Fox Wins McGwire & Sosa Watch

By CBSNews.com staff CBSNews.com staff

September 1, 1998 / 9:33 PM EDT / CBS Sportsline

Fox Sports and its cable networks may wind up the biggest winners in the dispute between major-league baseball and ESPN.

Baseball and FOX announced Tuesday the network will televise all of Mark McGwire's games from Sept. 11-13 if he reaches 60 home runs. FX and the Fox Sports Net cable network will broadcast two games involving McGwire and Sammy Sosa next week.

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ESPN will televise next Monday's opener of the two-game Cubs at Cardinals series next Monday, and FX will show the Cardinals-Cubs game the following day.

Fox Sports Net will broadcast split national coverage of the Cardinals-Reds and Pirates-Cubs games on Sept. 10.

FOX will televise the Cardinals-Astros game on Sept. 12 as part of its Saturday package, and will show the St. Louis games on Sept. 11 and Sept. 13 if McGwire has 60 home runs.

FOX executive producer Ed Goren is still talking with baseball about showing Sosa's games on Sept. 11 and Sept. 12 if he has 60 homers. McGwire and Sosa each had 55 heading into Tuesday night's games.

"My head is about to explode as I think about all the scenarios," Goren said. "We will pull the trigger when they get to 60. But if one of them hits five home runs in the next four days, everything is out the window."

ESPN will likely show the Cardinals game next Wednesday and had offered to televise Tuesday's game at Busch Stadium. But baseball officials opted to put the game on FX, despite the fact that is available in about half as many homes as ESPN (37 million to 73 million).

"We are obviously disappointed with baseball's decision," ESPN spokesman Mike Soltys said.

Baseball's dispute with ESPN over the placement of Sunday night games in September might have plyed a role in the decision to put the game on FX. ESPN tried to move the last three Sunday night games of the season to ESPN2 to accommodate its new $4.8 billion deal with the NFL.

Baseball balked at the move and gave the games back to the teams to sell locally. Both sides have threatened to sue for breach of contract.

But baseball officials say they made the decision solely because they moved the Sept. 12 Cardinals-Astros games from FX to FOX and owed FX an additional game.

FX has offered cable operators that do not carry the network a free one-night preview with no strings attached. It is uncertain how many operators will pick up the game.

"There is always a concern about the number of homes, but given the contractual obligations, we considered this the right thing to do," baseball spokesman Rich Levin said.

ESPN has agreed with baseball to show live cut-ins to any of Sosa's or McGwire's at-bats once they tie the NL record of 56 homers. ESPN has the rights to cut-ins at any time except during a window for FOX or FX.

The home-run chase has helped drive up baseball ratings this season. Sunday night's Braves-Cardinals game got a 5.0 rating, the highest ever in ESPN's eight years of showing games on Sunday nights. The previous high was a 4.5 for a Giants-Dodgers game on Sept. 29, 1991.

FOX averaged a 4.4 rating for its five Saturday afternoon games in August, its highest month of ratings ever.

A ratings point represents 980,000 households for FOX and 730,000 for ESPN.