The series began April 26, 1979 with a
doubleheader:
Cleveland at
Kansas City (
Jim Woods and
Bud Harrelson announcing) followed by
Baltimore at
California (
Monte Moore and
Maury Wills announcing). The second game of the night was typically broadcast from the
West Coast. The games were usually
blacked-out in the competing teams' cities. Once in a while, when USA aired a repeat of the telecast late at night, local cities were allowed to show the rerun. From 1980 to 1981, Jim Woods and
Nelson Briles (replacing Bud Harrelson) broadcast the early games, while Monte Moore and
Wes Parker (replacing Maury Wills) called the late game. In 1982, doubleheaders did not start until June 17. Prior to the doubleheaders starting, Monte Moore and Wes Parker did the individual game until then. When the doubleheaders finally began, Moore and Parker moved over to the late game for the rest of the year. Meanwhile,
Eddie Doucette (replacing Jim Woods) and Nelson Briles were assigned to call the early game. USA continued with the plan of not starting doubleheaders until June in the final year of the package in 1983.
Steve Zabriskie and
Al Albert filled in for Eddie Doucette in September 1982 (Steve Grad also occasionally substituted) while Albert replaced Doucette for a game or more in 1983. USA's coverage became a casualty of the new $1.2 billion TV contract between Major League Baseball, ABC and NBC beginning in 1984 and lasting through 1989. One of the provisions to the new deal was that local telecasts opposite network games had to be eliminated.
Memorable moments One particular game of note was a
Los Angeles Dodgers–
St. Louis Cardinals game in 1981 (the last game before the
strike). The game in question featured
Fernando Valenzuela picking up his eighth consecutive win to start the season. Valenzuela gave up a home run in the ninth to tie the game 1–1, but
Pedro Guerrero hit one himself in the bottom of the ninth for the win. One year later, during a September 16 game between the
San Diego Padres and the
San Francisco Giants,
Darrell Evans went 3-for-5 with four RBI in Giants' 9–3 victory. ==Announcers==