ABC, NBC Say They’re Out of Baseball for This Century

Citing a “trail of broken promises,” ABC and NBC said Friday they are through with major league baseball in this century, and next year Fox or CBS can have it.

“I can’t imagine being involved in baseball the rest of this century,” NBC Sports president Dick Ebersol said as he and ABC Sports president Dennis Swanson jointly announced the move.

Their decision will dissolve The Baseball Network, a three-way partnership among baseball and the two networks, after only its second season.

“I’m sorry for their feelings,” acting commissioner Bud Selig said from Milwaukee. “I felt the relationship had gotten off to a very good start. The TV committee and the executive council as well as all the clubs want to assess where we are and take a decent amount of time to talk about things.”

The networks wanted an early decision on renewal, but the contract said baseball officials didn’t have to respond until Nov. 1. Ebersol, however, said he and Swanson had seen enough.

“Neither of us will be involved in the bidding next year,” Ebersol said. “I’ll tell you how bad it got. This is the first time in history that two competing organizations, the country’s two leading networks, have reached the same conclusion--to get out of a sport.”

Ebersol and Swanson said their decision came after baseball ignored a plea by the two networks to begin the six-year deal anew with this year, canceling the strike-shortened 1994 season.

That leaves Fox and CBS, which lost more than $500 million on its four-year deal with baseball ending in 1993, as the two potential network bidders.

Fox, which has acquired the NFL and NHL as sports properties since 1993, has said it is interested if and when baseball settles its labor dispute.