The Baseball Writers Association of America (BBWAA) is set to officially reveal the Class of 2025 that will be inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, considered one of the highest honors in the game. Former Seattle Mariners outfielder and 10-time All-Star Ichiro Suzuki is projected to garner a spot among the pantheon of baseball. There are also several other players currently in the green with over half of the ballots known, some of whom include CC Sabathia, Billy Wagner and Carlos Beltrán. MLB Network is presenting eight hours of coverage on Tuesday leading up to the exclusive announcement of the results at 6 p.m. EST by Hall of Fame president Josh Rawitch live from Cooperstown.
The league-owned broadcast network has been the exclusive home of the Hall of Fame election announcement since 2009 and is disseminated across cable and direct-to-consumer platforms. Brian Kenny will be anchoring the show live from Cooperstown, N.Y. with contributions from Jon Morosi, Joel Sherman and Jayson Stark. Greg Amsinger will also anchor this coverage with insights from award-winning broadcasters Bob Costas and Harold Reynolds.
Kenny will commence the program with a special open, while Tom Verducci and Morosi penned essays on Suzuki and Wagner, respectively. MLB Network analyst Chris Young also interviewed Sabathia, his former teammate, in a conversation that will air during the special. The announcement program is going to be simulcast on MLB.com, MLB.TV and within the MLB App.
Following the conclusion of the show, MLB Tonight will continue coverage and analyze the results with host Robert Flores and analyst Dan O’Dowd. Furthermore, the Hot Stove team of Reynolds, Matt Vasgersian and Lauren Shehadi are covering the Hall of Fame election throughout the week. MLB Network will then close out the week with its tradition of welcoming the new Hall of Famers to its studio for a special edition of MLB Tonight on Friday, Jan. 24 at 6 p.m. EST. The broadcast entity will air the Hall of Fame Induction ceremony on Sunday, July 27 from Cooperstown.
This coverage takes place a few months after MLB Network canceled High Heat, the afternoon program that had featured Christopher “Mad Dog” Russo and Alanna Rizzo. Moreover, MLB Network reportedly offered buyout offers to more than 50 employees in November, according to John Ourand of Puck. An internal email obtained by Ourand divulged that MLB Network president Bill Morningstar acknowledged difficulties associated with linear television and declining revenue from cable and satellite bundles. Data from Nielsen Media Research cited in the report demonstrated that the network is distributed to 32 million homes.
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