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ESPN Gets Cable Baseball Rights

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Associated Press

Major league baseball today tentatively awarded its cable television rights to ESPN in a four-year deal worth about $400 million, USA Today reported.

Baseball Commissioner Peter Ueberroth accepted ESPN’s proposal early this morning after rejecting bids from Turner Broadcasting and SportsChannel America, the newspaper said.

Officials of baseball and ESPN will meet today to work out final details of the contract, which will go into effect next year.

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The commissioner’s office said it would have an announcement about the cable TV package at a 2 p.m. EST news conference.

Mike Soltys, a spokesman for ESPN, declined comment on the USA Today report.

ESPN will televise games on Sunday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday nights, with double-headers to be shown on Tuesdays and Fridays. In all, about 175 games will be carried by the cable network.

Network rights to major league games were sold last month to CBS for $1.1 billion, also in a four-year deal that starts in 1990.

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