Sadder Moment: CBS Losing the NFL (1993-94) or NBC Losing Baseball (1989)

[TMC]

Both cases represented the end of an era obviously. Up until January 23, 1994 (the NFC Title Game between the Dallas Cowboys and San Francisco 49ers), CBS had televised the National Football Conference since 1956. Meanwhile, leading up to Game 5 of the 1989 National League Championship Series (October 9) NBC had televised Major League Baseball in one shape or form consecutively since 1947.

CBS losing the NFL was probably the worst moment in the history of particular sports division. And they suffered a great deal during the four plus years without football. They lost numerous affiliates to Fox (who in turn, gained a large amount of credibility at CBS' expense) as well as ratings. It could be considered that the lost of the NFL was the tipping point of a downturn (management wise at least) that began when they signed that huge deal with Major League Baseball (which CBS would ultimately regret fianacially at least), followed by the controversial firing of Brent Musburger, them losing the NBA to NBC after 17 years of service, and the outser of Jack Buck on their baseball coverage.

CBS would get the NFL back in 1998 (and they're still struggling a bit to find their footing), but by then, it seemed like the landscape from a promotional and/or presentation standpoint had changed (perhaps mainly under Fox's influence). It can be suggested that just like the early years of "The NFL on FOX" was essentially a continuation of the original "NFL on CBS" program (since they had on camera people like Pat Summerall, John Madden, Terry Bradshaw, James Brown, Dick Stockton, and Matt Millen) as well as some beind the scenes people (such as Ed Goren), "NBC Sunday Night Football" with Al Michaels and John Madden is essentially a continuation of ABC's "Monday Night Football."

I would say that NBC losing baseball marked the beginning of the end of over-the-air TV network's relevance as a Major League Baseball broadcaster. Because prior to 1990, we got a nationally televised Saturday afternoon "Game of the Week" (on NBC) throughout the season as well as a nationally televised, prime time series (on ABC). The most obvious example (in terms of how irrelevent over-the-air TV networks viewed Major League Baseball) of this was with CBS' successor, "The Baseball Network." CBS' deal coincided to the rise of ESPN and later down the road, TBS.

While, NBC would get baseball back (1994-2000) much like CBS would get the NFL back, NBC never really viewed Major League Baseball as a marquee package on their network. It was as if, they now viewed MLB as the redheaded stepchild to their Olympics, NBA and NFL coverage. I mean, they never showed regular season games (following "The Baseball Network" trial in 1994-1995), they rarely promoted the baseball coverage outside of the coverage itself, and even their own people (i.e. Don Ohlmeyer) were disparaging NBC's choice to broadcast baseball.

Before the NFL started cracking down on clips posted on the internet, YouTube had clips from CBS' last NFL telecast (the 1993-94 NFC Championship Game on January 23, 1994) before Fox was going to take over. The clip had the final wrap up with Greg Gumbel, Terry Bradshaw, Pat Summerall and John Madden.

John Madden said that "they could take football away from CBS but they couldn't take away the memories." During ABC's last "Monday Night Football" telecast, he said something of similar effect, but not as downbeat sounding as he did on CBS. Greg Gumbel seemed to be the most upset of the four over the fact that CBS was about to lose the NFL. Gumbel with Terry Bradshaw (who seemed to be more perspective and optomistic than Gumbel) by his side, relunctantly signed off of "The NFL on CBS" one last time.

They wrapped up the broadcast with a photo montage (set to sad, overwraught violin and piano music) of memorable personalities (e.g. Summerall and Madden, Gumbel and Bradshaw, Brent Musburger, Frank Glieber with Roger Staubach, Ray Scott, Jack Buck and Frank Gifford at the "Ice Bowl") and moments such as Vin Scully calling Dwight Clark's "Catch."

Not to sound corny or anything, but it was a very emotional moment for those who've grown up with CBS' NFL coverage. Like what Pat Summerall (who had been their for about 32 of CBS' then 38 years of NFL covearge) said during that final telecast, we were fortunate to be able to see the NFL grow via CBS. It marked the end of an era but also the beginning of a new one.

Their baseball deal was also a large factor in CBS losing the NFL to Fox in the first place. Since they didn't get much of a return investment off of their $1.2 billion MLB deal (CBS wound up losing about $500 over four years), they were reduced to having to cut costs. Thus, when the next NFL TV deal was up, CBS offered the NFL only $290 million whereas Fox offered $1 billion. If CBS doesn't televise Major League Baseball from 1990-1993, then they in all likelyhood would've stood a better chance at keeping the NFL as well as the NBA.

[Dynomite]

The last time NBC televised baseball was 2000. NBC Sports, for many years, knew how to televise baseball over-the-air. The network's list of baseball announcers is extensive-Curt Gowdy, Tony Kubek, Joe Garagiola, Dick Enberg, Vin Scully, Bob Costas, Bob Uecker, Joe Morgan, Tom Seaver, Merle Harmon, Jim Simpson, Charlie Jones, Lindsey Nelson, Dick Stockton, Sandy Koufax, Pee Wee Reese, Maury Wills and the list goes on. No question about it, NBC was the best at televising baseball. CBS made a big-time mistake when they got baseball. They never should've paid to MLB $1B+ to televise baseball-it was financialy unreasonable. Secondly, although Jack Buck was a good baseball broadcaster, when CBS dismissed Brent Musburger, prior to the start of the 1990 baseball season, they probably should've let Dick Stockton be lead baseball announcer(it would've made some sense, especially with the NBA leaving CBS at the time), teamed with Tim McCarver, with Tim Ryan teaming with Jim Kaat, or brought on backup announcers like Steve Garvey(he and Sean McDonough did announce the CWS on CBS in the 90s), Gary Thorne(he announced college hoops on CBS at one time), Steve Stone, Greg Gumbel, Johnny Bench or in-house NFL announcers, who've also announced baseball. Fox's baseball telecast, as far as I'm concerned, are still a work in progress. In 1998, when CBS got NFL football back, it clearly wasn't the same as early on, but at least they got the game back, although it's the AFC games. That in my opinion, is still a work in progress.