At about 3pm, the news came down that Peter Gammons was leaving ESPN. At about 6pm, the rumors that he was joining the MLB Network started surfacing. And 30 minutes ago, came word from MLB-N that he is in fact making the switch. Here's the release....

MLB Network and MLB Advanced Media today announced that Hall of Fame baseball writer Peter Gammons has joined MLB Network and MLB.com as an on-air and online analyst. As part of a multi-year deal, Gammons will offer analysis and commentary on MLB Network for breaking news and special events like the Trade Deadline, First-Year Player Draft, Winter Meetings and Postseason. Gammons will also serve as a signature and regularly featured writer for MLB.com’s new columnist initiative, writing commentary on breaking news and posting several articles online each week.

“After 40 years covering baseball, the opportunity to move on to MLB Network is a great and daunting opportunity,” said Gammons. “My journalistic life has revolved around baseball, and to be involved with people whose network is devoted to baseball, and baseball only, is something I look forward to with excitement. We all wish pitchers and catchers reported tomorrow. One of the greatest things about baseball is that it is held to a higher standard than any other sport, which holds those of us who care about it to a higher standard. I hope I can contribute to that standard.”

“For generations, baseball has been the writers’ sport, from John Updike to Roger Angell to Tom Boswell,” said Gammons. “To be afforded the opportunity by MLB.com to write about breaking news, inside information, issues, players, people, history and the perspective of the game’s place in society from Jackie Robinson to our current generation of socially-conscious players like Torii Hunter, Carlos Pena, and C.C. Sabathia is a forum that makes this next chapter of my journalistic life exciting and rewarding.”

Gammons will be appearing on Hot Stove to start out, but you can expect him on just about every single offering MLB-N has to offer. For someone who loves Baseball as much as Gammons does, the network choice is an obvious move. However, you have to wonder what it took to wrestle him away from the "Leader". If you asked me at the start of this blog, who are the two people ESPN couldn't lose from their Baseball roster it would be Gammons and Harold Reynolds. Both are now with the budding MLB Network.

Update: Brooks from SbB also has received word that Gammons could be part-timing with NESN soon.

Update #2: And here is your official NESN press release....

NESN, New England’s most watched sports network, announced today that Hall of Fame baseball writer and longtime ESPN and Boston Globe baseball analyst/reporter Peter Gammons has entered into a multi-year agreement to join NESN as a regular studio analyst, reporter and online contributor.

“I’m a New Englander who wanted to be Jackie Jensen,” said Peter Gammons. “I started out at the Boston Globe and wrote about Jerry Remy when he was at Somerset High School. I was lucky enough to be there for the Munson-Fisk fight in 1973 and The Sixth Game and the ’78 playoff, and when my local cable company wouldn’t put NESN on our system I signed the override petitions.”