By Barry M. Bloom / MLB.com
ESPN and the new MLB Network will televise the entire slate of 39 World Baseball Classic games next year from March 5-23, it was announced on Tuesday.
ESPN will televise 23 games of the tournament in the U.S., including the semifinal and final games, across ESPN and ESPN2, and on its Spanish-language platform ESPN Deportes.
The MLB Network, which will launch on basic cable to a record potential audience of 50 million homes this Jan. 1, is slated to broadcast 16 of the Classic games.
MLB Network, ESPN to televise Classic....
By Enrique Rojas
ESPNdeportes.com
ORLANDO, Fla. -- Sammy Sosa, still without an offer to play in the major leagues, intends to retire from baseball after the next World Baseball Classic, according to published reports.
"It's part of the plan. It would be great if folks can see me for the last time wearing the uniform of the [Dominican Republic] National Team," Sosa told Hoy, a Dominican newspaper.
"It's always an honor to represent your country," added Sosa, whose motivation to play in the WBC increased once Felipe Alou, a fellow native Dominican, was named manager of the national club.
In an interview with The Associated Press on Wednesday, Sosa reiteriated his retirement plans.
"That's my wish," he said during a telephone interview from Miami, "to put on my country's uniform so people can see me playing again."
The second WBC, with 16 countries in the field, will begin play in March 2009. The Dominican Republic will play its first-round games in Puerto Rico.
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By Jayson Stark
ESPN.com
Major League Baseball is making tentative plans to experiment with instant replay in the Arizona Fall League, according to a baseball official with knowledge of those discussions.
If that experiment proves practical and successful, MLB then is likely to continue the experiment next March during the World Baseball Classic and spring training games.
If no insurmountable problems arise, baseball could begin using replay -- though only to decide home run calls -- as soon as next season.
A top baseball official confirmed to The Associated Press Thursday that he will formulate a proposal for instant replay, although he wouldn't put a timetable on a replay plan.
"The times are such that our fans are used to seeing all the high technology and they're used to seeing the other sports that use these systems to make determinations, and the fans are clamoring for all the sports to look at that," said Jimmie Lee Solomon, the sport's executive vice president for baseball operations.
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