MLB on Five

infobox television
show_name = MLB on Five


caption = Jonny Gould and David Lengel on the set of the show
format = Sports
runtime = 3:00 - 6:00 (per episode)
creator =
starring = Jonny Gould
Josh Chetwynd
country = United Kingdom
network = Five
producer = Sunset + Vine
first_aired = 1997
last_aired = present
num_episodes = 500+ (as of March, 2007)

"MLB on Five" is a sports television programme on the British Five Network featuring live coverage of Major League Baseball games. It is usually broadcast on Sunday (going into Monday morning) and Wednesday nights (going into Thursday). The Sunday broadcasts usually begin around 1am BST leading into the live Sunday Night Baseball telecast, while the Wednesday programme begins at various times and the game usually airs on a 1-2 hour delay. Five also provides live coverage of the All-Star Game and World Series. The show is currently presented by Jonny Gould and Josh Chetwynd and produced by Erik Janssen. Mark Webster, host of Five's NBA coverage, or former TSN broadcaster Paul Romanuk sometimes present instead.

Regular season game commentary is taken direct from ESPN; All-Star Game and World Series broadcasts typically use the MLB international feed.

The studio show is known for its often irreverent nature.

History

1997 - 2001: The Beginning

The show first aired on Opening Day in 1997 with a game between the defending World Series champion New York Yankees and the Seattle Mariners. The show was initially part of the channel's Live & Dangerous late night sport strand. However, by the 1998 season it had been spun off and renamed MLB on Five. For its first year-and-a-half, the show was sponsored by Coors Extra Gold, complete with break bumpers with the voice-over "Major League Baseball: a taste of real America in association with Coors Extra Gold". By June of the 1998 season, this sponsorship deal had ended, and the show has not had a sponsor since.

The original hosts of the show were Tommy Boyd and Todd Macklin. Macklin had originally been hired as a producer on the show and was only thrust into the analyst role when no one else could be found. However, a little over a month into the show's first season, Boyd phoned in ill before a show and would never return (joking references are still occasionally made on the show to his long illness). Boyd has since made comments stating that he hated baseball, including describing it as glorified rounders.

"Did Elvis like baseball?" enquired Boyd in one exchange. "Could he eat it?" replied Macklin.

After a few shows with a number of guest hosts, Jonny Gould was brought in on a three show trial and remains the host to this day (since the cancellation of the soap opera Family Affairs Jonny is now also the longest serving Five employee).

During these first few years, the popularity of the show blossomed with audiences reaching over 1 million (a huge figure for a show broadcast in the early hours of the morning) during the 2000 World Series. During this time the show also increased audience participation encouraging viewers to write (and later e-mail) their comments, questions and anything else. During the 1998 season, they encouraged viewers embarking on trips to ballparks in the US and Canada to send in postcards of the stadiums they visited with the aim of collecting one from each of the 30 ballparks.

At this point in the programme's history, the show was broadcast from the same studio as Five News, which went on air at 6am. Therefore, if a game ever went past 5am, hasty alternative studio arrangements had to be made. An example of this was during Game 5, the last game of the 2000 World Series, in which the presenters, suddenly in a tiny studio without the benefit of monitors to watch the post game presentation, mused on who the MVP may be. Sky News now produces Five's news bulletins.

In 2001 Todd returned to Canada with his wife, whose job in London was the reason Todd had become involved in the show in the first place. The departure of the man who had educated the majority of the show's audience about the complexities of baseball was a sad occasion and the show was deluged with e-mails, letters and cards wishing Todd well and pleading with him to stay (events that would be repeated during Josh Chetwynd's and David Lengel's departures).

2001 - 2003: JG and JC

A replacement was eventually found in the shape of Josh Chetwynd, a catcher for the British National Team who had played the game at college and Minor League level and was now working for MLB International in London. Josh quickly became a favourite with the audience. He also demonstrated a great on screen chemistry with Jonny and the two have become very good friends away from the show. His previous experience as a player at a relatively high level also meant that Josh could offer a players perspective on the game and excelled at presenting the more technical aspects of baseball to the audience. In addition, he spotlighted Major League Players with whom he had a personal connection ("the Chet Factor").

Josh left the show in the middle of the 2003 season to study a postgraduate Law degree at the University of Arizona, but has since returned.

2003 - 2005: David Lengel The Ultimate Commuter

In July 2003, Josh was replaced by David Lengel who had also been a semi-regular reporter/analyst for Five's MLB coverage. Prior to his stint in the 'hotseat' (as Jonny refers to the pundit's chair) David's reporting duties included on-site coverage from the World Series.

For part of his full-time stint, David was also working as a producer on ESPN's 25th Anniversary series "Who's #1". As a result, he commuted some 7000 miles between shows for ten consecutive weeks in the Spring of 2004. His trip involved leaving New York on Saturday night, arriving Sunday morning, working on "MLB on Five" that night, and leaving London on the first flight out on Monday morning. He showed no sign of jet lag and also developed a winning repartee with Jonny. Lengel made regular 'off on one' rants, frequently as a result of Jonny's constant references to fantasy baseball.

Prior to the 2006 season, David left Five as he had a new job as a presenter on mlb.com, the league's official website.

2006 - Present

Josh Chetwynd, having completed law school, returned to the show in 2006 and has been the featured studio analyst ever since, however when Chetwynd is unavailable, then David Lengel takes his place in the "hotseat." The Five team presented coverage on-site for the first time in the show's history as Jonny and Josh hosted Five's broadcast of the 2006 All-Star game, won by the American League, from PNC Park in Pittsburgh. In 2007 the team were again inside the stadium for the All-Star game this time at AT&T Park, home of the San Francisco Giants. The studio show has yet to originate from the World Series.

Presenters

*Jonny Gould (Host, 1997 - present)
*Pat Garrigan (Analyst, 2001)
*Brett Barish (Analyst 2001)
*Josh Chetwynd (Analyst, 2001 - 2003, 2006 - present)
*David Lengel (Analyst, 2003 - 2005, occasional guest analyst since 2006)
*Todd Macklin (Analyst, 1997 - 2001)
*Mike Carlson (Occasional guest analyst since 1998)
*Tommy Boyd (Host, 1997)
*Mark Webster (Occasional guest host)
*Paul Romanuk (Occasional guest host)

Regular Features

A number of segments appear before the game or in between innings. In addition to entertaining the audience, these exist because UK broadcasting standards effectively prevent Five from running commercials every time the US broadcasters do so.

MLB Roundup

Almost every episode features a brief round up of the main events and games of the last few days. In the early years of the show this was usually done in a half hour segment at the start of the show; however as the start of the show has been pushed back closer to the game's first pitch this is now done during breaks in play. On Wednesdays, ESPN broadcasts scores and highlights from the night's other games, although the entire telecast is usually on a short-delay.

On the Beat

Because the show generally consists of the ESPN Sunday and Wednesday Night Baseball games there are often many teams that are not shown. To compensate for this David Lengel created the On the Beat segment, which offers a telephone interview with a beat writer or local TV commentator of a given team. The segment has also featured a handful of Hall of Fame writers and broadcasters.

In Game Trivia

In Game Trivia consists of the producer of the show Erik Janssen (or when Erik is absent whoever is standing in as producer) setting an obscure trivia question which the pundit has to answer. Despite the questions being jokingly referred to an Erik's Stumper both Dave and Josh have comprehensively beaten the shows esteemed Expo loving producer over the course of the season.

Seventh-inning stretch (Literally)

In 2002 Jonny started stretching his arm while saying seventh inning stretch. This has quietly become a tradition on the show with Jonny and Josh performing 'the stretch' every show.

British Baseball Roundup

Every Sunday during the British Baseball season the show gives an update on the results and standings of the British National League, the top level of British Baseball. Since 1998 the show has also been at the Final 4 tournament at Brighton and shown highlights on that weeks show.

Fantasy Baseball

In the last two seasons the show in conjunction with Baseball-Softball UK has organised an internet-based fantasy baseball league for aspiring players throughout the UK, which they offer an update on every Sunday.

1 Minute Blitz

During the middle of the 7th inning, Josh tries to answer as many viewer e-mails as he can in under 1 minute. Josh usually replies yes or no to each question instinctively. The current record for the 1 Minute Blitz is 17 questions.

The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

Alternatively in the middle of the 7th inning, a series of clips from that weeks MLB games are shown. These range from the best plays of the week (the Good), embarrassing mess-ups (the Bad), and the bizarre or excruciating (the Ugly).

1 Minute Rant

This involves Jonny or Josh ranting about a particular issue, such as Barry Bonds' pursuit of the home-run record.

Ballpark Breakdowns

Added during the 2007 season, Josh describes size, shape, key features and other points of interest of MLB fields and stadiums.

Weaver Watch/Granderson Watch

One of the more popular segments of the show followed the misfortunes of pitcher Jeff Weaver who experienced an unsuccessful spell with the New York Yankees in 2003. The segment was titled "Weaver Watch" and consisted of highlights of his starts coupled with a little mockery. The feature ran sporadically thereafter, ending with his win in the 2006 World Series for the St. Louis Cardinals.

In 2007, Five created the "Granderson Watch", following Detroit Tigers outfielder Curtis Granderson. As part of Granderson Watch, Granderson answers a viewer e-mail question during each Sunday game.

Baseball Library

During the 7th inning stretch on Sunday shows throughout 2008, Jonny and Josh would throw over to the baseball "curator" Phill Jupitus who read an exert from the weeks chosen book. Books read include The Natural, Boys of Summer and Veech as in Wreck.

Related Shows

Although not strictly speaking spin-offs there were a number of other baseball shows and features on Five (then Channel 5) from 1997 to 1999. Currently, NASN exclusively airs baseball programming outside Five's two game broadcasts.

Pitch, Hit and Run

Pitch, Hit and Run was a 30 minute show aimed at children and early teens that aired on Sunday mornings usually at 9:15 as part of the Milkshake strand. The show consisted of short instructional features on playing the game along with brief highlights of the game shown live the previous Sunday.

Turnstyle

Turnstyle was a sports-talk show which broadcast on Five each Saturday morning between 10am and 12pm. This included a baseball round-up with highlights of the two games aired on Five the previous week.

Trivia

Since the cancellation of "Family Affairs" at the end of 2005 the show is now Five's longest running non-news show. The first show was broadcast seven days after the channel's launch.

Seven different teams have won the World Series since the shows first season (Yankees (3), Marlins (2), Red Sox (2), Diamondbacks, Angels, White Sox, Cardinals)

Jonny Gould supports the Atlanta Braves, while Josh Chetwynd is a Boston Red Sox fan.

External links

* [http://www.five.tv/programmes/northamericansports/ "North American Sport"] at five.tv
* [http://www.baseballfan.co.uk Official Fan Site]
* [http://www.fantasybaseballuk.com The Show's Fantasy League Site]
* [http://www.baseballsoftballuk.com The Sport's governing body in the UK]
* [http://www.oddsox.dircon.co.uk/MLB/bio.htm An article on the show from Double Play magazine (Summer 1999)]
* [http://www.dooyoo.co.uk/tv-programs/channel-5-baseball/1001297/ A review of the show at dooyou.com]
* [http://www.baseballfan.co.uk/index.php?name=PNphpBB2&file=viewtopic&t=1524&highlight=drinking+game A drinking game]
* [http://www.davidlengel.com David Lengels website]