBAJ&q=ABC&pg=PA47|publisher=SABR, Inc.|page=374|isbn= 9781933599410}} was at one point, interested in a pact which would have called for three interleague games airing only on Thursday nights during the season.{{cite web |url=http://roadsidephotos.sabr.org/baseball/nationalbroadcast.htm|title=Summer 1997: 75 Years of National Baseball Broadcasts|last1=Pappas|first1=Doug|website=Outside the Lines}} The proposed deal with CBS involved respectively American League East teams playing the National League East, and the American League West playing the National League West. At the end of their coverage of the 1989 World Series, ABC commentator Al Michaels said:

{{cquote|If you'll indulge us just another moment, this is the end of our association with baseball. I think as many of you may know, the primary package goes to CBS. And to our friends at what's known in the industry as "Black Rock", good luck in 1990 and beyond.}}

A trademark of CBS' baseball coverage was its theme music,{{YouTube|title=MLB CBS Theme (1990-1993)|id=95kTST5KtLw}} composed by Bob Christianson and Tony Smythe. One writer in 2015, noting that CBS' coverage of that era was considered by many fans to be "low-quality", remarked that the majestic, mature, and soaring theme music could be considered "the best part of CBS’ baseball coverage".{{cite web |url=https://www.sportingnews.com/us/mlb/news/best-network-baseball-theme-songs-music-of-all-time-nbc-abc-cbs-espn-tbs-fox-mlb/1n6v4oqetdasi15wv50vbur2cm|title=The 9 best network baseball theme songs of all time, ranked|last1=Foster|first1=Jason|date=June 9, 2015|website=Sporting News}} Besides the prologues (with the play-by-play announcer previewing the upcoming matchup) for the Saturday Game of the Week, the music was usually set to the opening graphic of an opaque rendition of the CBS Eye entering a big, waving red, white and blue bunting and then a smaller, unfolding red, white and blue bunting (over a white diamond) and floating blue banner (which usually featured an indicating year like for instance, "1991 World Series") complete with dark red Old English text. Pat O'Brien was made the host of the All-Star Game, the postseason, and the World Series, despite having watched, by his own admission, a total of "perhaps two" baseball games in his entire life at that point.{{cite book |last=O'Brien|first=Pat|date= August 19, 2014|title=I'll Be Back Right After This: My Memoir|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FjxPBAAAQBAJ&q=major+league+baseball+on+cbs&pg=PA173|page=166|isbn= 9780312564377}}

The network used the slogan "Baseball's biggest moments are on CBS!" to promote its regular season Game of the Week broadcasts.{{YouTube|title=1991 Commercials |id=Ty6XIevZjDY}}

For Pat O'Brien's prologue for Game 3 of the 1990 National League Championship Series, between the Cincinnati Reds and Pittsburgh Pirates, CBS used David Arkenstone's "Desert Ride", which would subsequently be used during Bob Costas' prologue for NBC's coverage of Game 6 of the 1993 NBA Finals between the Chicago Bulls and Phoenix Suns.

During the closing credits of CBS' coverage of Game 4 of the 1990 World Series{{YouTube|title=1990 World Series Game 4 Close|id=jOGI83QZcuU}} (after the Cincinnati Reds swept the Oakland Athletics), CBS used James Horner's score from the end credits of the 1989 film Glory.

A recurring theme during CBS' coverage of the postseason was the usage of Michael Kamen's "Overture" from Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves. From start to finish, an audio montage of baseball's most memorable moments played over it, followed by a video and music (with no narration) recap of both League Championship Series and the World Series from {{wsy|1991}} to {{wsy|1993}}. The "Training" cue from Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves was played against an all slow-motion montage of the entire series. As Tim McCarver recapped the first six games of the 1991 World Series before Game 7, CBS used Hans Zimmer's "Fighting 17th" from the movie Backdraft for the soundtrack.

During Pat O'Brien's prologue for CBS' coverage of the 1992 Major League Baseball All-Star Game,{{YouTube|title=1992 All-Star Game – AL 13, NL 6 – July 14, 1992 – CBS-TV – PART 1|id=67Txs_mC6Ko}} Ennio Morricone's theme from the 1987 film The Untouchables was used. CBS previously used this particular theme for the prologue of their 1990 National League Championship Series{{YouTube|title=1990 NLCS Game #1: Pirates at Reds|id=KjprSEDYff8}} coverage. NBC would subsequently use Morricone's theme during the closing credits for their coverage of Game 6 of the 2000 American League Championship Series (the network's final Major League Baseball broadcast for the next 22 years).

During Pat O'Brien's prologue for Game 1 of the 1991 American League Championship Series between the Minnesota Twins and Toronto Blue Jays{{YouTube|title=game 1 alcs|id=bTQpyluti70&t=2182s}} and Dick Stockton's prologue for Game 5 of the 1992 American League Championship Series between the Toronto Blue Jays and Oakland Athletics,{{YouTube|title=Baseball intro on CBS 1992 ALCS|id=UfQYm13TLc8}} CBS used "In Celebration of Man" by Yanni, which is now known for being the theme music for NBC's U.S. Open golf coverage. Also during CBS' 1992 ALCS coverage, CBS enlisted the cast of Sesame Street such as Big Bird,{{YouTube|title=Classic TV: Big Bird opens 1992 ALCS Game 6|id=VHlykLKzFkM}} Oscar the Grouch and Telly Monster to help with the intros.

During the 1993 All-Star Game and postseason, highlights of past All-Star Games and postseason moments were scored using the John Williams composed theme{{YouTube|title=1993 NLCS – Game 1 – Braves vs. Phillies @mrodsports|id=-_gb4hGiPoM}} from the movie Jurassic Park. Also during the commercial breaks of the 1993 All-Star Game, CBS provided a snippet of Don Henley's "The Boys of Summer". Van Halen's "Right Now" was used during the opening for the network's coverage of Game 4 of the 1993 American League Championship Series{{YouTube|title=1993 ALCS Game 4 – CBS Opening (Chicago @ Toronto)|id=vD0-HOluKag}} between the Toronto Blue Jays and Chicago White Sox.

During the prologue for Game 1 of the 1993 World Series, CBS used Hans Zimmer's "The Walk Home" from the movie Cool Runnings. During the prologue for Game 6 of the 1993 World Series{{YouTube|title=1993 World Series Game 6 – Blue Jays vs Phillies @mrodsports|id=helensAbutM}} (CBS' final Major League Baseball telecast to date), they used Jerry Goldsmith's "Tryouts" from the movie Rudy. Meanwhile, during the closing credits for Game 6 of the 1993 World Series, they used Bob Seger's "The Famous Final Scene" followed by Billy Joel's "Famous Last Words".{{YouTube|title=1993 World Series Game 6 13|id=qjup5qVge-4}}

CBS for the most part, bypassed the division and pennant races. Instead, its schedule focused on games featuring major-market teams, regardless of their record.

Major League Baseball's four-season tenure with CBS ({{baseball year|1990}}–{{baseball year|1993}}) was marred by turmoil and shortcomings{{cite news |last=Quindt |first=Fritz |date=October 15, 1993|title=Let's remember baseball on CBS for what it wasn't |newspaper=San Diego Union-Tribune}}{{cite news |last=Hansen |first=Jeff |date=October 18, 1990 |title=CBS, ESPN made rookie mistakes during baseball season |url=https://www.upi.com/Archives/1990/10/18/CBS-ESPN-made-rookie-mistakes-during-baseball-season/5040656222400/ |access-date=February 9, 2016 |work=UPI}} throughout.{{cite news |last=Downey |first=Mike |date=October 29, 1995 |title=World Series: Atlanta Braves vs. Cleveland Indians; 20 Reasons Cited Why Baseball Is Still Ailing |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1995-10-29-sp-62658-story.html |access-date=February 9, 2016 |newspaper=Los Angeles Times |page=10}} The original plan was for Brent Musburger{{cite news |date=April 2, 1989 |title=NBC, ABC in Lame Duck Year for Coverage of Majors |url=https://buffalonews.com/news/nbc-abc-in-lame-duck-year-for-coverage-of-majors/article_2948f93c-3f05-57e2-8927-805a1d922114.html |access-date=February 9, 2016 |work=The Buffalo News}}{{cite news|title=It's official: Musburger is back in baseball game |url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/306296098|first=Rudy|last=Martzke|newspaper=USA Today|date=January 16, 1990|id={{ProQuest|306296098}} }}{{cite news |last=Trecker |first=Jerry |date=October 23, 1992 |title=CBS Forges Its Own Era Of Deadball |url=https://www.courant.com/1992/10/23/cbs-forges-its-own-era-of-deadball/ |access-date=February 9, 2016 |work=Hartford Courant}} to be the lead play-by-play announcer for CBS' baseball telecasts (thus, having the tasks of calling the All-Star Game, National League Championship Series, and World Series{{cite news |last=Frager|first=Ray|date=October 12, 1990|title=CBS hopes long World Series can turn postseason red ink to black|url=https://www.baltimoresun.com/news/bs-xpm-1990-10-12-1990285111-story.html|work=The Baltimore Sun}}), with veteran broadcaster and lead CBS Radio baseball voice Jack Buck to serve as the secondary announcer{{cite news|title=Will Buck Stop at CBS?|first=Jack|last=Craig|newspaper=Boston Globe|page=70|date=November 7, 1989}} (which would involve calling a second weekly game and the American League Championship Series). Former ABC color commentator Tim McCarver{{cite news|title=CBS catches a rising star in breezy McCarver|first=Steve|last=Nidetz|newspaper=Chicago Tribune|page=5|date=June 13, 1989}}{{cite news|title=CBS Ready for Final Fling|url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/294518378|first=Jack|last=Craig|newspaper=Boston Globe|date=June 6, 1989|id={{ProQuest|294518378}} }} was hired by CBS to be Musburger's partner{{cite news|last=Rosenberg|first=Howard|date=October 30, 1989|title=The Ballgame's Over for Great Team at ABC|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1989-10-30-ca-122-story.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210412031709/https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache%3A17jNjCZrOo4J%3Ahttps%3A%2F%2Fwww.latimes.com%2Farchives%2Fla-xpm-1989-10-30-ca-122-story.html+&cd=23&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us|url-status=live|archive-date=April 12, 2021|work=Los Angeles Times|location=|access-date=}} while NBC's Jim Kaat{{cite news|title=NBC making early gains in NFL pregame battle|first=Rudy|last=Martzke|newspaper=USA Today|page=3C|date=September 19, 1989}} was hired to be Buck's. However, weeks before CBS was to debut its MLB coverage, on April 1, 1990, Musburger was fired{{cite web |url=https://awfulannouncing.com/orig/which-moments-in-sports-broadcasting-history-do-we-wish-we-could-have-covered-live.html|title=Which moments in sports broadcasting history do we wish we could have covered live?|last=Fang|first=Ken|date=April 10, 2020|website=Awful Announcing}}{{cite web |url=https://groups.google.com/forum/#!searchin/rec.sport.baseball/CBS$201990/rec.sport.baseball/Ki7RW3H24oI/I6XMv2ggbxIJ|title=Musburger gone!!|date=April 2, 1990 |website=rec.sport.baseball}}{{cite news |last=Du Brow |first=Rick |date=1990-04-05 |title=NBC's Team Player Has His Eye on the Ball: Sportscasting: With CBS' surprise sacking of Brent Musburger, Bob Costas would seem the obvious replacement--but he's sticking with his baseball-less network. |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1990-04-05-ca-1120-story.html |url-access=subscription |access-date=2025-03-15 |newspaper=Los Angeles Times}}{{cite news |last=Asher|first=Mark|date=April 2, 1990|title=CBS Sports Drops Musburger|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1990/04/02/cbs-sports-drops-musburger/26632b59-3093-47f4-ac38-ac11f3398bb0/|newspaper=Washington Post}} by the network over what CBS perceived to be a power grab by Musburger{{cite web |url=https://www.sportsbusinessdaily.com/Journal/Issues/2015/03/30/Media/Brent-Musburger.aspx|title=At Final Four 25 years ago, Musburger provided drama|last=Spanberg|first=Erik|date=March 30, 2015|website=SportsBusiness Journal}} in taking on the assignment (at the time,{{cite web |url=https://www.al.com/sports/2015/04/today_in_sports_brent_musburge.html|title=Today in sports: CBS fires Brent Musburger on eve of NCAA Tournament title game 25 years ago|last=Stephenson|first=Creg|date=April 1, 2015|website=AL.com}} Musburger was CBS' lead college basketball announcer,{{cite news |last=Curtis|first=Bryan|date=February 18, 2021|title=Jim Nantz Knows What Life After CBS Looks Like|url=https://www.theringer.com/sports/2021/2/18/22288881/jim-nantz-cbs-contract-brent-musburger-tony-romo|work=The Ringer|location= |access-date=}} host of The NFL Today, and was the main studio host for the NBA and had felt that he had been given too many broadcasting assignments{{cite news|title=Fans Should Rejoice With The Firing Of Over-exposed Musburger|url=https://www.dailypress.com/1990/04/06/fans-should-rejoice-with-the-firing-of-over-exposed-musburger/|first=Terry|last=Armour|newspaper=Daily Press|date=April 6, 1990}} by the network).

With Musburger's firing, Buck was moved up{{cite news |last=Barnes|first=Mike|date=April 5, 1990|title=CBS names Jack Buck to replace Musburger|url=https://www.upi.com/Archives/1990/04/05/CBS-names-Jack-Buck-to-replace-Musburger/9039639288000/|work=UPI}}{{Cite web |last=Rusnak |first=Jeff |date=April 6, 1990 |title=Buck in Brent at CBS |url=https://www.sun-sentinel.com/1990/04/06/buck-in-brent-at-cbs/ |access-date=October 29, 2024 |website=Sun Sentinel |language=en-US}}{{cite news |date=April 4, 2020|title=This Date in History: April 5|url=https://www.theeagle.com/sports/this-date-in-history-april-5/article_67fef546-76eb-11ea-8a9d-538ef5b87776.html|work=The Eagle}} to the lead broadcast team alongside McCarver.{{cite magazine |last=Meyers|first=Kate|date=September 28, 1990|title=CBS' successful baseball coverage|url=https://ew.com/article/1990/09/28/cbs-successful-baseball-coverage/|magazine=Entertainment Weekly}} His position as backup announcer alongside Kaat was taken by CBS' lead NBA announcer, Dick Stockton.{{cite book |last=Tate|first=Theo|date= June 13, 2014|title=Good To The Last Out|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zVMRBAAAQBAJ&q=Major+League+Baseball+on+CBS&pg=PA57|page=57|publisher=Author House |isbn= 9781496917157}}{{cite news |date=April 6, 1990|title=CBS Chooses Buck and Stockton for Play-by-Play|newspaper=San Francisco Chronicle}} Studio host Greg Gumbel{{cite news |last=Frager|first=Ray|date=December 18, 1992|title=CBS' move to Greg Gumbel shows how...|url=https://www.baltimoresun.com/news/bs-xpm-1992-12-18-1992353212-story.html|work=The Baltimore Sun|location= |access-date=}} took over for Stockton as the secondary play-by-play announcer in {{mlby|1993}}. Gumbel was in return, replaced by Andrea Joyce, who served as a field reporter for the first three seasons of CBS' coverage. On the teaming of Buck and McCarver, Broadcasting magazine wrote "The network has exclusivity, much rides on them." Joining the team of Buck and McCarver was Lesley Visser (who was, incidentally, married to the aforementioned Dick Stockton), became the first woman to cover the World Series in 1990. It was initially speculated that Dick Stockton{{cite news |last=Stewart|first=Larry|date=September 29, 1989|title=Finale for Scully May Not Be One|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1989-09-29-sp-393-story.html|work=Los Angeles Times}} would not have been available to contribute as the secondary play-by-play announcer due to his football and basketball commitments for CBS.

In the interim between Brent Musburger's firing and Jack Buck's promotion, there had been speculation that if Al Michaels{{cite news |last=Asher|first=Mark|date=June 7, 1990|title=ABC Signs Michaels to Record Deal|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/sports/1990/06/07/abc-signs-michaels-to-record-deal/70321133-6c5f-4a5e-8735-cdadbcf6b539/|newspaper=The Washington Post}} won an arbitration case involving ABC, he would join CBS{{cite news |last=Stewart|first=Larry|date=December 30, 1988|title=Show Time Started Early for Two Brothers|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1988-12-30-sp-919-story.html|work=Los Angeles Times}} as its lead baseball announcer. Michaels had been feuding{{cite news |last=Nidetz|first=Steve|date=May 3, 1990|title=ABC Sports Tunes in to Musburger|url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1990-05-03-9002070404-story.html|work=Chicago Tribune}} with the network over an alleged violation of company policy. Michaels' contract with ABC was originally set to expire in late 1992. Ultimately however, ABC announced a contract extension that sources said would keep Michaels at ABC through at least the end of 1995 and would pay him at least $2.2 million annually with the potential to earn more. That would make Michaels the highest-paid sports announcer in television.

Meanwhile, Jim Kaat earned rave reviews for his role as CBS' backup analyst (which flashed a considerable "good-guy air"). Ron Bergman wrote of Kaat's performance during the 1990 ALCS,{{cite news |last=Pergament|first=Alan|date=October 12, 1990|title=Odd Slate, Bad Ratings for CBS Baseball|url=https://buffalonews.com/1990/10/13/odd-slate-bad-ratings-for-cbs-baseball/|work=The Buffalo News}} "This was a night for pitchers to excel. Dave Stewart. Roger Clemens. Jim Kaat [on commentary]." Despite the rave reviews, Jim Kaat admitted that he was frustrated. He felt that at that point and time, the idea of figuring out what to talk about during a three-hour broadcast had become intimidating. As a result, Kaat would bring notes into the booth, but in the process, found himself providing too much detail. He ultimately confided in his broadcasting partner, Dick Stockton, that he wanted to work without notes. So Stockton hooked Kaat up with then-lead NFL on CBS color commentator, John Madden for a telephone seminar. Madden said if he brought notes into the booth he felt compelled to use them and would "force" something into a telecast. On his seminar with John Madden, Jim Kaat said "Then John told me if he did his homework it would be stored in his memory bank. And if it is important it will come out. If it doesn't, it probably wasn't that important."

A mildly notorious moment came during CBS' coverage of the 1990 All-Star Game{{cite news |last=Nidetz|first=Steve|date=July 10, 1990|title=CBS Finally Eyes All-Star Game|url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1990-07-10-9002260431-story.html|work=Chicago Tribune}} from Wrigley Field{{cite news |last=Constable|first=Burt|date=July 9, 2019|title=Constable: Why you've forgotten the last All-Star Game held at Wrigley Field|url=https://www.dailyherald.com/news/20190709/constable-why-youve-forgotten-the-last-all-star-game-held-at-wrigley-field|work=Daily Herald}} in Chicago. In a game that was marred by rain delays for a combined 85 minutes (including a 68-minute monsoon during the 7th inning{{YouTube|title=1990 All-Star Game – AL 2, NL 0 – July 10, 1990 – CBS-TV – PART 3|id=OVxMG-57yDk}}), CBS annoyed many diehard fans by airing the William Shatner-hosted reality series Rescue 911{{cite news|title=Baseball's best pitch lacks marketing punch|first=Michael|last=Hiestand|newspaper=USA Today|page=3C|date=July 13, 1995}} during the delay.

On April 7, CBS aired a special program called Season of Dreams: Baseball 1990.{{cite news |last= |first= |date=April 7, 1990 |title=Saturday TV Highlights |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-san-bernardino-county-sun-saturday-t/167999239/ |access-date= |work=The San Bernardino County Sun |page=D4}} Hosted by Greg Gumbel, the special not only previewed the 1990 Major League Baseball season, but also CBS' upcoming baseball coverage in general. Joining Gumbel were CBS Sports analyst Tim McCarver and Pat O'Brien, who presented a segment on the numerous player transitions, leading up to the start of the 1990 season.

CBS initially did not want to start their 1990 coverage{{cite news |last=Kolberg|first=Rebecca|date=October 20, 1990|title=CBS' Rookie Mistakes Could Cost $75 Million|url=https://buffalonews.com/1990/10/20/cbs-rookie-mistakes-could-cost-75-million/|work=The Buffalo News}}{{cite web |url=https://groups.google.com/forum/#!searchin/rec.sport.baseball/CBS$201990/rec.sport.baseball/DeziXsl9rwI/JkqaoELg7X0J|title=CBS Baseball Schedule for 1990, more of the same|date=March 22, 1990|website=rec.sport.baseball}} until after the network had aired that year's NBA Finals (which was the last time CBS aired the Finals before the NBA's move to NBC{{cite news |date=November 9, 1989|title=NBA Flips Channel, Decides to Play Ball With NBC in 1990|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1989-11-09-sp-1713-story.html|newspaper=The Los Angeles Times}}). Therefore, only 12{{cite web |url=https://blogs.fangraphs.com/mlbs-winning-and-losing-efforts-to-conquer-tv-part-i-the-strike/|title=MLB's Winning and Losing Efforts to Conquer TV, Part I: The Strike|last=Edwards|first=Craig|date=February 26, 2020|website=Fan Graphs}} regular season telecasts were scheduled{{cite news |last=Craig|first=Jack|date=March 19, 1989|title=Stuck With the Short End CBS' Ballpark Figure for 1990 Is Not Likely to Increase|url=http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-8112807.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150329183421/http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-8112807.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=March 29, 2015|newspaper=The Boston Globe}} The broadcasts would have been on each Saturday from June 16 through August 25 and a special Sunday telecast on the weekend of August 11–12 (the New York Yankees against the Oakland Athletics in Oakland on both days). Ultimately, four more telecasts were added – two in April{{cite news |last=Meyers|first=Kate|date=September 28, 1990|title=CBS' successful baseball coverage|url=http://www.ew.com/article/1990/09/28/cbs-successful-baseball-coverage|newspaper=Entertainment Weekly}} and two on the last two Saturdays of the season.

On September 22, CBS was scheduled to televise a game between the Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees{{cite news |last=Chass|first=Murray|date=September 23, 1990|title=Yankees Defeat Red Sox|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1990/09/23/sports/baseball-yankees-defeat-red-sox.html|work=The New York Times|access-date=October 12, 2022}} from Yankee Stadium at 12 p.m. Eastern Time. The start of game was however, delayed for approximately, five hours due to rain. Instead, CBS broadcast the St. Louis Cardinals–Pittsburgh Pirates game from Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh in the national window at noon. Following their baseball coverage, CBS was scheduled to broadcast a college football game between the Alabama Crimson Tide and Georgia Bulldogs{{cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/71577788/dogs-get-off-deck-to-beat-tide/|work=The Montgomery Advertiser|title='Dogs get off deck to beat Tide|date=September 23, 1990|accessdate=February 20, 2021|via=Newspapers.com}} at 3 p.m. EST. Consequently, CBS was unable to televise the Boston–New York game once the rain finally ceased just around 5:30 p.m. EST.

The 1990 postseason started on a Thursday,{{cite news |last=Stewart|first=Larry|date=September 28, 1990|title=CBS Now Stands for a Confusing Baseball Schedule|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1990-09-28-sp-990-story.html|work=Los Angeles Times|location= |access-date=}} while World Series started on a Tuesday due to the brief lockout. Major League Baseball and CBS went with some rather unconventional scheduling during the LCS round, with two consecutive scheduled off-days{{cite news|title=CBS Criticized for Not Introducing All Players|first=Bob|last=Kravitz|newspaper=Rocky Mountain News|date=October 17, 1990}} in the NLCS{{cite web |url=https://groups.google.com/forum/#!searchin/rec.sport.baseball/CBS$201990/rec.sport.baseball/eSSyrngncwk/DFJAFKJ4g5UJ|title=Bonilla goes for third (and CBS rationalizes)|date=October 10, 1990|website=rec.sport.baseball}} after Game 2.

After NBC lost the Major League Baseball package to CBS, the network aggressively counter-programmed{{cite news |last=Rogers |first=Prentis |date=May 23, 1989 |title=NBC Affiliates Learn Baseball Will Be Replaced by Hodgepodge |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-atlanta-journal-nbc-affiliates-learn/167999403/ |access-date=2025-03-15 |newspaper=The Atlanta Journal and The Atlanta Constitution |page=F2 |via=Newspapers.com}}{{cite news |last=Carter|first=Bill|date=October 4, 1990|title=Rival Networks Face Beloved Game Show On CBS: Baseball|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1990/10/04/arts/rival-networks-face-beloved-game-show-on-cbs-baseball.html|newspaper=New York Times}} CBS' postseason baseball coverage with made-for-TV movies and miniseries geared towards female viewers.{{cite news|title=World Series: A CBS Grand Slam|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1991-10-30-ca-593-story.html|first=Steven|last=Herbert|newspaper=Los Angeles Times|date=October 30, 1991}}

CBS' first year of Major League Baseball postseason coverage in general, proved to be problematic for the network. First and foremost, none of the teams involved in the ALCS (Boston and Oakland), NLCS (Cincinnati and Pittsburgh{{cite news |last=Storm|first=Jonathan|date=October 10, 1990|title=Baseball Fails To Raise CBS Batting Average|url=http://articles.philly.com/1990-10-10/news/25894246_1_abc-nbc-s-lifestories-ratings|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151222102204/http://articles.philly.com/1990-10-10/news/25894246_1_abc-nbc-s-lifestories-ratings|url-status=dead|archive-date=December 22, 2015|newspaper=Philadelphia Inquirer}}), and World Series (Cincinnati and Oakland) involved teams from baseball's largest media markets.{{cite news |last=Nidetz |first=Steve|date=October 15, 1990|title=Baseball Rights No Steal For CBS|url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/1990/10/15/baseball-rights-no-steal-for-cbs/|newspaper=Chicago Tribune}} This more than likely, helped reduce playoff ratings by 9.4% for prime time games and 3.4% for weekend daytime games. This was below the levels of the playoffs the year before, when they aired on NBC.

While the ratings for the 1990 World Series improved to 26.2{{cite web |url=https://readjack.substack.com/p/the-1991-nba-finals-were-david-sterns|title=The 1991 NBA Finals Were David Stern's Godsend|last=Silverstein|first=Jack M.|date=June 11, 2021|website=A Shot On Ehlo|publisher= |access-date= |quote=}} compared to 1989, the 1989 Series (which aired on ABC) was interrupted for 10 days by the Loma Prieta earthquake. All in all, the 1989 World Series was at the time, the lowest rated World Series ever. More to the point, the ratings for the 1990 World Series on CBS were significantly lower than any World Series between 1982 and 1988.

Although the 1990 NLCS lasted six games, that year's ALCS and more importantly, the World Series, lasted only four{{cite book |last=Cashmore|first=Ellis|date= September 9, 2002|title=And There Was Television|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4MGIAgAAQBAJ&q=Major+League+Baseball+on+CBS&pg=PA146|page=146|publisher=Routledge |isbn= 9781134874897}} out of seven possible games. To put things into proper perspective, by one estimate, CBS lost $5 million for each playoff game not played and US$15.4 million for each World Series game not played.{{cite news |last=Violanti|first=Anthony|date=August 11, 1991|title=CBS Has Ruined Baseball by Tampering With Tradition – Even a Good Announcer Like Jack Buck Can't Help the Network Solve Its Manhy Problems|url=https://buffalonews.com/news/cbs-has-ruined-baseball-by-tampering-with-tradition-even-a-good-announcer-like-jack-buck/article_66932109-9e95-5719-b2d9-dcfd2c5565bf.html|work=The Buffalo News|location= |access-date=}} At the end of the day, CBS lost $12 million to $15 million on each of the League Championship Series and World Series games not played, for a total of $36 million to $45 million.

CBS claimed to have lost about $55 million on its baseball coverage in after-taxes revenue in 1990.{{cite news |last=Pergament|first=Alan|date=August 2, 1991|title=It's No Wonder That CBS Sends 2nd Team to Rich|url=https://buffalonews.com/1991/08/03/its-no-wonder-that-cbs-sends-2nd-team-to-rich/|work=The Buffalo News}}{{cite news |last=Shales|first=Tom|date=April 6, 1991|title=CBS Network Eliminates 400 Jobs|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1991/04/06/cbs-network-eliminates-400-jobs/600c7663-2fc7-4e2c-a469-597d2b421360/|newspaper=Washington Post}}{{cite news |date=December 4, 1990|title=CBS Wants Some of Its Money Back After Taking a Bath on Baseball Deal |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1990-12-04-ca-6060-story.html|newspaper=The Los Angeles Times}} The losses eventually totaled $170 million by the end of the four-year contract. The losses were partially due to a shorter-than-usual postseason, which ended when the Cincinnati Reds swept the defending World Champion Oakland Athletics in the World Series in four games.{{cite news |last=Carter|first=Bill|date=December 26, 1990|title=1990 was a bad year, probably the worst ever, for television|url=https://www.baltimoresun.com/1990/12/26/1990-was-a-bad-year-probably-the-worst-ever-for-television/|newspaper=Baltimore Sun}}{{cite news |last=Nidetz|first=Steve|date=October 5, 1992|title=Baseball's Short-term Health Hinges On TV Contracts|url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/1992/10/05/baseballs-short-term-health-hinges-on-tv-contracts/|newspaper=The Chicago Tribune}} CBS made several adjustments for 1991. Regular season telecasts were reduced to a meager handful. In return, pregame shows during the League Championship Series were eliminated, to minimize the ratings damage.

On Sunday, May 5, CBS broadcast games involving Cleveland at Oakland (with Jack Buck and Tim McCarver on the call) and Boston at the Chicago White Sox (with Dick Stockton and Jim Kaat on the call). On Sunday, July 14, Dick Stockton and Jim Kaat called a game in Anaheim between the New York Yankees and California Angels.

For CBS' coverage of the 1991 All-Star Game from Toronto, CBS started their broadcast at the top of the hour with the customary pregame coverage. Because American President George H.W. Bush and Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney were throwing out the first ball, there was a slight delay from the 8:30 p.m. EDT start. The game eventually started about 15–20 minutes late. CBS began starting the prime time broadcasts at 8:30 for the final two years of the contract, with little or no pregame content.

In the 1991 World Series between the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves, four games were won during the teams' final at-bat, and three of these, including the seventh and decisive game, were in extra innings.{{cite news |last=Nidetz|first=Steve|date=October 28, 1991|title=Hits and Errors in CBS Coverage|url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1991-10-28-9104070320-story.html|work=Chicago Tribune}}{{cite news |last=Hansen|first=Jeff|date=October 21, 1991|title=CBS blinded by baseball's shining moment|url=http://www.upi.com/Archives/1991/10/21/CBS-blinded-by-baseballs-shining-moment/8427688017600/|newspaper=UPI}} In the sixth game, Jack Buck famously called Minnesota left fielder Kirby Puckett's game-winning home run{{cite video |url=https://www.mlb.com/video/search?q=Player%20%3D%20%5B%22Kirby%20Puckett%22%5D%20Order%20By%20Timestamp|title=Puckett's walk-off home run in '91 World Series|publisher=MLB.com }} off of Charlie Leibrandt with the line "And we'll see you tomorrow night!" Ultimately, the tightly contested, seven-game affair{{cite news |date=October 28, 1991|title=Baseball Daily Report|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1991-10-28-sp-516-story.html|newspaper=The Los Angeles Times}} between Minnesota and Atlanta earned CBS the highest ratings for a World Series{{cite web |url=http://goldenrankings.com/ultimategame1991.htm|title=The Ultimate Game|website=Golden Baseball Magazine }} since the 1986 World Series between the New York Mets and Boston Red Sox on NBC. In Washington, D.C., Game 7 of the 1991 World Series was pushed aside to independent station WDCA 20 so that CBS' WUSA 9 could air the Washington Redskins' NFL game against the New York Giants. Meanwhile, CBS' affiliate in Minneapolis, WCCO 4, had to miss the beginning of the pregame show for Game 7 because an NFL contest that CBS broadcast between the Minnesota Vikings and Phoenix Cardinals ended late.

{{blockquote|The Twins are going to win the World Series!!! The Twins have won it! It's a base hit, it's a one-nothing...ten inning victory!!!|Jack Buck calling Gene Larkin's 1991 World Series clinching hit.{{cite news |last=Deery|first=Matthew|date=November 9, 2017|title=The 1991 World Series is Still the Greatest of All-Time. Period.|url=http://minnesotaconnected.com/arts-entertainment/the-1991-world-series-is-still-the-greatest-of-all-time-period_1313311/}}}}

Earlier in the postseason, CBS' coverage of the ALCS meant that they could not carry the live testimony of Clarence Thomas, whose confirmation to the United States Supreme Court was put into question because of charges of sexual harassment from former staffer Anita Hill. Meanwhile, ABC, NBC, CNN and PBS all carried the testimony.{{cite news |last=Greenberg|first=Alan|date=October 16, 1991|title=Many Weekend Winners, But CBS Not Among Them|url=https://www.courant.com/news/connecticut/hc-xpm-1991-10-16-0000210780-story.html|work=Hartford Courant}}

As previously mentioned, as CBS' baseball coverage{{cite news|title=CBS still striking out Baseball playoffs won't end diamond nightmare|first=Jim|last=Baker|newspaper=Boston Herald|page=B18|date=October 6, 1991}}{{cite news|title=McCarver and Buck Need Time|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1991/10/18/sports/tv-sports-mccarver-and-buck-need-time.html?pagewanted=print|first=Richard|last=Sandomir|newspaper=The New York Times|date=October 18, 1991}}{{cite news|title=CBS Hopes Baseball Playoffs Prove Bigger Hit Than Season|first=Steven|last=Herbert|newspaper=Los Angeles Times|page=2|date=October 8, 1991}}{{cite news|title=Not much 'Hawk' in Kaat's coverage|first=Steve|last=Nidetz|newspaper=Chicago Tribune|page=9|date=October 4, 1991}} progressed, the network dropped its 8:00 p.m. pregame coverage{{cite news|title=CBS scraps pregame baseball playoff shows|first=Rudy|last=Martzke|newspaper=USA Today|page=3C|date=October 3, 1991}} (in favor of airing sitcoms such as Evening Shade), before finally starting their coverage at 8:30 p.m. Eastern Time. The first pitch would generally arrive at approximately 8:45 p.m. Perhaps as a result, Joe Carter's World Series clinching home run off Mitch Williams in 1993, occurred at 12 a.m. on the East Coast.

After two years of calling baseball telecasts for CBS, Jack Buck was dismissed in December 1991. According to the radio veteran Buck, he had a hard time adjusting to the demands of a more constricting television production.{{cite news|title=Announcing switch works well for CBS|url=http://www.tulsaworld.com/archives/announcing-switch-works-well-for-cbs/article_ecbd5105-49a7-5ed0-b223-d654f5f0f687.html|first=Barry|last=Lewis|newspaper=Tulsa World|date=May 1, 1992}} CBS felt that Buck should have done more to make himself appear to be a set-up man for lead analyst Tim McCarver.{{cite news|title=Will Pennant Races Be Good for Business?|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1991/04/09/sports/baseball-tv-sports-will-pennant-races-be-good-for-business.html?pagewanted=print|first=Richard|last=Sandomir|newspaper=The New York Times|date=April 9, 1991}}{{cite news |last=Sandomir|first=Richard|date=April 10, 1992|title=It's Easy to 'Pig Out' at This Buffet|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1992/04/10/sports/tv-sports-it-s-easy-to-pig-out-at-this-buffet.html|work=The New York Times}} Buck was also criticized for miscalls and anticipating the outcome of plays. Jack Buck's son Joe{{cite news |last=Halberstam|first=David J.|date=September 14, 2018|title=Halby's Morsels: When a brash Tim McCarver dissed Jack Buck on-air; Aikman, Collinsworth, Joe Buck +|url=http://www.sportsbroadcastjournal.com/halbys-morsels-when-a-brash-tim-mccarver-dissed-jack-buck-on-air-aikman-collinsworth-joe-buck/|work=Sports Business Journal}} tried to rationalize his father's on-air problems by saying "My dad was brought up in the golden age of radio, I think he had his hands tied somewhat, being accustomed to the freedom of radio.{{cite news|title=Sunday dinner puts Gumbel on sideline|first=Rudy|last=Martzke|newspaper=USA Today|page=3C|date=October 5, 1993}} I'm more used to acquiescing to what the producer wants to do, what the director wants to do."

Ric LaCivita, CBS' coordinating producer for baseball, said in July 1992 in regards to working with Jack Buck for two seasons: "There were different styles in the booth that made it difficult to create the type of production that benefited from Tim's skills. My job is to create an atmosphere where our people can do the best job, with people talking in the truck and an announcer who was doing radio calls instead of TV calls."{{cite news |last=Sandomir|first=Richard|date=July 14, 1992|title=Blimps and BaseCams Cause Fans to Lose Sight of Game|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1992/07/14/sports/tv-sports-blimps-and-basecams-cause-fans-to-lose-sight-of-game.html|work=The New York Times|location= |access-date=}}

Buck himself sized up CBS' handling of the announcers by saying "CBS never got that baseball play-by-play draws word-pictures. All they knew was that football stars analysts. So they said, 'Let [analyst Tim] McCarver run the show.' In television, all they want you to do is shut up. I'm not very good at shutting up." Buck though, would add that although he knew Tim McCarver well, they never developed a good relationship with each other on the air despite high hopes to the contrary. Phil Mushnick added insult to injury to Buck by accusing him of "trying to predict plays, as if to prove he was still on top."{{cite news |last=Frager|first=Ray|date=October 25, 1991|title=Buck, early with his calls, trapped off base – Top dog at CBS not having his day|url=https://www.baltimoresun.com/news/bs-xpm-1991-10-25-1991298076-story.html|work=The Baltimore Sun}}

{{blockquote|My biggest problem was understanding my role. They wanted him to dominate the broadcast and have me be the mechanic and stay out of the way. I didn't want to broadcast that way. I guess I should have accepted it, but relying on my experience on GrandStand{{cite magazine |last=Leggett|first=William|date=September 15, 1975|title=NBC Tries a Grandstand Play|url=https://vault.si.com/vault/1975/09/15/nbc-tries-a-grandstand-play|magazine=Sports Illustrated}} (NBC's NFL pregame show that Buck hosted in 1975) when I had not challenged anyone, I couldn't let others make all the decisions that put me in a position where I couldn't perform at all.|Jack Buck in his autobiography That's a Winner.{{cite book |last=Buck|first=Jack|date= May 6, 2014|title=Jack Buck: ÒThat's a Winner!Ó – The 1990s|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=D3roBAAAQBAJ&q=CBS|publisher=Sports Publishing|isbn= 9781613216798}}}}

Buck also got into deep trouble with CBS executives (namely executive producer Ted Shaker) over questionable comments made towards singer Bobby Vinton in 1990. While on-air prior to Game 4 of that year's NLCS in Pittsburgh, Buck criticized Vinton's off-key rendition of "The Star-Spangled Banner", making a comment towards Vinton that sounded like a prejudicial remark centered on his Polish heritage.{{YouTube|title=vinton nat'l anthem 1990 nlcs game 4.mpg|id=BkNNy8BxtDA}}{{cite news |date=October 11, 1990|title=Vinton, Buck Apologize for Wayward Words: Baseball: Singer flubbed national anthem and sportscaster's remarks angered Polish community.|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1990-10-11-sp-3218-story.html|work=Los Angeles Times}}{{cite news |date=October 11, 1990|title=Polish group takes broadcaster Buck to task|url=https://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-4021189.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121021031738/http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-4021189.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=October 21, 2012|work=Chicago Sun-Times}} Joe Buck believed that the situation was ironic because his father was "trying to help the guy." Buck began receiving death threats from Pirate fans and discovered a footprint on his pillow once he returned to his hotel room.

Buck's replacement was Boston Red Sox announcer Sean McDonough.{{cite news|title=Too much of good thing a problem for NBC|first=Rudy|last=Martzke|newspaper=USA Today|page=3C|date=January 9, 1992}} Ted Shaker called McDonough about his interests for the top announcing job, and after McDonough hung up the telephone, he claimed that he did not want to "act like a 10-year-old" but he "jumped so high that he put a hole in his ceiling." McDonough, who was 30 years old at the time, became the youngest full-time network announcer to call a World Series when he called that year's Fall Classic alongside McCarver.

For CBS' coverage of the 1992 All-Star Game,{{cite news|title=McDonough Takes Advice to the Bank|first=Larry|last=Stewart|newspaper=Los Angeles Times|page=3|date=July 10, 1992}}{{cite news|title=Show Recalls Baseball in B.G. (Before Greed) Era|first=Alan|last=Pergament|newspaper=The Buffalo News|date=July 11, 1992}} they introduced Basecam,{{cite news|title=NBC reconsiders schedule with Dream Team ratings|first=Rudy|last=Martzke|newspaper=USA Today|page=3C|date=July 7, 1992}} a lipstick-size camera, inside first base.

Throughout Game 2 of the 1992 ALCS, Jim Kaat was stricken with a bad case of laryngitis.{{cite news|title=No Quarrel by La Russa with Ruling on Wild Pitch|first=Bob|last=Kravitz|newspaper=Rocky Mountain News|date=October 9, 1992}} As a result, Johnny Bench had to come over from the CBS Radio booth and finish the game with Dick Stockton as a "relief analyst."{{cite web |last=Nidetz |first=Steve |date=October 12, 1992 |title=Football Analysts Campaign for Replay's Return |url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1992-10-12-9204020478-story.html |access-date=February 9, 2016 |work=Chicago Tribune}} There was talk that if Kaat's laryngitis did not get better, Don Drysdale was going to replace Kaat on television for the rest of ALCS, while Bench would continue to work on CBS Radio.

Tim McCarver ran afoul of Atlanta Braves outfielder Deion Sanders during the 1992 postseason,{{cite news|title=Baseball, Football, Hockey in Rare Three-Way Collision|first=Dusty|last=Saunders|newspaper=Rocky Mountain News|date=October 5, 1992}}{{cite news|title=McCarver Can't Keep a Knuckleballer Straight|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1992/10/13/sports/tv-sports-mccarver-can-t-keep-a-knuckleballer-straight.html?pagewanted=print|first=Richard|last=Sandomir|newspaper=The New York Times|date=October 13, 1992}} when he made comments on-air criticizing Sanders for his two-sport athletic career; Sanders was playing for both the Braves and the NFL's Atlanta Falcons at the time and participated in both the baseball postseason and the early NFL regular season for the first time in 1992 (Sanders was unable to do this in 1991, as his NFL contract with the Falcons would not allow him to). Sanders retaliated following Game 7 of the NLCS{{cite web |url=http://deadspin.com/5502736/pittsburgh-pirates-october-14-1992|title=Pittsburgh Pirates: October 14, 1992|last1=Leitch|first1=Will|date=March 26, 2010|website=Deadspin}} by dumping a bucket of ice water on McCarver (who was wired for sound and feared electrocution).

He was not immune to criticism from outside sources, either, as Norman Chad wrote a critique of him in Sports Illustrated during the postseason. Chad said that McCarver was someone who "when you ask him the time, will tell you how a watch works", a reference to McCarver's perceived tendency to overanalyze{{cite web |url=https://bleacherreport.com/articles/1811185-the-best-major-league-baseball-announcers-of-all-time#slide1|title=The Best Major League Baseball Announcers of All Time|last=Levy|first=Dan|date=October 16, 2013|website=Bleacher Report}} things. Chad went further by saying "What's the difference between Tim McCarver and appendicitis? Appendicitis is covered by most health plans."

He was also known to make gaffes from time to time. One of his more amusing miscues came during the 1992 National League Championship Series when he repeatedly referred to Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher Tim Wakefield as "Bill Wakefield.{{cite web|url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1992-10-19-9204040766-story.html|title=McDonough Does It Right the 1st Time|first=Steve |last=Nidetz |work=Chicago Tribune|date=October 19, 1992|access-date= February 9, 2016}} He finally explained that Bill Wakefield was one of his old minor-league teammates, and he laughed at himself because "I forgot my own name!" The year prior, during Game 6 of the World Series, McCarver's broadcast colleague, Jack Buck talked about Atlanta third baseman Terry Pendleton, who hit .367 in the series. Buck said, "TP. That's what his teammates call him." A few seconds later, McCarver rather oddly added, "TP. An appropriate name for someone who plays on the Braves."{{cite web|title=The '91 Series: McCarver, Kirby and Herbie|url=http://tvfury.wordpress.com/2011/10/28/the-91-series-mccarver-kirby-and-herbie/|website=TVFury|date=October 28, 2011|access-date=February 11, 2014}}

During the 1992 postseason, CBS missed covering one of the three debates among U.S. presidential candidates George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton. and H. Ross Perot. CBS had planned to join other broadcast and cable networks in the telecast; however, Game 4 of the ALCS between the Toronto Blue Jays and Oakland Athletics did not end until 8:30 p.m. Eastern Time, about the time the debate ended. The Blue Jays won the game 7–6 in 11 innings. The other networks reported very good ratings for the debate, part of one of the more compelling election campaigns in recent times.

The 1992 NLCS between the Atlanta Braves and Pittsburgh Pirates meanwhile, ended in dramatic fashion; in the bottom of the ninth inning of Game 7, with Atlanta down 2–1 and the bases loaded, the Braves' Francisco Cabrera cracked a two-run single that scored David Justice and Sid Bream. Bream famously slid to score the Series-winning run, beating the throw by Pirates left fielder Barry Bonds. Don Ohlmeyer, the former head of NBC Sports and President of NBC West Coast, supposedly called the event "one of the most exciting baseball moments he had ever seen," albeit regretting the time of day it took place.{{cite news|url=https://sassa.com/media-television-movies/the-tragedy-of-big-sporting-events-starting-at-9pm-et|title=The Tragedy of Big Sporting Events Starting at 9PM ET|newspaper=Scott Sassa |date=June 4, 2016 }}

{{blockquote|Line-drive and a base-hit! Justice has scored the tying run, Bream to the plate...and he is SAFE! Safe at the plate! The Braves go to the World Series![http://www.wavsource.com/sports/sports.htm WavSource: Sports] The unlikeliest of heroes wins the National League Championship Series for the Atlanta Braves. Francisco Cabrera, who had only ten at-bats in the major leagues during the regular season, singled through the left side, scoring Sid Bream from second base with the winning run. Bream, who's had five knee operations in his lifetime, just beat the tag from his ex-mate Mike LaValliere and Atlanta pulls out Game 7 with three runs in the bottom of the ninth inning. This place is bedlam. There will be no second nightmare for Bobby Cox. Final score in Game 7 of the National League Championship Series: the Braves 3 and the Pirates 2.|Sean McDonough's description{{cite news |last=Shea|first=Jim|date=October 18, 1992|title=Another Milestone for McDonough|url=https://www.courant.com/news/connecticut/hc-xpm-1992-10-18-0000111041-story.html|work=Hartford Couant|location= |access-date=}}{{cite news |last=Cosentino|first=Dom|date=October 16, 2017|title=A Pirates Fan Talks To Francisco Cabrera, 25 Years After The Worst Game Ever|url=https://deadspin.com/a-pirates-fan-talks-to-francisco-cabrera-25-years-afte-1819453468|work=Deadspin|location= |access-date=}} of the final moments of Game 7 of the 1992 National League Championship Series.}}

For the 1992 season, CBS chose from three games on most Saturdays, thus giving them more flexibility. The Chicago Cubs, St. Louis Cardinals, Boston Red Sox, Atlanta Braves, and Los Angeles Dodgers all agreed to increase their maximum number of network exposures before the final two weeks of the season from four to five. This would've been when any scheduled game was eligible for broadcast. More to the point, with two or three matchups tentatively scheduled for each date, CBS had the option{{cite news |last=Shea|first=Jim|date=April 5, 1992|title=Networks Have All the Bases Covered|url=https://www.courant.com/news/connecticut/hc-xpm-1992-04-05-0000203595-story.html|work=Hartford Courant|location= |access-date=}} to select the best game two weeks before the telecast. For instance, the Red Sox could appear on CBS as many as five times, the New York Mets four times, and the New York Yankees once.

:Note: All times eastern

On May 22, 1993, WIVB 4, CBS' affiliate in Buffalo, New York, bypassed CBS' Saturday afternoon baseball coverage for the second consecutive week.{{cite news |last=Pergament|first=Alan|date=May 22, 1993|title=Channel 4'S Baseball Blackout Is Strictly Bush League|url=https://buffalonews.com/news/channel-4s-baseball-blackout-is-strictly-bush-league/article_1445bd9b-84d8-5a17-b31b-4ed45a2d5bd5.html|work=The Buffalo News|location= |access-date=}} According to a CBS spokesperson, the King World owned Channel 4 was the only affiliate in the country to drop baseball the previous Saturday and would be the only affiliate to skip May 22's game, too. WIVB in baseball's place, ran paid programming. Channel 4's Twila Henneberger said "We're not carrying the games this month and we're looking at them on an individual basis after that. There is minimal interest in viewership of baseball, plus a lot of opportunities to watch all week and during the evenings. Interest on part of the advertisers is not there, either." Their decision to drop baseball for two weeks came about a week after CBS appeared to fail in its bid{{cite news |last=Smith|first=Claire|date=May 29, 1993|title=Baseball Flips Channel On TV Future|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1993/05/29/sports/baseball-baseball-flips-channel-on-tv-future.html|work=The New York Times|location= |access-date=}} to keep the sport after the 1993 season.

Lesley Visser missed the first half of the 1993 season due to injuries earlier suffered in a bizarre jogging accident in New York City's Central Park. Visser broke her hip and skidded face-first across the pavement, requiring reconstructive plastic surgery on her face and more than a decade later required an artificial hip replacement. She missed the Major League Baseball All-Star Game.{{cite news|title=Gaston gets rebuke from CBS|newspaper=Toronto Star|page=E2|date=July 14, 1993}}{{cite web|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1993-07-11-tv-11909-story.html|title=CBS' Tim McCarver Is a Natural to Analyze All-Star Game|first=John|last=Scheibe|work=Los Angeles Times|date=July 11, 1993|access-date= February 9, 2016}} Jim Kaat would replace her while she recuperated. Jim Gray also served as a reporter for the All-Star Game{{cite web |url=https://groups.google.com/forum/#!searchin/rec.sport.baseball/CBS$201993/rec.sport.baseball/HyZ-4hRSBls/Y2FDtPNWUkEJ|title=All Star Game comments...|date=July 13, 1993|website=rec.sport.baseball}} and World Series.

As previously mentioned, for 1993, CBS made a broadcast booth change by removing Dick Stockton from his role as secondary play-by-play announcer after three seasons, and replacing him with Greg Gumbel.{{cite news |last=Sandomir|first=Richard|date=December 18, 1994|title=Gumbel in Lead Chair For '94 Winter Games|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1992/12/18/sports/tv-sports-gumbel-in-lead-chair-for-94-winter-games.html|work=The New York Times|location= |access-date=}} Also as previously mentioned, also during the 1993 season, Andrea Joyce replaced Gumbel as studio host. Joyce would be joined at the anchor desk by Pat O'Brien. At the 1993 World Series, she became the first woman to co-host the network television coverage for a World Series. Sean McDonough{{cite news |last=Dearth|first=Sonny|date=October 15, 1993|title=CBS Gets Good Marks for Baseball Coverage, Except for 2 Things|url=http://www.dailypress.com/news/dp-xpm-19931015-1993-10-15-9310150279-story.html|work=Daily Press}} filled in for O'Brien, who was suffering from laryngitis,{{cite news |last=Fleischman|first=Bill|date=October 14, 1993|title=The Right Touch CBS's Pictures Tell Celebration Story|url=http://articles.philly.com/1993-10-14/sports/25939149_1_dave-hollins-darren-daulton-mitch-williams|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150927101210/http://articles.philly.com/1993-10-14/sports/25939149_1_dave-hollins-darren-daulton-mitch-williams|url-status=dead|archive-date=September 27, 2015|newspaper=Philadelphia Daily News}} as the pregame host for Game 6 of the 1993 National League Championship Series. Game 6 of the NLCS by the way, didn't have its first pitch until nearly 8:50 p.m. EST so that CBS could run 60 Minutes in its entirety.

During CBS' coverage of the World Series,{{cite news |last=Sandomir|first=Richard|date=October 15, 1993|title=CBS Is Getting Out Just as It Gets It Right|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1993/10/15/sports/world-series-tv-sports-cbs-is-getting-out-just-as-it-gets-it-right.html|newspaper=The New York Times}} umpires were upset with the overhead{{cite web |url=https://groups.google.com/forum/#!searchin/rec.sport.baseball/CBS$201993/rec.sport.baseball/lgF3djqENfM/9ciia_zlqcEJ|title=Umps ask CBS not to use Skydome roof camera|date=October 15, 1993|website=rec.sport.baseball}}{{cite news |last=Nidetz|first=Steve|date=October 18, 1993|title=CBS Balks At Pitch To Ban Overhead Camera|url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/1993/10/18/cbs-balks-at-pitch-to-ban-overhead-camera/|newspaper=Chicago Tribune}} replays being televised by CBS. Dave Phillips, the crew chief, said just prior to Game 2 that the umpires want "CBS to be fair with their approach." Rick Gentile,{{cite news |last=Frager|first=Ray|date=October 15, 1993|title=CBS gets last at-laugh with Phillies|url=https://www.baltimoresun.com/1993/10/15/cbs-gets-last-at-laugh-with-phillies/|newspaper=Baltimore Sun}} senior vice president for production for CBS Sports, said that Richie Phillips, the lawyer for the Major League Umpires Association, tried to call the broadcast booth during Saturday's game, but the call was not put through. Richie Phillips apparently was upset when Dave Phillips called the Philadelphia Phillies' Ricky Jordan out on strikes in the fourth inning, and a replay showed the pitch to be about 6 inches outside. National League President Bill White, while using a CBS headset in the broadcast booth during Game 1, was overheard telling Gentile and the producer Bob Dekas, "You guys keep using that camera the way you want. Don't let Phillips intimidate you."

After the fallout from CBS' financial problems{{cite news|title=The Baseball Network Says the Players' Analyst Struck Out |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1994/08/26/sports/tv-sports-the-baseball-network-says-the-players-analyst-struck-out.html|first=Richard|last=Sandomir|newspaper=The New York Times|date=August 26, 1994|access-date=July 2, 2012}}{{cite news |last=Stewart|first=Larry|date=September 15, 1994|title=Baseball '94: Going, Going . . . Gone: TV : Season's End Has Little Impact on Networks|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1994-09-15-sp-38865-story.html|work=Los Angeles Times}} from their exclusive, four-year-long, US$1.8 billion{{cite news |last=Trecker|first=Jerry|date=March 30, 1996|title=New Hope Rises From the Ashes of TBN|url=https://www.courant.com/news/connecticut/hc-xpm-1996-03-30-9603300137-story.html|work=The Hartford Courant}}{{cite news |last=Pergament|first=Alan|date=May 15, 1993|title=Networks Win With New Baseball Contract; Fans Lose|url=https://buffalonews.com/news/networks-win-with-new-baseball-contract-fans-lose/article_44f476cb-bd0d-5781-a484-22a22cf1e067.html|work=The Buffalo News}} television contract with Major League Baseball (a contract that ultimately cost CBS approximately $500 million{{cite news|title=Baseball Network Plans to Bring on the Night New TV Deal Makes Saturday Afternoon Games a Thing of the Past|url=http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_product=SJ&s_site=mercurynews&p_multi=SJ&p_theme=realcities&p_action=search&p_maxdocs=200&p_topdoc=1&p_text_direct-0=0EB71CC84CEA49AA&p_field_direct-0=document_id&p_perpage=10&p_sort=YMD_date:D&s_trackval=GooglePM|newspaper=USA Today|date=April 3, 1994|access-date=May 31, 2011}}), Major League Baseball{{cite news |last=Sandomir|first=Richard|date=May 10, 1993|title=For Baseball, It Looks Like a Whole New Ball Game, on TV, That Is|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1993/05/10/sports/tv-sports-for-baseball-it-looks-like-a-whole-new-ball-game-on-tv-that-is.html|work=The New York Times}} decided to go into the business of producing the telecasts themselves{{Harvp|Walker|Bellamy|2008|p=156}} and market these to advertisers on its own. Therefore, in May 1993, Major League Baseball officially announced a revenue sharing agreement with ABC and NBC that would call for Major League Baseball to receive 85% of the first US$140 million in advertising{{Cite news |last=Zipay |first=Steve |date=1994-06-17 |title=NHL Steals the Show And the Ratings, Too |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/newsday-nhl-steals-the-show-and-the-rati/163554832/ |access-date=2025-03-15 |work=Newsday |page=A94 |via=Newspapers.com}} revenue (or 87.5%{{cite book |last=Bartkowiak |first=Mathew J. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IwbFSRZVMf4C&pg=PA82 |title=Packaging Baseball: How Marketing Embellishes the Cultural Experience |last2=Kiuchi |first2=Yuya |date=January 10, 2014 |publisher=McFarland |isbn=9780786492510 |page=82}} of advertising revenues{{cite news|title=Baseball tries for comeback, but it swings and misses.|url=http://business.highbeam.com/137540/article-1G1-17493415/baseball-tries-comeback-but-swings-and-misses|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141204144018/http://business.highbeam.com/137540/article-1G1-17493415/baseball-tries-comeback-but-swings-and-misses|url-status=dead|archive-date=December 4, 2014|first=Chad|last=Rubel|newspaper=Marketing News|date=September 11, 1995|access-date=July 2, 2012}} and corporate sponsorship{{cite news|title=Firms May Take a Walk on Baseball Promotions|url=http://www.csmonitor.com/1995/0307/07082.html|author=Shelley Donald Coolidge|newspaper=The Christian Science Monitor|date=March 7, 1995}} from the games until sales topped a specified level), 50% of the next $30 million, and 80% of any additional money. Prior to this, Major League Baseball was projected to take a projected 55% cut in rights fees and receive a typical rights fee from the networks. When compared to the previous television deal with CBS, The Baseball Network was supposed to bring in 50% less of the broadcasting revenue. The advertisers{{cite news|title=Baseball Network Fails to Wow Advertisers|url=http://adage.com/article/news/baseball-network-fails-wow-advertisers/88293/|first=Joe|last=Mandese|newspaper=Advertising Age|date=February 28, 1994|access-date=July 2, 2012}} were reportedly excited about the arrangement with The Baseball Network because the new package included several changes intended to boost ratings, especially among younger viewers.

The final Major League Baseball game that CBS has televised to date was Game 6 of the 1993 World Series on October 23.{{cite web |url=http://theriffage.blogspot.com/2013/10/true-rock-tales-tad-and-1993-world.html|title=True Rock Tales: Tad and the 1993 World Series|date=October 28, 2013|website=The Riffage}}{{cite news |last=Gaffney|first=Jim|date=October 17, 1993|title=CBS Says Goodbye to Baseball|url=https://www.questia.com/newspaper/1P2-32833787/cbs-says-goodbye-to-baseball|newspaper=St Louis Post-Dispatch}} Before Major League Baseball decided to seek the services of other networks,{{cite news |last=Endrst|first=James|date=June 13, 1994|title=Despite No. 1 Ranking, Cbs Getting No Respect|url=https://www.courant.com/1994/06/13/despite-no-1-ranking-cbs-getting-no-respect-2/|work=Hartford Courant}} CBS offered US$120 million in annual rights fees over a two-year period,{{cite news|title=McCarver prefers all 4 games|url=https://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/USAToday/access/72750573.html?dids=72750573:72750573&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&type=current&date=Oct+06%2C+1995&author=Rudy+Martzke&pub=USA+TODAY+(pre-1997+Fulltext)&desc=McCarver+prefers+all+4+games&pqatl=google|first=Rudy|last=Martzke|newspaper=USA Today|date=October 6, 1995|access-date=July 6, 2017|archive-date=November 4, 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121104172901/http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/USAToday/access/72750573.html?dids=72750573:72750573&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&type=current&date=Oct+06,+1995&author=Rudy+Martzke&pub=USA+TODAY+(pre-1997+Fulltext)&desc=McCarver+prefers+all+4+games&pqatl=google|url-status=dead}}{{cite news |last=Stewart|first=Larry|date=May 14, 1993|title=CBS Makes a Late Pitch to Keep Baseball in Its Picture|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1993-05-14-sp-35233-story.html|newspaper=The Los Angeles Times}}{{cite news |last=McClellan|first=Steve|date=May 17, 1993|title=Two ways to go on baseball – CBS vs. ABC-NBC. (Major League Baseball joint venture preempted by CBS revenue-sharing deal)|url=http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-13768400.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150329183825/http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-13768400.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=March 29, 2015|newspaper=Broadcasting & Cable}}{{cite news |last=Smith|first=Claire|date=May 14, 1993|title=CBS Throws a Curveball to Baseball's Owners|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1993/05/14/sports/baseball-cbs-throws-a-curveball-to-baseball-s-owners.html|work=New York Times}} as well as advertising revenues in excess of $150 million a season.

Upon being asked about the news of CBS having to end their relationship with Major League Baseball after only four years, Sean McDonough told the New York Times "It's all the words you can think of, frustrating, disappointing and sad, particularly because it's going so well. Hopefully, this will just be a cyclical thing and we can get back into it, maybe in two years." When Toronto's Joe Carter hit his 1993 World Series clinching home run off of Philadelphia Phillies closer Mitch Williams, McDonough said{{cite news |last=Levine|first=Jesse|date=March 11, 2018|title=The Greatest Calls Tom & Jerry Didn't Script|url=https://canuckbaseballplus.com/2018/03/11/the-greatest-calls-tom-jerry-didnt-script/|work=Canuck Baseball Plus|location= |access-date=}} "Well-hit down the left-field line! Way back and GONE!{{cite news |last=Curtis|first=Bryan|date=September 16, 2016|title=The Long, Long, Long Wait of Sean McDonough|url=https://www.theringer.com/2016/9/12/16041662/meet-the-new-old-voice-of-monday-night-football-4ee1970154e4|work=The Ringer|location= |access-date=}} Joe Carter with a three-run homer! The winners and still world champions, the Toronto Blue Jays!"

{{blockquote|You know as Tony Kubek once said about Mickey Mantle "Just as he was learning to say hello, he was saying goodbye!" This is kind of the way we feel here at CBS Sports. It doesn't seem possible that our four years as the caretaker of the "National Pastime" are over, but here we are...saying goodbye. And in that short time, not only did we have probably one of the greatest World Series ever between Atlanta and Minnesota, the seven gamer, we also had arguably, one of the greatest World Series games the other night. And folks, how about this one tonight!? In all, and you're looking at them now, a lot of memories...a lot of good memories! And we hoped that you cherish these pictures and these sounds as much as we enjoyed bringing them right into your homes. Time to say goodbye, but knowing full well...that the grand ol' game will never say goodbye! It's just keeps rolling up...the memories!{{YouTube|title=1993 World Series GM 6-10/23/1993|id=IKrBOzsHfhw}} For all of us here at CBS Sports, I'm Pat O'Brien, thank you...for watching and...goodnight everybody!|Host Pat O'Brien at the conclusion of CBS' coverage of the Game 6 of 1993 World Series and its four-year-long coverage of Major League Baseball as a whole.}}

Shortly after the start of the 1994–95 Major League Baseball strike, Stanford University's Roger Noll argued that the Baseball Network{{cite news |date=December 20, 1993|title=Gumbel Says Murdoch's Bid Sent Shock Through CBS|url=https://www.deseret.com/1993/12/20/19082679/gumbel-says-murdoch-s-bid-sent-shock-through-cbs|work=Deseret News}} deal (and the bargain-basement ESPN cable renewal, which went from $100 million to $42 million because of their losses) reflected "poor business judgment on the part of management about the long-run attractiveness of their product to national broadcasters." He added that the $140 million that owners expected to share for the 1994 season (before the strike) from TBN was underestimated by "one-third to one-half" and fell below the annual average of $165 million needed to renew the TBN deal after two years. Meanwhile, Andy Zimbalist, author of Baseball and Billions, and a players' union consulting economist, insisted that baseball "could have done better than the TBN deal with some combination of CBS (which as previously mentioned, offered $120 million last-ditch bid for renewal), Fox and TBS. Baseball shut out CBS and could have waited longer before closing them out."

In October {{mlby|1995}}, when it was a known fact that ABC and NBC were going to end their television deal/joint venture with Major League Baseball, preliminary talks{{cite news |date=October 18, 1995|title=Baseball may return to its TV roots|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1310&dat=19951018&id=y0lWAAAAIBAJ&pg=2697,4310832&hl=en|newspaper=Eugene Register-Guard}} arose about CBS resuming its role as MLB's national over-the-air broadcaster.{{Cite news |date=1995-10-11 |title=Networks set to bid on baseball |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-toronto-star-networks-set-to-bid-on/163555717/ |access-date=2025-03-15 |work=The Toronto Star |page=D4 |via=Newspapers.com |agency=Associated Press}} It was rumored that CBS would show Thursday night games{{cite news |last=Martzke |first=Rudy |date=October 11, 1995 |title=Baseball, O.J. go head-to-head |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/usa-today-baseball-oj-go-head-to-head/163556010/ |access-date=2025-03-15 |newspaper=USA Today |page=2C |via=Newspapers.com}}{{cite news |last= Bruton|first=Mike|date=June 24, 1995|title=Baseball Up For Grabs As ABC, NBC Dissolve Venture With Owners CBS And Fox Are Likely Bidders. The Baseball Network Will Finish Out The 1995 Season. |url=http://articles.philly.com/1995-06-24/sports/25690741_1_ebersol-and-swanson-abc-and-nbc-major-league-owners|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120910161235/http://articles.philly.com/1995-06-24/sports/25690741_1_ebersol-and-swanson-abc-and-nbc-major-league-owners|url-status=dead|archive-date=September 10, 2012|newspaper=Philadelphia Inquirer}} (more specifically, a package of West Coast inter-league games scheduled for the 11:30 p.m. Eastern/8:30 Pacific Time slot) while Fox would show Saturday afternoon games.{{cite news |last=Sandomir|first=Richard|date=April 5, 1996|title=Fox Baseball Coverage Is Sure to Include Some Curveballs|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1996/04/05/sports/tv-sports-fox-baseball-coverage-is-sure-to-include-some-curveballs.html|work=The New York Times}} CBS and Fox were also rumored to share rights to the postseason.{{cite news |last=Shapario|first=Leonard|date=October 18, 1995|title=CBS Denies Report of Broadcast Deal|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/sports/1995/10/18/cbs-denies-report-of-broadcast-deal/4260adc6-8b3e-482a-a0ce-3394cba0a1c5/|newspaper=The Washington Post|location= |access-date=}} At the time, CBS sports President David Kenin said in a statement,{{cite news |last=Shaprio|first=Leonard|date=June 24, 1994|title=ABC, NBC Pull Plug on Baseball|url=https://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/fl-xpm-1995-06-24-9506240075-story.html|work=South Florida Sun-Sentinel}} "We are interested in all major sports properties and obviously Major League Baseball is one of them. If we can conceive an arrangement that makes sense, naturally we'd be very interested in acquiring some kind of baseball package." In the end however, CBS' involvement did not come to pass and NBC became Fox's over-the-air national television partner. Whereas each team earned about $14 million in 1990 under CBS, the later television agreement with NBC and Fox beginning in 1996 earned each team about $6.8 million.{{cite book|title=Sports: A Reference Guide and Critical Commentary, 1980–1999|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=192V884VTWIC&q=Major+League+Baseball+on+CBS&pg=PA33|first=Donald L.|last=Deardorff|page=33|year= 2000| publisher=Bloomsbury Academic |isbn=9780313304453}}

After CBS' contract with Major League Baseball expired following the 1993 season, Tim McCarver{{cite news |last=Wren|first=Doug|date=May 14, 1993|title=CBS' Unexpected Pitch Could Affect Carpenter|url=https://www.tulsaworld.com/archives/cbs-unexpected-pitch-could-affect-carpenter/article_1196c280-f190-52cf-9f01-5fd21ebaa896.html|work=Tulsa World}} returned to ABC (and to his broadcast partners prior to coming to CBS, Al Michaels and Jim Palmer) for the next two years under the short-lived "Baseball Network" joint-venture. After calling Games 1, 4–5 of the 1995 World Series for ABC (NBC's Bob Costas, Joe Morgan, and Bob Uecker called the other games), McCarver moved to Fox to form the lead broadcast team with Joe Buck. With the exception of 1997 and 1999 (when NBC held the broadcasting rights), McCarver would help broadcast every World Series from 1996 until his retirement from national TV broadcasts in 2013.{{cite web|title='I Am By No Means Retiring': Tim McCarver To Leave Broadcast Booth After Season|url=http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2013/03/27/mlb-analyst-tim-mccarver-to-retire-after-2013-season/|publisher=CBS News New York|access-date=March 27, 2013}}{{cite web|title=Tim McCarver Retirement: Joe Buck's Send-Off for Broadcasting Partner Was Classy|url= http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1832376-tim-mccarver-retirement-joe-bucks-send-off-for-broadcasting-partner-was-classy|work=Los Angeles Times|access-date=October 31, 2013}} Ten years prior to that, McCarver set a record by broadcasting his 13th World Series on national television (surpassing Curt Gowdy); in all, he called 24 Fall Classics for ABC, CBS, and Fox.

Meanwhile, despite the loss of Major League Baseball, Sean McDonough{{cite news |last=Nelson|first=John|date=October 11, 1995|title=CBS has got Sean McDonough again. Now, all it needs is baseball.|url=https://www.apnews.com/9ed114f1437fd932ae3a6fa631c2823b|work=AP News}} stayed on at CBS Sports calling among other things, the College World Series. In fact, three years after calling Joe Carter's World Series clinching home run in Toronto, McDonough while calling the College World Series for CBS alongside Steve Garvey, McDonough called another series clinching home run. This time, it was Warren Morris, who hit a two out, 9th inning walk-off home run that won the 1996 College World Series{{YouTube|title=The greatest College World Series ending ever.|id=NXtP385K9dE}} for the Louisiana State University Fighting Tigers against Miami. Sean McDonough's run at CBS came to an end in December 1999, when CBS Sports President Sean McManus informed McDonough that his contract would not be renewed.{{cite news |last=Sherman|first=Ed|date=December 17, 1999|title=Mcdonough Out, And That's Odd|url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/1999/12/17/mcdonough-out-and-thats-odd/|newspaper=Chicago Tribune}} Once Dick Enberg, late of NBC became available, McDonough basically became the odd man out.{{cite web |url=http://awfulannouncing.com/2016/after-losing-his-job-with-cbs-sean-mcdonough-thought-about-quitting-broadcasting.html|title=After losing his job with CBS, Sean McDonough thought about quitting broadcasting|last1=Fang|first1=Ken|date=May 16, 2016|website=Awful Announcing}} Since 2000, McDonough has announced baseball, college basketball, college football, NFL, NHL and NCAA hockey for ABC and ESPN. Specifically, McDonough announces many Big East college football and basketball events. McDonough also continued to announce local Red Sox broadcasts during this time, moving over the years to different local stations including WFXT (Channel 25), WABU (Channel 68) and WLVI (Channel 56). In 1996, he was teamed with former Red Sox second baseman Jerry Remy, with whom he worked for nine seasons before McDonough was replaced completely in 2005 by NESN announcer Don Orsillo. McDonough attributed his firing to his salary and disputed talk that his "candor" was to blame.{{cite web |url=https://www.reddit.com/r/redsox/comments/3iesq1/the_last_time_nesn_fired_a_favorite_red_sox/|title=After losing his job with CBS, Sean McDonough thought about quitting broadcasting|date=December 14, 2004|website=Remy Report via Reddit}}

In 1994, Jim Kaat was the lead analyst on Baseball Tonight for ESPN's coverage of Major League Baseball. In 1995, he was nominated for a New York Emmy Award for "On Camera Achievement." Also in {{Baseball year|1995}}, Kaat called the American League playoffs with Brent Musburger for ABC/The Baseball Network including the New York Yankees–Seattle Mariners Division Series. He served his second stint as an announcer for Yankees games on the MSG Network/YES Network ({{Baseball year|1995}}–{{Baseball year|2006}}),{{cite news |last=Raissman |first=Bob |date=September 10, 2006 |title=Kaat's Meow. Signing off after 25 memorable years behind mike |url=https://www.nydailynews.com/2006/09/10/kaats-meow-signing-off-after-25-memorable-years-behind-mike/ |access-date=2025-03-15 |work=Daily News |location=New York}} where his straight-shooting style was much in the mode of former Yankees broadcasters Tony Kubek and Bill White. Towards the end of his second stint with the Yankees, his workload decreased. In 2006, he only broadcast 65 games.{{cite web|url=http://newyork.yankees.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20060914&content_id=1663392&vkey=news_nyy&fext=.jsp&c_id=nyy|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090205035033/http://newyork.yankees.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20060914&content_id=1663392&vkey=news_nyy&fext=.jsp&c_id=nyy|url-status=dead|archive-date=February 5, 2009|title=Kaat set to broadcast final game|website=New York Yankees}} Despite his decreased work load, Kaat won another Emmy for on-air achievement in 2006. In an on-air broadcast on September 10, {{MLB Year|2006}} with booth partner Ken Singleton, Kaat acknowledged his plan to end his broadcasting career. His final appearance in the booth was to be a New York Yankees–Boston Red Sox game on September 15, 2006 (Kaat was also set to throw out the first pitch). However, the game was postponed due to rain. Kaat later announced that he was going to record a special farewell message to the fans, but would not return for any additional broadcasts. However, the following day, Kaat did announce one full inning of the first game of Saturday September 16's doubleheader on Fox along with Tim McCarver and Josh Lewin. During that Fox telecast he was able to say goodbye to the Yankees fans, an opportunity that the previous night's rainout had deprived him of doing on the YES Network. In {{MLB Year|2009}}, Kaat joined the recently launched MLB Network as a color commentator for their MLB Network Showcase series. Kaat also writes a weekly on-line blog for the Yankees (YES) Network, Kaat's Korner, and contributes video blogs and interviews regularly with national and international media outlets. One of the reasons he got back into regular broadcasting was because after his wife died, Tim McCarver and Elizabeth Schumacher, his friend and business manager, urged him to get back into the game. He also called Pool D in Puerto Rico for the 2009 World Baseball Classic games for an international feed.{{cite news|url=http://bats.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/03/21/after-time-away-kaat-returns-to-broadcasting/|work=The New York Times|title=After Time Away, Kaat Returns to Broadcasting|date=March 21, 2009|access-date=May 6, 2010}}

Greg Gumbel{{cite news |last= Nelson|first=John|date= December 20, 1993|title=Gumbel Says Murdoch's Bid Sent Shock Through CBS|url=https://www.deseretnews.com/article/326948/GUMBEL-SAYS-MURDOCHS-BID-SENT-SHOCK-THROUGH-CBS.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180927143957/https://www.deseretnews.com/article/326948/GUMBEL-SAYS-MURDOCHS-BID-SENT-SHOCK-THROUGH-CBS.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=September 27, 2018|work=Deseret News}} moved to NBC in 1994 following CBS' losses of the NFL{{cite magazine |url=https://www.si.com/vault/1993/12/27/130193/out-foxed-rupert-murdochs-upstart-network-snatched-the-nfl-from-cbs-in-a-coup-that-will-change-the-face-of-televised-sports|title=Rupert Murdoch's Upstart Network Snatched the NFL From CBS in a Coup That Will Change the Face of Televised Sports|last=Wulf|first=Steve|date=December 27, 1993|magazine=Sports Illustrated}}{{cite news |last=Frager|first=Ray|date=December 21, 1993|title=Relax, fans Fox will soon be sly in NFL hunt, too|url=https://www.baltimoresun.com/1993/12/21/relax-fans-fox-will-soon-be-sly-in-nfl-hunt-too/|work=The Baltimore Sun}} and Major League Baseball broadcasting contracts (Gumbel's last on-air assignment for CBS was providing play-by-play for the College World Series{{cite news |last=Nidetz|first=Steve|date=June 10, 1994|title=Greg Gumbel Finds Saying Farewell Can Be Painful|url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/1994/06/10/greg-gumbel-finds-saying-farewell-can-be-painful/|newspaper=Chicago Tribune}}). While at NBC, Gumbel hosted NBC's coverage of the 1994 Major League Baseball All-Star Game. He also did play-by-play for the {{baseball year|1995}} Major League Baseball National League Division Series and National League Championship Series (on both occasions, teaming with Joe Morgan), did play-by-play for The NBA on NBC, hosted NBC's daytime coverage of the 1996 Summer Olympics from Atlanta, Georgia, hosted the 1995 World Championships of Figure Skating, and served as the studio host for The NFL on NBC. Gumbel left NBC after the network broadcast of Super Bowl XXXII to return to CBS. His first major assignment was to serve as studio host for the network's coverage of college basketball, including the NCAA men's basketball tournament, which he continued through 2023. He also assumed the role as lead play-by-play announcer for the NFL on CBS, and in January 2001, became the first African-American to serve as play-by-play announcer for a Super Bowl when he called Super Bowl XXXV. Gumbel later resumed hosting The NFL Today on CBS (swapping places with Jim Nantz) before transitioning back to play-by-play duties, primarily as No. 2 NFL announcer, when CBS hired James Brown away from Fox to host The NFL Today. Gumbel died on December 27, 2024.

Dick Stockton left CBS in 1994 for Fox Sports, which employed him on NFL and Major League Baseball telecasts for nearly three decades. For Fox's MLB coverage, he worked with Eric Karros, Joe Girardi, Mark Grace and Tim McCarver and others. From 1993 to 1995, Stockton also called local TV broadcasts of the Oakland Athletics. From {{mlby|2007}} to 2013, Stockton called postseason Major League Baseball games on TBS. In 2007, he partnered with Ron Darling to call the National League Division Series for the network. In {{mlby|2008}}, he called the AL Central tiebreaker game with Darling and Harold Reynolds, followed by the NLDS with Darling and Tony Gwynn. In {{mlby|2009}}, he teamed with Bob Brenly to call the NLDS for TBS, and the two have worked together for the NLDS every year since until 2014, when TBS began carrying only two LDS, rotating between AL/NL each year. (TBS and Fox began splitting the LDS from 2014 on.) TBS was previously the exclusive home of the LDS from 2007 to 2013. Stockton split play-by-play duties during the {{mlby|2010}} regular season on TBS with NBA on TNT studio host Ernie Johnson Jr. and Milwaukee Brewers announcer Brian Anderson. In {{mlby|2011}}, he partnered with Ron Darling and John Smoltz to call Game 5 of National League Division Series between the St. Louis Cardinals and Philadelphia Phillies for TBS as his normal partner Brenly was away at a family event. After 2013, Stockton focused mainly on calling NFL games on Fox before retiring in 2021.

Over the course of the 1990s, Jack Buck decided to reduce his schedule to calling only Cardinals home games (or 81 games a year, unless there was a special occurrence). Health concerns obviously could have played a factor in this, as Buck suffered from such ailments as Parkinson's disease, diabetes, requiring a pacemaker, cataracts, sciatica, and vertigo.{{citation needed|date=March 2017}} Buck once joked, "I wish I'd get Alzheimer's, then I could forget I've got all the other stuff." In 1998, the Cardinals dedicated a bust of Buck that showed him smiling with a hand cupping his left ear. In 1999, he lent his name to a restaurant venture called J. Buck's, with the restaurant's name being shared with son Joe and daughter Julie.{{cite news|title=J. Buck's opens downtown St. Louis restaurant|url=http://www.bizjournals.com/stlouis/stories/2007/06/18/daily22.html|work =St. Louis Business Journal|date=June 19, 2007|access-date=January 6, 2013}} One of Buck's final public appearances was on September 17, 2001, at Busch Memorial Stadium in St. Louis. It was the first night that Major League Baseball resumed after the terrorist attacks of September 11. Although looking rather frail (Buck at the time was sick with lung cancer) and struggling to maintain his composure (Buck was obviously showing the signs of Parkinson's disease as well), Buck stirred emotions{{cite web|url=http://www.nesn.com/2010/02/top-10-motivational-sports-speeches-of-all-time.html|title=Stanley Cup Final Game 7: Top 10 Motivational Sports Speeches of All Time|date=June 15, 2011}} by reading a patriotic-themed poem during the pregame ceremonies. He concluded by silencing critics who thought baseball had come back too soon: "I don't know about you, but as for me, the question has already been answered: Should we be here? Yes!" Jack Buck died on June 18, 2002, in St. Louis's Barnes-Jewish Hospital from a combination of illnesses. He had stayed in the hospital since January 3 of that year to undergo treatment for lung cancer, Parkinson's disease, and to correct an intestinal blockage.

As previously mentioned, in the end, CBS wound up losing approximately half a billion dollars{{cite news|title=CBS Has Lost $500 Million On Baseball Contract |url=https://archive.seattletimes.com/archive/19930228/1687865/cbs-has-lost-500-million-on-baseball-contract|first=Bob|last=Keisser|newspaper=Seattle Times|date=February 28, 1993}}{{cite book|title=Playing for Dollars: Labor Relations and the Sports Business|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Zma1OwOhQJIC&q=major+league+baseball+broadcast+timeline+1990+cbs+espn&pg=PA20|first=Paul D.|last=Staudohar|page=20|isbn= 0801483425|year= 1996| publisher=Cornell University Press }}{{cite news |last=Shea|first=Jim|date=October 15, 1993|title=CBS Stands Out In Field, But It's Time To Move On0|url=https://www.courant.com/1993/10/15/cbs-stands-out-in-field-but-its-time-to-move-on/|newspaper=Hartford Courant}}{{cite book |last= Potter|first= W. James|title=Media Literacy|year= 2008|url=https://archive.org/details/medialiteracy00pott|url-access= registration|quote= cbs major league baseball 1990.|publisher=SAGE|page=[https://archive.org/details/medialiteracy00pott/page/319 319]|isbn= 9780761923152}} from their television contract with Major League Baseball. CBS repeatedly asked Major League Baseball for a rebate,{{cite news|title=In a 'Dear Bud' Letter, CBS Opposes Lockout|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1992/10/30/sports/baseball-in-a-dear-bud-letter-cbs-opposes-lockout.html?sec=&spon=&pagewanted=print|first=Murray|last=Chass|author-link=Murray Chass|newspaper=The New York Times|date=October 30, 1992}} however the league was not willing to do this. According to Curt Smith's book The Voice – Mel Allen's Untold Story, one CBS executive wore a St. Louis Cardinals cap at a 1988 Christmas party. However, by {{baseball year|1992}}, pining to shed baseball, that same executive wore a cap styled "One More Year."{{cite web |url=http://www.sportsbroadcastjournal.com/historian-curt-smith-examines-why-the-world-series-tv-ratings-have-dropped-since-1988/|title=Historian Curt Smith examines why the World Series TV ratings have dropped badly since 1988|last=Smith|first=Curt|date=October 29, 2018|website=Sports Broadcast Journal}}

CBS alienated{{cite book |last=Bryant|first=Howard|date= February 28, 2006|title=Juicing the Game: Drugs, Power, and the Fight for the Soul of Major League ...|publisher=Penguin |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Mwfo3ihBeawC&q=Major+League+Baseball+on+CBS+1990&pg=PT73|isbn= 9781440649554}} and confused fans with its sporadic treatment of regular season telecasts. With a sense of true continuity destroyed, fans eventually figured that they could not count on the network to satisfy their needs (thus, poor ratings were a result). CBS televised about 16 regular season Saturday afternoon games{{cite news |date=April 6, 1990|title=CBS Names Jack Buck to Replace Musburger for Baseball Telecasts|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1990-04-06-sp-802-story.html|newspaper=Los Angeles Times}} (not counting back-up telecasts) which was 14 less than what NBC televised during the previous contract. According to Commissioner Peter Ueberroth, the reason for the reduction in regular season telecasts was in order for teams to sell them locally in order to make a direct profit. CBS used the strategy of broadcasting only a select number of games in order to build a demand in response to supposedly sagging ratings. In theory, the limited regular season package would require the network to sell less advertising during the year so it can charge more for its postseason events.{{cite news|title=NBC's Longtime Baseball Spotlight Beginning to Dim|url=http://www.tulsaworld.com/archives/nbc-s-longtime-baseball-spotlight-beginning-to-dim/article_193cf999-02d0-578f-937f-c058d41948bd.html|first=Dan|last=O'Kane|newspaper=Tulsa World|date=July 7, 1989}}

In response to this, NBC Sports chairman Dick Ebersol grinned "I assume [its] baseball strategy has to be a big disappointment." Counting the All-Star Game, both League Championship Series and the World Series, CBS would have televised just 38 games.{{cite magazine |url=https://www.si.com/vault/1988/12/26/119133/a-whole-new-game-two-megabuck-tv-deals-may-change-the-face-of-baseball-for-good-or-not-so-good|title=A Whole New Game – Two megabuck TV deals may change the face of baseball for good, or not so good|date=December 26, 1988|magazine=Sports Illustrated}} This comes on the account of both League Championship Series and the World Series going to a full seven games. Ebersol criticized Peter Ueberroth for negotiating the four-year, $1.06 billion deal with CBS. According to Ebersol, Ueberroth was totally focused on business. Ebersol said "Ueberroth wanted his legacy to be the maximum amount of money. Baseball got this enormous overbid with CBS, coupled with expanding the cable package (on ESPN) from zero to four nights a week. Now, when they find themselves in trouble, they've got no place to expand. There just wasn't a lot of foresight. (Baseball was) just looking for the big score."{{cite news |last=Fleischman|first=Bill|date=October 30, 1992|title=TV Execs: Baseball's Price Isn't Right|url=http://articles.philly.com/1992-10-30/sports/26000795_1_neal-pilson-cbs-strategy-dick-ebersol|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150222114916/http://articles.philly.com/1992-10-30/sports/26000795_1_neal-pilson-cbs-strategy-dick-ebersol|url-status=dead|archive-date=February 22, 2015|newspaper=Philadelphia Daily News}}

In their first year in 1990,{{cite book |last=Nantz|first=Jim|date= May 6, 2008|title=Always by My Side: The Healing Gift of a Father's Love|publisher=Penguin |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7HB9N4KJNaAC&q=Major+League+Baseball+on+CBS+1990&pg=PT47|isbn= 9781440629723}} CBS Sports had a pretty loaded schedule{{YouTube|title=CBS Sports 90 – The Dream Season promos|id=p3VDg1X0hLI}} (much came at the expense of the regular season baseball coverage): the NBA Playoffs (the 1989–90 season marked CBS' final year with the NBA before the over-the-air package moved over to NBC), College World Series, and college football (like the NBA, CBS would lose the College Football Association (CFA) package soon after being awarded the Major League Baseball contract).

CBS never scheduled baseball on Masters weekend, and seldom on other weekends when it was scheduled to air a PGA Tour event. It was around this time that CBS started expanding its weekend coverage from two hours to three on weekends when there was no baseball, generally from 3:00 to 6:00 p.m. Eastern Time. Most of its baseball dates landed on weeks when other networks covered golf.

Marv Albert, who hosted NBC's baseball pregame show for many years said about CBS' baseball coverage "You wouldn't see a game for a month. Then you didn't know when CBS came back on." When interviewed by The New York Times in August 1989{{cite news |last=Viuker|first=Steve|date=August 27, 1989|title=Long Island Q & A: Marv Albert; The Voice of the New York Knicks, Rangers, and...|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1989/08/27/nyregion/long-island-q-a-marv-albert-the-voice-of-the-new-york-knicks.html|work=The New York Times|location= |access-date=}} Albert when asked, agreed with the notion regarding whether the average fan would be shut out of Major League Baseball with only 12 Saturday afternoon games being televised by CBS. He added that the then present major league regime might not have agreed to the same package. According to him, Major League Baseball, similar to the NBA, felt that limited exposure would be better for the game. In Albert's eyes, what CBS was doing was televising the regular season for the delight of carrying the All-Star Game, the playoffs, and the World Series.

Sports Illustrated joked that CBS stood for "Covers Baseball Sporadically". USA Today added that Jack Buck and Tim McCarver "may have to have a reunion before [their] telecast." Mike Lupica of the New York Daily News took it a step further by calling CBS' baseball deal "the Vietnam of sports television."

NBC play-by-play announcer Bob Costas believed that the fact that a large bulk of the regular season coverage ended up on cable (namely, ESPN{{cite book|title=The Cambridge Companion to Baseball|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aH0vrlA5K5UC&q=CBS|first=Curt|last=Smith|author-link=Curt Smith (author)|date = February 21, 2011|isbn= 9781139826204|page=234| publisher=Cambridge University Press }}) beginning in the 1990s was because CBS, when it took over the MLB the television rights from NBC in 1990, did not really want the Saturday Game of the Week. Many fans who did not appreciate CBS' approach to scheduling regular season baseball games{{cite news|title=Views of Sport; Fight Baseball's TV Fadeout|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1989/10/01/sports/views-of-sport-fight-baseball-s-tv-fadeout.html?sec=&spon=&pagewanted=print|first=Curt|last=Smith|newspaper=The New York Times|date=October 1, 1989}} believed that they were only truly after the marquee events{{cite news |last=Pergament|first=Alan|date=April 7, 1990|title=Major Leagues' Shift to CBS, ESPN Makes for a Brand New Ballgame on TV|url=https://buffalonews.com/1990/04/08/major-leagues-shift-to-cbs-espn-makes-for-a-brand-new-ballgame-on-tv/|work=The Buffalo News}} (namely, the All-Star Game, League Championship Series, and the World Series) in order to sell advertising space (especially the fall entertainment television schedule{{cite news |last=Mountford|first=Ed|date=December 24, 1988|title=Baseball Viewers Will Be at a Loss|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1988-12-24-sp-352-story.html|newspaper=The Los Angeles Times}}).

Costas{{cite news |last=Smith|first=Curt|date=March 21, 2022|title=Happy 70th birthday to Bob Costas! The prodigy can do anything; His zeal for baseball is irrepressible|url=https://www.sportsbroadcastjournal.com/happy-70th-birthday-to-bob-costas-the-prodigy-can-do-anything-and-his-zeal-for-baseball-is-irrepressible/|work=Sports Broadcast Journal|location= |access-date=}}{{cite news |title=Costas Prepares For (long) Offseason |url=http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/1989-10-07/sports/8902030046_1_bob-costas-broadcast-baseball-baseball-game |first=Jim |last=Sarni |newspaper=Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel |publisher=Tribune Publishing |date=October 7, 1989 |access-date=March 25, 2022 |archive-date=January 9, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150109090447/http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/1989-10-07/sports/8902030046_1_bob-costas-broadcast-baseball-baseball-game |url-status=dead }} had previously said that he would rather do a Game of the Week that got a 5 rating than host a Super Bowl.{{cite news |last=Sandomir|first=Richard|date=October 8, 1995|title=Bob Costas Calls It as He Regretfully Sees It|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1995/10/08/arts/television-bob-costas-calls-it-as-he-regretfully-sees-it.html|work=The New York Times}} "Who thought baseball killed its best way to reach the public? It coulda kept us and CBS – we'd have kept the 'Game'{{cite news |title=A Game A Week Helps |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1988/12/16/sports/sports-of-the-times-a-game-a-week-helps.html |first=George |last=Vecesy |newspaper=The New York Times |date=December 16, 1988}} – but it only cared about cash. Whatever else I did, I'd never have left 'Game of the Week' Costas claimed. Meanwhile, Tony Kubek,{{cite news |title=Kubek: NBC Deserved 'Allegiance' From Ueberroth in TV Bidding |newspaper=The Atlanta Journal and The Atlanta Constitution |page=B/7 |date=December 16, 1988}} who teamed with Bob Costas on NBC's baseball telecasts since 1983, said "I can't believe it!" when the subject came about NBC losing baseball for the first time since 1947.

The Toronto Blue Jays were in back-to-back World Series in their championship seasons of {{wsy|1992}}{{cite news |last=Greene |first=Jerry |date=October 16, 1992 |title=CBS Wanted Braves in Series But Not the Blue Jays As Much |url=https://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/os-xpm-1992-10-16-9210160151-story.html |access-date=February 9, 2016 |work=Orlando Sentinel |page=D2}} and {{wsy|1993}}, as well as the 1991 ALCS. All of CBS's postseason telecasts were simulcast on CTV (which earned CBS approximately $7.5 million per year) in Canada, and received very high ratings north of the border when the Blue Jays were involved. Unfortunately, Canada does not factor in the American Nielsen ratings so as a consequence, CBS earned the lowest U.S. ratings in over 20 years for a World Series (not counting the earthquake interrupted 1989 World Series that was televised by ABC). In any other World Series, viewership would have likely been higher since two American teams would have been involved, to say nothing of spikes to off-the-chart ratings shares in the two competing cities (especially in {{wsy|1991}}, when CBS was fortunate to cover the riveting, ultra intense, seven-game battle between the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves). Another reason behind the poor ratings likely had to do with the gradual attrition of the audience for almost all network programming.

The country at the time to the deal was going through a recession.{{cite news |last=Blum|first=Ronald|date=June 27, 2000|title=TV refuses baseball's demands|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1696&dat=20000627&id=vvoaAAAAIBAJ&pg=6727,3417735&hl=en|newspaper=Daily News}} More to the point, in 1990, CBS had asked for about $300,000 for 30-second spots during the World Series, but ended up filling some of its inventory for just $240,000.

CBS could not properly maximize the deal because the Division Series had not yet been created (thus automatically giving CBS more games to carry) and the network did not have a cable outlet to air some of the games (like Fox would eventually have with Fox Sports Net and later FS1). In reality, it competed with ESPN and local broadcasts outside of CBS' broadcast window. More postseason games could have increased the advertising inventory.{{cite news|title=When Ailing Pastime Meets TV Recession, Baseball Gets the K|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1992/10/21/sports/world-series-when-ailing-pastime-meets-tv-recession-baseball-gets-the-k.html?pagewanted=print|first=Richard|last=Sandomir|newspaper=The New York Times|date=October 21, 1992}} Both ABC and NBC{{cite magazine |last=Steinbreder|first=John|date=August 20, 1990|title=ESPN'S Baseball Ratings Blues|url=https://www.si.com/vault/1990/08/20/122474/espns-baseball-ratings-blues-the-cable-networks-diamond-draws-have-been-a-downer|magazine=Sports Illustrated}} lost money on their in-season games the last three years of their respective Major League Baseball television contracts ({{baseball year|1987}}–{{baseball year|1989}}).

It should also be noted that CBS' baseball coverage came about just prior to the league making some major changes and innovations, beginning with the mid-1990s. Besides the aforementioned addition of a third round of postseason play called the Division Series, which doubled the number of playoff teams at the time from four to eight, there was also a renaissance in stadium construction. This began in {{baseball year|1992}}, when Baltimore's Oriole Park at Camden Yards opened. Camden Yards (which was showcased by CBS in their final year with baseball in {{baseball year|1993}}, when they broadcast the All-Star Game) led to many other fan (and revenue) friendly ballparks being built, and helped expand interest in the game. Instead, CBS was for the most part, handed a declining product that was played in many outdated cookie cutter stadiums.

CBS simply made far too high of a bid{{cite magazine|title=A Whole New Game|url=http://cnnsi.printthis.clickability.com/pt/cpt?action=cpt&title=Two+megabuck+TV+deals+may+change+the+face+of+baseball+-+12.26.88+-+SI+Vault&expire=&urlID=425469833&fb=Y&url=http%3A%2F%2Fsportsillustrated.cnn.com%2Fvault%2Farticle%2Fmagazine%2FMAG1068137%2F2%2Findex.htm&partnerID=289881|author=William Oscar Johnson|first2=William|last2=Taaffe|magazine=Sports Illustrated|date=December 26, 1988}}{{cite book |last=Mogel|first=Leonard|date= August 2010|title=Making It in Broadcasting|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Pe_HcTD16RgC&q=major+league+baseball+on+cbs+1993&pg=PA136|page=136|publisher=Leonard Mogel |isbn= 9780982959657}}{{cite news |last=Blackistone|first=Kevin B.|date=February 24, 1991|title=CBS' dream season turned to nightmare on W. 52nd St.|url=https://www.baltimoresun.com/1991/02/24/cbs-dream-season-turned-to-nightmare-on-w-52nd-st/|newspaper=The Baltimore Sun}} (especially for a network that wound up frustrating fans with its lack of regular season coverage) and sustained a shortfall in advertising revenue. Perhaps it is somewhat ironic that back in {{mlby|1987}}, CBS Sports president Neal Pilson{{cite news |last= Sandomir|first=Richard|date=March 22, 1994|title=CBS's Pilson: Hit Man Leaveth|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1994/03/22/sports/tv-sports-cbs-s-pilson-hit-man-leaveth.html|newspaper=The New York Times}} said of ABC's then ongoing contract with Major League Baseball "Three years ago, we believed ABC's package was overpriced by $175 million. We still believe it's overpriced by $175 million."{{cite news|title=Quiet Talks for Baseball|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1987/02/10/sports/tv-sports-quiet-talks-for-baseball.html?scp=1&sq=Major+League+Baseball+on+ABC&st=nyt&pagewanted=print|first=Michael|last=Goodwin|newspaper=The New York Times|date=February 10, 1987}} Whereas from 1976 to 1989, ABC split the television contract with NBC, and therefore logically, split the financial risks, CBS in sharp contrast, aggressively negotiated exclusive postseason rights. In December 1988, Arthur Watson,{{cite book |last=Johnson|first=Derek|date= January 3, 2018|title=From Networks to Netflix: A Guide to Changing Channels|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hyhFDwAAQBAJ&q=cbs+major+league+baseball+1992&pg=PT173|publisher=Routledge|isbn= 9781317331667}} the president of NBC Sports, criticized CBS saying "We made every effort to keep it. Regretfully, someone bid far more than was responsible. Everybody evaluates things differently. That bid was beyond our reach. Let them explain that bid."{{cite news|title=CBS Pays $1.1 Billion For Exclusive Baseball|url=http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/1988-12-15/sports/8803120190_1_cbs-exclusive-rights-lcs-baseball-package|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150109095121/http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/1988-12-15/sports/8803120190_1_cbs-exclusive-rights-lcs-baseball-package|url-status=dead|archive-date=January 9, 2015|first=Jim|last=Sarni|journal=Sun Sentinel|date=December 15, 1988}}

For their inaugural season in 1990, CBS lost between US$75 million and $80 million{{cite news|title=CBS admits mistake: CBS Inc. Chairman Laurence A. Tisch...|url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/1991/05/09/cbs-admits-mistake-cbs-inc-chairman-laurence/|newspaper=Chicago Tribune|date=May 9, 1991|access-date=October 8, 2013}} More to the point, CBS as previously mentioned, took a $55-million after-tax{{cite news |last=Lippman|first=John|date=November 2, 1991|title=CBS Takes Huge Writeoff on Sports: Earnings: High-priced contracts for baseball and football coverage are blamed for a loss of $169.1 million.|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1991-11-02-fi-803-story.html|newspaper=Los Angeles Times}} loss for its 1990 playoff and World Series coverage and a $115 million charge against earnings in the fourth quarter for losses during the remaining three years of its $1.06 billion contract.{{cite news |last=Herbert |first=Steven |date=April 7, 1991 |title=Covering All the Bases |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1991-04-07-tv-53-story.html |url-access=subscription |url-status=live |archive-url=https://archive.today/20250315014455/https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1991-04-07-tv-53-story.html |archive-date=2025-03-15 |access-date=2025-03-15 |newspaper=Los Angeles Times}}

In 1991, it cost CBS $4.8 million per game in venue productions alone to televise the National League Championship Series, not including studio backup operations or the satellite time needed to transmit the game to New York City for broadcast on their network frequencies. The American League Championship Series (between the Minnesota Twins and Toronto Blue Jays) was another problem because of the tariffs and labor laws they had to endure going into Canada. CBS averaged $1.9 to $2.4 million{{cite web |url=https://groups.google.com/forum/#!searchin/rec.sport.baseball/CBS$201991/rec.sport.baseball/n1EBRoG3lYQ/WdNpKVFRgdsJ|title=I'm sorry, Jays didn't show me much |date=October 29, 1992|website=rec.sport.baseball}} per regular season game. In return, it was typical for the production cost to double come playoff time. Ultimately, CBS reported a loss of around $169 million in the third quarter of 1991. A drop of in advertiser interest caused revenue from the sale of ads during CBS' baseball telecasts to plummet. All the while, CBS was still contractually obligated to pay Major League Baseball around $260 million a year through 1993.{{cite book|title=Stee-Rike Four!: What's Wrong With the Business of Baseball?|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=R4fBTgkTMKYC&q=The+Baseball+Network|first=Daniel R.|last=Marburger|page=57 |year= 1997| publisher=Bloomsbury Academic |isbn=9780275957063}}

Back in 1990, when CBS first launched their baseball coverage, Major League Baseball according to CBS Sports senior producer Ed Goren,{{cite news |last=Sandomir|first=Richard|date=May 29, 1996|title=Hidden Cameras, Wired Bases|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1996/05/29/sports/tv-sports-hidden-cameras-wired-bases.html|work=The New York Times|location= |access-date=}} did not have any atmosphere for discussion on how to improve the game. They retorted to Goran by saying "'This is the national pastime and it's fun the way it is.'" CBS however, would secretly install microphones in bullpens after Major League Baseball turned down their request.

When CBS broadcast the 1990 All-Star Game from Chicago's Wrigley Field, they arrived{{cite news |last=Kogan|first=Rick|date=July 11, 1990|title=CBS Wanted a Knockout, But Got a Washout on Its First All-Star|url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1990-07-11-9002260774-story.html|work=Chicago Tribune|location= |access-date=}} with four 48-foot vans, a 40-foot trailer, two 60-foot office trailers and a 48-foot maintenance vehicle; 18 cameras positioned around and moving about the ballpark. Rick Kogan of the Chicago Tribune wrote that while CBS' 1990 All-Star Game telecast did not display any grievous gaffes, on almost every level it was workmanlike to the point of being mundane.

After Boston Red Sox pitcher Roger Clemens was pulled out of a 1990 American League Championship Series game and Jim Gray interviewed him on CBS, MLB's public relations department was upset when they found out that CBS intended to run it before the game ended. CBS Sports executive producer Ted Shaker also recalled the time that MLB said that they went too far in regards to CBS experimenting with a tiny camera on an umpire's face mask. Come that year's World Series, CBS announced that they would have 16 cameras and 12 videotape machines ready to cover the moment.

CBS all around, was criticized in 1990 for placing their cameras too tight in certain situations and not giving viewers a greater sense of what it is like to be at the ballpark. Ted Nathanson,{{cite news |last=Lapointe|first=Joe|date=October 16, 1990|title=For CBS's First Series: Expect a Bounty of Cameras|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1990/10/16/sports/for-cbs-s-first-series-expect-a-bounty-of-cameras.html|work=The New York Times|location= |access-date=}} who served as a director for NBC's coverage of postseason baseball before CBS bought the rights, said in regards to CBS' World Series coverage "What they are doing is wrong, in my opinion. They are losing the relationship of the action by using too many close-ups when the ball is in play." For example, Nathanson noted that CBS would cover a ground ball to shortstop by first using a camera with a medium view from a high position and then switching to a similar camera position for a tight closeup. According to him "By the time they cut to the close-up of the shortstop, he's thrown the ball already so it looks like a jump-cut. It's impossible for a director to cut that fast. It looks like a glitch." Nathanson suggested that CBS' high camera should have gradually tightened in on the shortstop and then pan toward first base as the ball is thrown. If there was something important to be shown in close-up, they would have it on replay.

Nathanson also criticized camera work in regards to when the ball was in the outfield and runners were circling the bases. He said that "They cut to the baserunners and they are not getting the relationship of the ball being fielded and thrown to the bases. If you are not a TV director, you don't know exactly what's wrong, but you know something is not quite right." Harry Coyle, who was NBC's top baseball director from 1947-1988 and cited as writing the book on how to show baseball on television, agreed with Nathanson about the camera close-ups, but he thought that the overall effort has been good. Coyle said that CBS got in too tight once in a while. His premise had always been to follow the ball. But, on the whole, Coyle gave CBS high marks. He said that they were lucky they got the playoffs to do first so it gave them a lot of experience for the World Series.

While Arne Harris, who produced and directed 150 Chicago Cubs games a season since 1964 for WGN Television, said that he had no problem with tight closeups, he still felt that CBS had trouble getting into the flow of the game. According to Harris, baseball is the toughest sport to cover because two things happen at the same time. The ball is in the hands of the defense and the runner is moving in a different part of the field. Harris added that he knew that CBS got some problems, but it is all a matter of experience.

For the 1991 postseason, CBS announced{{cite news |last=Hasen|first=Jeff|date=October 7, 1991|title=Baseball ratings could belt CBS|url=https://www.upi.com/Archives/1991/10/07/Baseball-ratings-could-belt-CBS/8934686808000/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210410091236/https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:6X9N7LW70O4J:https://www.upi.com/Archives/1991/10/07/Baseball-ratings-could-belt-CBS/8934686808000/+&cd=31&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us|url-status=dead|archive-date=April 10, 2021|work=UPI|location= |access-date=}} that they would be using up to 11 cameras in the League Championship Series and 14 for the World Series. According to producer Ric LaCivita, CBS' production division in its entirety had been impacted by a recession.{{cite news |last=Nidetz|first=Steve|date=October 11, 1991|title=CBS 'Camera Shy' for Playoff Games|url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1991-10-11-9104020107-story.html|work=Chicago Tribune|location= |access-date=}} So they had to do a telecast with less.{{cite news |last=Deacon|first=James|date=October 21, 1991|title=Ball-park figures|url=https://archive.macleans.ca/article/1991/10/21/ball-park-figures|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210410091243/https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:ZSf-aC5gv7cJ:https://archive.macleans.ca/article/1991/10/21/ball-park-figures+&cd=15&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us|url-status=dead|archive-date=April 10, 2021|work=Maclean's|location= |access-date=}} To give you a better idea, during the 1991 regular season, CBS would've been unable to use a super-slow-motion camera behind home plate unlike during the League Championship Series and World Series. According to director Bob Fishman, the $250,000 camera (which was capable of capturing 90 frames per second) and tape machine that created the shots were a luxury item. Therefore, Game 1 of the American League Championship Series would mark the first time that they would be using it on baseball all year. It during the 1991 World Series{{cite news |last=Pergament|first=Alan|date=October 29, 1991|title=Seven Game Series Gives CBS a Much Needed Morale Boost|url=https://buffalonews.com/news/seven-game-series-gives-cbs-a-much-needed-morale-boost/article_a30cc96b-2f2b-51f0-b8d9-37f2dd05c9da.html|work=The Buffalo News|location= |access-date=}} that CBS unveiled Supervision,{{cite news |last=Shapiro|first=Leonard|date=October 22, 1991|title=CBS Finally Finding Strike Zone on Billion-Dollar Baseball Deal|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/sports/1991/10/22/cbs-finally-finding-strike-zone-on-billion-dollar-baseball-deal/0e789666-9e77-4758-ad9e-8a24da455d0d/|newspaper=The Washington Post|location= |access-date=}} which was device that that used animation to show the flight and speed of a pitch.

In conjunction with Super Bowl XXVI on January 26, 1992, CBS unveiled a new network-wide graphics package for its sports coverage. With a few minor tweaks, the red, white, and blue graphic displays stayed in place until 1996, when CBS rolled out a new orange and yellow package.

CBS was cited{{cite news |last= |first= |date=May 2, 1992|title=CBS seems to have robots in the booth|url=https://www.baltimoresun.com/news/bs-xpm-1992-05-02-1992123062-story.html|work=The Baltimore Sun|location= |access-date=}} for failing to show Dwight Smith's game-winning double for the Chicago Cubs in their 1992 baseball opener on April 18 against the St. Louis Cardinals. During that same telecast, the camera was on St. Louis trainer camera was on Gene Gieselmann long before analyst Tim McCarver said his name. Meanwhile, the Cardinals' batting order was presented for the bottom of the first inning—a different version than had been presented a half-inning earlier. Play-by-play announcer Sean McDonough however, presented the new lineup without acknowledging it had changed.

During an interview with Richard Sandomir of the New York Times on July 14, 1992, Ric LaCivita not only previewed what CBS had in store for their upcoming broadcast of that year's All-Star Game from San Diego, which would feature 16 cameras, imbedded in the first base bag (which would allow viewers to be able to see the runner dive back to the bag{{cite news |last=Nidetz|first=Steve|date=July 10, 1992|title=Controversy Strikes All-Star Game Again|url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1992-07-10-9203020490-story.html|work=Chicago Tribune|location= |access-date=}}), and two in blimps, but responded to the various criticisms that CBS received concerning their postseason coverage from the year prior.

On the argument that CBS overused replays, including as many as 133 in Game 6 of the 1991 National League Championship Series, LaCivita said "The number of replays has nothing to do with how you replay. You could use five or 500 and be right. . . . Replays re-create a play or keep the viewer's attention from going forward to something else. Viewers can't appreciate everything until the replays are over. If it's an ordinary replay, you don't replay it." When asked about why CBS cut to a tight, low first-base camera, rather than a higher, more inclusive shot, to cover Mark Lemke of the Atlanta Braves eluding Minnesota Twins catcher Brian Harper's tag to end Game 4 of the World Series, LaCivita said "Joe Aceti"—the director -- "made the right cut. Jack Buck said the game was over. Joe made his decision to cover him coming low across the plate. The mistake started with the call. To this day, the executive producer"—Ted Shaker -- "and I disagreed. You saw it from five different angles until we could identify where Harper's elbow was." As for the criticism from Harry Coyle about over-replays and dubious angles, LaCivita responded by saying "We've had extraordinary coverage of difficult plays that I'm not sure Mr. Coyle would have had. I don't know if they would have had the Lonnie Smith play in Game 7"—in which he was decoyed by the Twins' Chuck Knoblauch -- "because their cameras covered the ball and ours cover the baserunners. Those guys from the 50's weren't risk-takers. I'm a risk-taker."

When assessing CBS' coverage of the 1992 postseason, Jerry Trecker of the Hartford Courant wrote that their baseball coverage was at its best pictorially. Trecker said that the usage of close-ups, although criticized in some quarters, was powerful and conveyed the game's tense moments better than any turn of an announcer's phrase. He went further by saying that a better selection of replays, including a judicious use of super slow-motion views, had elevated the network's coverage since it struggled in the first year of their contract. Trecker also made note that even though CBS had finally developed a fine sense of the rhythm of baseball come 1992, the network still occasionally spent too much time on irrelevant crowd shots. Not only that, but CBS in Trecker's eyes, didn't seem confident enough to let Sean McDonough and booth partner Tim McCarver roam and ramble through the game. Instead, there were too many graphics that had to be explained and too many "little notes" that somebody thought are important.

Whereas CBS used six cameras for their regular season coverage by 1993, they planned on using 13 for that year's All-Star Game in Baltimore. CBS also planned to take advantage of the remote camera atop the Baltimore & Ohio Warehouse at Camden Yards, that provided panoramic views on the Orioles' games that were broadcast on Home Team Sports. Producer Bob Dekas even wanted to put microphones on All-Star managers Cito Gaston of the American League and Bobby Cox of the National League. The audio wouldn't be live, but CBS still had to gain permission from Major League Baseball.

Sonny Dearth of the Daily Press wrote{{cite news |last=Dearth|first=Sonny|date=October 15, 1993|title=CBS Gets Good Marks for Baseball Coverage, Except for 2 Things|url=https://www.dailypress.com/news/dp-xpm-19931015-1993-10-15-9310150279-story.html|work=Daily Press|location= |access-date=}} that while CBS' coverage of the 1993 baseball playoffs was insightful and generally good, he did note that the camera from center field and the one from high above the plate often didn't agree on whether some pitches were balls or strikes, thus confusing the viewer. Dearth also wondered why the director had to show Philadelphia Phillies first basemen John Kruk's ripped pants (with the camera focused below the belt) so many times in Game 6 of the National League Championship Series.

Prior to the start of the 1993 World Series, CBS announced{{cite news |last=Shea|first=Jim|date=October 15, 1993|title=CBS Stands Out in Field, But It's Time to Move On|url=https://www.courant.com/news/connecticut/hc-xpm-1993-10-15-0000003431-story.html|work=Hartford Courant|location= |access-date=}} that they would use 14 cameras to cover the Series, including a controversial one located above the plate that was intended on providing excellent shots of the strike zone. Before Game 6 of the NLCS, CBS had discussions with National League president Bill White, who asked the network to only use the camera "judiciously."{{cite news |last=Nidetz|first=Steve|date=October 18, 1993|title=CBS Balks at Pitch to Ban Overhead Camera|url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1993-10-18-9310180022-story.html|work=Chicago Tribune|location= |access-date=}} This was after White had been approached by the Major League Umpires Association, which said the camera was being used to second-guess and "show up" the plate umpires' calls of balls and strikes.

In 2020, Ed Goren said to the New York Business Journal{{cite news |last=Prisbell|first=Eric|date=October 22, 2020|title=Fox and Major League Baseball: Quarter-century of culture change|url=https://www.bizjournals.com/newyork/news/2020/10/22/fox-and-major-league-baseball-quarter-century-of.html|work= |location= |access-date=}} that in the four years that Major League Baseball was on CBS, the attitude of baseball was that they were America's game. They however according to Goren, lacked innovation; they fought innovation. By the time that Fox came on board in 1996, part of what they were looking for was innovation. Therefore, among the immediate changes Fox brought were the FoxBox, which showed the score, the runners on base and the count at all times; frequent and extreme close ups of players; and the use of a hard-rock, guitar-heavy theme music.

On the July 2, 2011, edition of CBS Sports Spectacular, TBS' Atlanta-based Major League Baseball studio crew of Matt Winer, Dennis Eckersley, Cal Ripken Jr. and David Wells presented a 2011 Major League Baseball midseason report.{{cite web|title=CBS Sports Spectacular To Borrow Turner Sports MLB Crew on Saturday|url=http://fangsbites.com/2011/06/cbs-sports-spectacular-to-borrow-turner-sports-mlb-crew-on-saturday/|first=Ken|last=Fang|work=Fangsbites.com|publisher=WordPress|date=June 30, 2011|access-date=July 1, 2011|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111017051622/http://fangsbites.com/2011/06/cbs-sports-spectacular-to-borrow-turner-sports-mlb-crew-on-saturday/|archive-date=October 17, 2011}} This was followed by MLB 2011: Down the Stretch, which aired on September 24.{{cite web |date=September 21, 2011 |title=CBS Spectacular and TBS Look at MLB's Stretch Drive on Saturday, Sept. 24 |url=https://www.paramountpressexpress.com/cbs-sports/releases/?view=29223 |access-date=2025-03-15 |work=CBS PressExpress}} CBS Sports and Turner Sports have also partnered on coverage of the NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament and in the past, on the Winter Olympics in 1992, 1994 and 1998. On August 29, 2012, The New York Times reported a potential alliance between CBS and TBS{{cite web |url=http://www.sportsmediawatch.com/2012/09/which-tv-networks-will-win-baseballs-version-of-musical-chairs/|title=Which TV Network(s) Will Win Baseball's Version of Musical Chairs?|last1=Paulsen|date=September 3, 2012|website=Sports Media Watch}} on a Major League Baseball television contract beginning in 2014.{{cite web|title=NYT: CBS, In "Alliance" With TBS, Involved in MLB TV Talks|url=http://www.sportsmediawatch.com/2012/08/nyt-cbs-in-alliance-with-tbs-involved-in-mlb-tv-talks/|work=Sports Media Watch|date=August 29, 2012|access-date=August 29, 2012}} According to the Times report, CBS "would most likely want only the All-Star Game and World Series," an arrangement almost similar to the one NBC had with Major League Baseball from 1996 to 2000. On September 19, 2012, Sports Business Daily{{cite web|title=Fox, Turner To Renew MLB Packages; MLB Net Could Get LDS Games|url=http://www.sportsbusinessdaily.com/Daily/Closing-Bell/2012/09/19/MLB-TV.aspx|first1=John|last1=Ourand|first2=Eric|last2=Fisher|work=SportsBusinessDaily|date=September 19, 2012|access-date=September 20, 2012}}{{cite web|title=SBD: Fox, Turner, Will Keep Current MLB TV Packages; Fox Sports 1 Will Get Games|url=http://www.sportsmediawatch.com/2012/09/sbd-fox-turner-will-keep-current-mlb-tv-packages-fox-sports-1-will-get-games/|work=Sports Media Watch|date=September 19, 2012|access-date=September 20, 2012}} reported that Major League Baseball would agree to separate eight-year television deals{{cite web|title=A Look at The New MLB TV Deals|url=http://fangsbites.com/2012/09/a-look-at-the-new-mlb-tv-deals/|first=Ken|last=Fang|work=Fang's Bites|date=September 24, 2012|access-date=September 28, 2012|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120926220210/http://fangsbites.com/2012/09/a-look-at-the-new-mlb-tv-deals/|archive-date=September 26, 2012}} with Fox Sports and Turner Sports{{cite web|title=Turner and Fox to Retain MLB Rights|url=http://www.awfulannouncing.com/2012-articles/september/turner-and-fox-to-retain-mlb-rights.html|first=Joe|last=Lucia|work=AwfulAnnouncing.com|date=September 20, 2012|access-date=September 20, 2012}} through the 2021 season.

On May 19, 2015, CBS Sports Network{{cite web |url=http://theamerican.org/news/2015/4/20/BASE_0420CBSSN.aspx|title=CBS Sports Network, American Athletic Conference Announce Baseball Television Package|date=April 20, 2015 }} resurrected CBS Sports' Major League Baseball theme music{{YouTube|title=CBS Sports MLB Theme Music|id=7NruHsTLETk}} for the first time since Game 6 of the 1993 World Series for the American Athletic Conference Championship.{{cite web |url=https://www.facebook.com/CBSSports/videos/10153115817331773/|title=We're bringing back CBS Sports' old MLB theme music (first time since 1993 World Series!) for tonight's American Athletic Conference Championship on CBS Sports Network.|date=May 19, 1993|website=Facebook – CBS Sports}} Under the terms of the package, CBS Sports Network would air three Houston Baseball games in 2015, as well as the first two contests of the 2015 American Athletic Conference Baseball Championship. Carter Blackburn provided play-by-play for all seven games of the package, while analyst duties would be handled Darryl Hamilton and Ray King along with Brandon Tierney.

{{see also|CBS News and Stations|Owned-and-operated television stations in the United States|Historical Major League Baseball over-the-air television broadcasters}}

WBZ-TV has aired local sporting events over the years, that have originated either in-house, or through NBC or CBS. Besides the Braves (from 1948 until the team moved to Milwaukee before the 1953 season) and the Red Sox (1948–1957, 1972–1974, and a handful of games in 2003 and 2004, along with certain games aired nationally on NBC from 1948 to 1989).

As previously mentioned, as an ABC station, WJZ-TV broadcast limited Baltimore Orioles games via ABC's MLB broadcast contract from 1976 to 1989.

During the 1980s, KPIX was the flagship station for the Oakland Athletics baseball team (at times preempting or delaying CBS network shows for the live broadcasts), before the A's broadcasts moved to then-NBC affiliate KRON-TV the early 1990s; select A's and San Francisco Giants games were aired on KPIX from 1990 to 1993 as part of CBS' MLB broadcast contract.

In 2002, WCBS-TV acquired the over-the-air rights to New York Yankees baseball games, replacing Fox owned-and-operated station WNYW. The games, produced by the new YES Network, remained in the station until the 2004 season; the rights moved to UPN affiliate (now MyNetworkTV owned-and-operated station) WWOR-TV beginning in 2005. It also aired any Yankee or Met games as part of CBS' MLB broadcast contract from 1990 to 1993.

{{reflist|30em}}

• {{official website|http://www.cbssports.com/mlb}}
• {{IMDb title|7023344|MLB on CBS}}
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20190216094409/http://sabrmedia.org/databases/network-tv-broadcasts/searchable-network-tv-broadcasts/ Searchable Network TV Broadcasts]

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