# Major League Baseball on Fox Family

Major League Baseball (MLB) games aired on the predecessor networks for the American pay television channel Freeform. These began in 2000, when the channel was known as Fox Family Channel, co-owned by News Corporation and Haim Saban, as a replacement for Thursday night games that had aired on Fox Sports Net in prior seasons. The package also included some games in the postseason Division Series. After The Walt Disney Company bought the channel in 2001, renaming it to ABC Family, the games were moved to the Disney-owned ESPN channels, although the 2002 Division Series games that had been acquired as part of the purchase remained on ABC Family because of existing contractual obligations. Those games moved to ESPN the following year as well.

## Background

In 1997, as part of its contract with Major League Baseball, Fox Sports began to show games on its national network of regional sports networks, Fox Sports Net (FSN), which was given rights to two Thursday night games per week, one for the Eastern and Central time zones and one for the Mountain and Pacific time zones, though these games were often preempted in markets where they conflicted with the FSN affiliate's coverage of a local team.

### Fox Family's coverage

In 2000, the former FSN coverage passed to Fox Family Channel on an alternating basis with then-sister network FX and was reduced to one game per week.
Starting with the 2001 season, Fox Family also carried games from the Division Series that did not air on the Fox broadcast network. Among the games that aired on Fox Family included one between the San Francisco Giants and the Houston Astros on October 4, 2001, in which Barry Bonds hit his 70th home run of the season, tying the all-time single season record that Mark McGwire had set only three years earlier.

#### Commentators

Play-by-play announcers for the FSN/Fox Family coverage included Kenny Albert, Thom Brennaman, Chip Caray, Josh Lewin, and Steve Physioc. Color analysts included Bob Brenly, Kevin Kennedy, Steve Lyons, and Jeff Torborg.
Other commentators included:
* Rod Allen (analyst)
* Bert Blyleven (analyst)
* Dick Bremer (play-by-play)
* Joe Buck (play-by-play)
* George Frazier (analyst)
* Kirk Gibson (analyst)
* Keith Hernandez (analyst)
* Rex Hudler (analyst)
* Mike Krukow (analyst)
* Duane Kuiper (play-by-play)
* Tim McCarver (analyst)
* Dan McLaughlin (field reporter)
* Rick Monday (analyst)
* Brianne O'Leary (field reporter)
* Ross Porter (play-by-play)
* Mel Proctor (play-by-play)
* Matt Vasgersian (play-by-play)

#### Regular season schedule (2001)

NOTE: The Thursday night telecasts on Fox Family were subject to blackout in the local markets of participating teams.
| Date | Teams | Play-by-play | Color commentator(s) | Field reporter(s) |
| April 5 | Boston Red Sox @ Baltimore Orioles | Kenny Albert | Steve Lyons | Dan McLaughlin |
| April 12 | Cleveland Indians @ Detroit Tigers | Kenny Albert | Kevin Kennedy | |
| April 19 | New York Yankees @ Toronto Blue Jays | Kenny Albert | Steve Lyons | |
| April 26 | Anaheim Angels @ Cleveland Indians | Steve Physioc | Kevin Kennedy | Dan McLaughlin |
| May 3 | Los Angeles Dodgers @ Cincinnati Reds (Dodgers' local feed) | Ross Porter | Rick Monday | |
| May 10 | Seattle Mariners @ Boston Red Sox Florida Marlins @ Los Angeles Dodgers | Kenny Albert Steve Physioc | Jeff Torborg Steve Lyons | |
| May 17 | St. Louis Cardinals @ Pittsburgh Pirates | Kenny Albert | Kevin Kennedy | Dan McLaughlin |
| May 24 | Florida Marlins @ New York Mets | Matt Vasgersian | Jeff Torborg | Brianne O'Leary |
| May 31 | Boston Red Sox @ Toronto Blue Jays | Kenny Albert | Kevin Kennedy | Brianne O'Leary |
| June 7 | Baltimore Orioles @ New York Yankees | Kenny Albert | Kevin Kennedy | |
| June 14 | Cincinnati Reds @ Chicago White Sox | Josh Lewin | Kevin Kennedy | |
| June 21 | Minnesota Twins @ Cleveland Indians (Twins' local feed) | Dick Bremer | Bert Blyleven | |
| June 28 | Oakland Athletics @ Seattle Mariners | Josh Lewin | Kevin Kennedy | |
| July 5 | New York Yankees @ Baltimore Orioles | Josh Lewin | Kevin Kennedy | |
| July 12 | Boston Red Sox @ New York Mets | Kenny Albert | Kevin Kennedy | |
| July 19 | New York Yankees @ Detroit Tigers | Kenny Albert | Kevin Kennedy | |
| July 26 | Toronto Blue Jays @ Boston Red Sox | Kenny Albert | Kevin Kennedy | |
| August 2 | Oakland Athletics @ Cleveland Indians | Kenny Albert | Kevin Kennedy | |
| August 9 | San Francisco Giants @ Cincinnati Reds | Kenny Albert | Kevin Kennedy | |
| August 16 | Seattle Mariners @ Boston Red Sox | Josh Lewin | Kevin Kennedy | |
| August 23 | Detroit Tigers @ Seattle Mariners | Kenny Albert | Keith Hernandez | |
| August 27 | Boston Red Sox @ Cleveland Indians | Josh Lewin | Kevin Kennedy | |
| September 6 | Cleveland Indians @ Boston Red Sox | Josh Lewin | Kirk Gibson | |
| September 20 | Houston Astros @ San Francisco Giants | Duane Kuiper | Mike Krukow | |
| September 27 | Houston Astros @ Chicago Cubs | Josh Lewin | Kevin Kennedy | |
| October 4 | San Francisco Giants @ Houston Astros | Josh Lewin | George Frazier | |

### ABC Family

After Disney bought Fox Family in 2001 and renamed it ABC Family, the Thursday games were folded into the ESPN Major League Baseball rights package (and subsequently shifted to weekday afternoon "DayGame" broadcasts). However, the Division Series games aired on ABC Family (with ESPN's announcers, graphics, and music) for 2002 because of inherited contractual obligations. The only usage of the ABC Family "bug" was for a ten-second period when returning from a commercial break in the lower right corner of the screen. The following year, the Division Series games also shifted to ESPN.
Game 2 (played on October 2) of the Minnesota–Oakland playoff series in 2002 started on ESPN2 because the San Francisco–Atlanta game (which started at 1 p.m. Eastern Time) ran over the three-hour time window. The game was eventually switched back to ABC Family once the early game ended.

#### Commentators

* Chris Berman (play-by-play)
* Tony Gwynn (analyst)
* Brian Kenny (field reporter)
* Gary Miller (field reporter)
* Jon Miller (play-by-play)
* Joe Morgan (analyst)
* Dave O'Brien (play-by-play)
* Jeremy Schaap (field reporter)
* Mark Schwartz (field reporter)
* Rick Sutcliffe (analyst)