Although it has been two and a half years since the Cubs were in the playoffs, they seem to be gathering more national attention with a younger group that showed promise late in 2010. The Cubs have a few new faces replacing faces that had been there for quite some time, and this has made some noise around the league. FOX has announced its MLB national broadcast schedule up until September, and so far the Cubs are scheduled to be featured nine times on their Saturday afternoon games. ESPN has announced its Sunday Night Baseball schedule for only the first two months, and the only time the Cubs will be on it in those months is May 22nd at the Red Sox. These leaves room for more Cubs games to be put on national television and they could be an interesting team to watch this summer. The following is a list of FOX Saturday broadcasts of Cubs games April through August (all times CT):
May 7th: Cincinnati Reds at Chicago Cubs, 12:10 PM
May 14th: San Francisco Giants at Chicago Cubs, 6:10 PM
May 21st: Chicago Cubs at Boston Red Sox, 6:10 PM
June 4th: Chicago Cubs at St. Louis Cardinals, 3:10 PM
June 11th: Chicago Cubs at Philadelphia Phillies, 3:10 PM
June 18th: New York Yankees at Chicago Cubs, 3:10 PM
July 2nd: Chicago White Sox at Chicago Cubs, 3:10 PM
July 30th: Chicago Cubs at St. Louis Cardinals, 3:10 PM
August 20th: St. Louis Cardinals at Chicago Cubs, 3:10 PM
On May 14th, the Cubs will host the first weekend night game in the history of Wrigley Field (as far as I know). Incredibly, the Cubs will be one of the six weekly teams (in three games) that FOX shows on Saturdays for six out of seven Saturdays in a row through May and June. All 162 games this season, including the ones on national TV, will be broadcast in HD. But beware, CSN+ is particularly hard to find in HD, so you might be stuck with standard definition for those games. Unlike most Major League teams, like the Tigers for example, the Cubs don't have an official 'TV home'. WGN claims to be 'Chicago's Official Summer Baseball Station' but they don't even show half of either Cubs of White Sox games and that slogan is endorsed by neither the Cubs nor White Sox. The Tigers, on the other hand, are the only team in their market and they have a main channel that broadcasts nearly every game. Fox Sports Net Detroit shows probably more than 140 games, meaning Tigers fans know where to go when watching their team on TV. Cub fans (and Sox fans), however, don't have this convenience. The channel the Cubs and Sox are on each day seems almost random, especially considering the fact that to even see two days in a row where the same channel broadcasts the same team is uncommon. This, however, is due to a battle for games between the two networks. Both CSN and WGN fight for each game; WGN citing tradition as their broadcast motive, CSN citing that they are a regional sports network that should be home for all local teams. This can be found in Bulls games as well. The only team that either network has the edge is the Blackhawks, where CSN gets the majority of games because the Hawks negotiated specifically with CSN.
No matter which network logo is on the polo shirts of Len Kasper and Bob Brenly this season, the broadcasts are all done with usually great quality by the cameramen who, as is expected with the job, don't get the credit they deserve. The 'super slo-mo' tactic first experimented with by both networks in 2010 should be back. Between CSN and WGN, Cubs baseball on TV in 2011 should be very entertaining.
Links:
Cubs 2011 Schedule
Official cubs.com article on release of TV schedule
Cubs 2011 National TV schedule
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