Changes in the Arizona broadcast booth also could mean changes in Chicago.

The Arizona Republic reports the Diamondbacks have fired Daron Sutton and analyst Mark Grace. Sutton had been suspended since June. Among other things, he wanted to wear a suit, not a polo shirt on the telecast.

Really? How many people would put on a clown’s outfit for a chance to broadcast Major League Baseball.

From the Republic:

Until Thursday, the team had been cryptic about its reasons for suspending  Sutton. Hall said Sutton was not too negative on the air nor did he have any  run-ins with the law.

“It’s things that have happened over the years,” Hall said, when asked to  elaborate on what he meant by “philosophical differences.” “The collaboration  here of our personnel, dealing with Daron and us trying to go in a direction  that was different than he wanted to go as a broadcaster. It’s no knock on him.  It’s style differences and differences of philosophies, as I mentioned. Daron’s  going to be a good broadcaster for years to come, I certainly hope.”

As for Grace, a second DUI was the last straw.

“It was definitely a factor,” Hall said. “We had told him before that if it  happened again, we were not going to have him return to the booth. He knew that.  We had a conversation about that after the second one.

“We feel terrible for Mark and what he’s going through. He’s obviously got a  legal process, as well, on his hands. We hope everything works out for him and  we’re here for him, but again he knew that this was going to be a consequence.  It just so happens that his contract is up after this year, as well.”

Arizona likely will be looking to Chicago for Grace’s replacement. Bob Brenly, who works the Cubs TV games, won the 2001 World Series as manager of the Diamondbacks. It still a bit baffling that he hasn’t landed another job in the dugout since he was fired in 2004 considering he has a ring on his finger.

White Sox analyst Steve Stone also is a candidate. He lives in Phoenix. As I reported yesterday, Stone appears to be at odds with TV partner Ken Harrelson.

It’s one thing to have a slew of regular-season games and talk 24/7 about baseball. The postseason, though, is what drives the most eyeballs to a network.

So it is a big deal that the MLB Network will be airing two Division Series games; Sunday and next Wednesday. And it is even bigger that the new MLB TV package starting in 2014 will enable MLB Network to continue to show two Division Series games.

“The addition of the games is critical to us,” said MLB CEO Tony Petitti. “It shows the commitment the commissioner and Major League Baseball have to the growth and success of the network. Moving forward, it is an important showcase for our network. It gives us a nice focal point at the end of the season.”

Will those two playoff games help MLB Network expand its distribution? Currently, the network is in 70 million homes.

That seems to be the point of this exercise.

“Obviously, there is a relationship between strength of content and growth and distribution,” Petitti said. “We feel this is important content. It will help us in our task.”

Bob Costas, MLB’s signature game voice, won’t be able to do the Sunday game because of his NBC football commitment. Instead, Matt Vasgersian will join Jim Kaat.

Costas will call Wednesday’s game with Kaat. It’ll be his first postseason game in 12 years.

Fox’s press release about its new deal with Major League Baseball all but said the network is going to launch a new sports cable channel.

The release said there would be “as many as 40 single-game windows on a nationally distributed Fox channel.”

The packages calls for only 12 regular season Saturdays games (8 in primetime) on Fox.

Yet Fox executives are remaining coy. During a conference call, Randy Freer, co-president of the Fox Sports Media Group, wouldn’t give it up.

“Throughout this deal, we have the flexibility for the distribution of games,” Freer said. “We continue to evaluate the potential for a national sports channel. We haven’t announced anything yet and don’t plan to today. When we’re ready to announce something, you guys will be the first to know.”

Another reporter on the call took a shot. He asked, “If you aren’t launching a network, where are those 40 games going to go?” That would seem to be a lot of games to put on FX, and I’m fairly sure MLB would want such a big package on a designated sports outlet.

“Again, we have the potential to keep games on Fox broadcasting and other potential Fox outlets,” Freer said. “As we’ve talked about our partnership with MLB, there will be a lot of things to come out in the not so distant future.”

Of course, that means a re-branding of Fox’s Speed channel into an all-sports network. Being able to show 40 baseball games will help the network get off to a good start.

As Freer said, we’ll be the first to know.

Considering that my White Sox are fading, this might be all the national exposure they receive this fall.

From NBC SN on tonight’s show:

With the Oakland A’s and the Chicago White Sox both chasing Postseason berths, Caught Looking (Thursday, Sept. 27^th at 9 p.m. ET on NBC Sports Network) will feature a behind-the-scenes look at the recent series pitting the A’s against the New York Yankees, and the White Sox against the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim.

Major League Baseball Productions embedded camera crews with both the A’s and the White Sox throughout each of their individual series, providing a unique perspective on the action between the lines. MLB Productions cameras captured the White Sox as they fight for the AL Central crown, and the A’s as they tried to make up ground in the AL West while holding on to one of the two Wild Cards.

The episode features compelling in-game audio from A’s pitcher Brett Anderson and White Sox pitcher Jake Peavy. Off the field, camera crews followed A’s pitcher Travis Blackley as he took in the New York City sights for the first time, and pitcher A.J. Griffin, as he visited the MLB Fan Cave. In addition, this week’s episode also includes a profile of White Sox manager Robin Ventura, an interview with White Sox General Manager Kenny Williams, and features on outfielder Alex Rios and first baseman Adam Dunn.

Caught Looking, a new collaboration between Major League Baseball Productions and NBC Sports Group, will follow two different teams each week, as the final eight weeks of the season unfolds. Each original episode will be one hour in length and will air on NBC Sports Network.

Question: How will MLB use the mega bucks from its new $12.4 billion TV deal?

Will it attempt to hold the line on ticket prices? I was going to use the phrase, “Keep the game accessible,” but I think that concept went out the window a long time ago. However, MLB needs to keep the prices somewhere in its current neighborhood, even though in some cases, that borders on outrageous.

Or will MLB, specifically the big spending teams, just funnel the new funds to high-priced free agents? With the increased money, is the day coming soon when $20-million per year seems quaint, much like $3 million per year does now?

Unfortunately, I think we all know the answer to that one. It just got even better to be an agent.

John Ourand of Street and Smith’s Sports Business Daily has the details of the new deal, which is expected to be announced this week.

Major League Baseball is poised to announce a stunning $12.4 billion worth of media deals this week as it completes negotiations on eight-year deals with Fox and Turner to go along with its earlier deal with ESPN.

The total take from its three partners more than doubles the amount from its previous deals.

Because the deals had not been formally announced, nobody from the league or networks was authorized to speak publicly last week, but sources confirmed that Fox has committed to pay MLB $525 million a year for a package that includes annually the World Series, the All-Star Game, one league championship series and two division series. As part of the deal, Fox will sell two division series games to MLB Network for $30 million each year. It also keeps the rights to the Saturday “Game of the Week.”

Turner, meanwhile, has committed to pay $325 million a year for a package that includes one league championship series, two division series and extensive digital rights. TBS will carry 13 regular-season Sunday afternoon games, down from 26 in the current deal.

Including the $700 million per year that ESPN will pay under terms of its new deal, MLB will more than double the media rights fees it had been getting to an eye-popping $1.55 billion per season.

 

From Michael Hiestand of USA Today:

MLB will stay put with its current national broadcasters as it has agreed to new long-term deals with Fox and Turner Sports, person familiar with the deals told USA TODAY Sports on condition of anonymity until a public announcement is made.

The deals running through 2021, along with MLB’s recent long-term deal with ESPN, are significant in that MLB represented one of the last available marquee TV sports properties on the market. Most marquee sports are already locked into long-term deals.

From Richard Sandomir of the NY Times:

The new rights will push Fox to pay substantially more than the average of $257 million annually that it pays under its current contract, which ends after next season. ESPN agreed recently to an eight-year deal through 2021 worth $5.6 billion, doubling its average yearly payments to $700 million.

The transaction would let Fox carry two division series and add more regular-season games to its roster of Saturday games, the World Series, the All-Star Game and one league championship series. Fox plans to put some of the added games on Fox Sports One, a retooled version of its Speed channel.

TBS is to carry only 13 Sunday afternoon games under the new contract, down from 26, and two division series, down from the four it has been showing since 2007.

TBS will also retain one league championship series in the new deal and has gotten extensive new digital rights that will help its newly acquired Bleacher Report site. Also, its Sunday games will no longer be blacked out in the markets of the two teams that are playing. It also has one wild-card game.

In all, baseball’s annual payments from ESPN, Fox and TBS from 2014 to ’21 are expected to grow to $1.55 billion from $750 million in the current contract.

WEEI in Boston has the transcript of Bobby Valentine’s stormy interview with Glenn Ordway yesterday.

The exchange of where Valentine says “If I was there, I’d punch you right in the mouth” made national headlines. However, it is clear that Valentine was joking about the punching part if you read the entire quote to a fairly damning question.

Have you checked out?

What an embarrassing thing to say. If I were there, I’d punch you right in the mouth. Ha, ha. How’s that sound? Is that like I checked out? What an embarrassing thing. Why would somebody even, that’s stuff that a comic strip person would write. If someone’s here, watching me go out at 2 o’clock in the afternoon working with the young players, watching me put in the right relief pitchers to get a win, putting on a hit-and-run when it was necessary, talking to the guys after the game in the food room — how could someone in real life say that?

Valentine took offense that somebody reported he arrived late for a game in Oakland. And late was 4 p.m. for a 7 p.m. game.

It seems Valentine was picking up his son from the San Francisco airport and got caught in traffic. So naturally, he bristled at the suggestion that he “had checked out.”

You were late at a ballgame last week.

I shouldn’t have to explain that. That pisses me off. Whoever wrote that knew what happened. They knew that my son was coming to see me for the first time in this lousy season and that I got to see him on the road, and that his flight was late, and that I was waiting at the airport in San Francisco for his flight  to come in, and that came in, I sent the lineup in and reported to my coaches that I was going to be a little late. For someone to say that I was late is an absolute disgrace to their integrity, if they have any.

Are you showing up putting in your best effort? Are your players?

I just told you, when you said what you said, you should apologize to me for saying that I came late.

Were you not late?

I wasn’t late. When you call in and say that you’re delayed in traffic coming from the San Francisco Airport to the stupid Oakland Coliseum and that there’s a traffic jam, then you’re not late, no.

Here is the end of the interview, which is a regular Wednesday appearance for Valentine.

Ordway and Holley say they’ll talk to him next week.

I promise, if you don’t say anything about my family and things that are most upset about me, I’ll never get upset again.

Ordway says he was just asking about something that was reported.

I guess I should read the paper or at least have someone read it and say, “You know, can you believe this was reported,” so I could at least correct it before Wednesday comes around so I’m not bushwhacked.

Ordway: OK, we’ll see you next Wednesday.

All I’m going to say is I am very, very disappointed and personally hurt that someone would actually report that that was a day of coming late.

After 42 years on the job, to do something that was absolutely proper in waiting for my son’s late plane to get there. I know he’s 29 and he could have made it from San Francisco to Oakland on his own, but I wanted to be there when he got off that plane because that’s what I promised him, and to get there the same time another manager in my division gets there every day [Maddon] — not one day, every day, OK? And have someone report that that’s getting to work late, I think it’s just irresponsible.

What do you think? I think Valentine had a right to be offended. The Red Sox have many problems, but I don’t think Bobby V’s effort is one of them.