Continuing to fortify its roster, MLB Network has added three more on-air personalities.
Former Major League Baseball pitcher Mitch Williams will serve as studio analyst, while CBS College Sports veteran Greg Amsinger is in the dugout as studio host. Jon Heyman of Sports Illustrated and SI.com will work as a “baseball insider.”
All three will appear on MLB Tonight, the live, nightly studio show that will be the signature program of the new network, and Hot Stove, the live, nightly off-season studio show, as well as other programming across MLB Network, which will launch on January 1, 2009, in approximately 50 million homes as the largest network debut in cable history.
Amsinger will now team with Matt Vasgersian and Victor Rojas as studio hosts, with Williams part of studio analyst crew comprising Barry Larkin, Al Leiter, Joe Magrane, Dan Plesac and Harold Reynolds. The service’s reporters are Trenni Kusnierek and Hazel Mae.
MLB Network is making an announcement daily through its launch on New Year’s Day. Recently, it said it has begun installing two cameras in each big-league ballpark that will be controlled from the service’s headquarters in Secaucus, N.J. With that equipment, MLB Tonight will be available to provide pre- and post-game interviews, as well as live look-ins to the ballgames.
The network will debut its original show Prime 9 on Jan 5 at 8 p.m.. The half-hour show will break down the game’s top nine all-time in a variety of areas, beginning with centerfielders, followed by home runs at 8:30 p.m. that night.
