Peter Gammons had a little bit of time off for the holidays (much like myself), but is ready to head back to work. Gammons will make his MLB Network debut this Wednesday, January 6th, and the topic of discussion will be the 2010 HOF Class (which will also be on announced on Wednesday)....

Hall of Fame award-winning baseball writer Peter Gammons will make his debut on MLB Network with the 2010 Baseball Hall of Fame Election announcement show on Wednesday, January 6. MLB Network’s Bob Costas, Harold Reynolds, Matt Vasgersian, Tom Verducci, Jon Heyman and Ken Rosenthal and National Baseball Hall of Fame President Jeff Idelson will also be part of the 90-minute announcement show beginning live at 1:00 p.m. ET. Gammons, Costas, Reynolds, Vasgersian, Verducci, Heyman and Rosenthal will then recap of the 2010 Hall of Fame ballot results with the hour-long show Class of 2010 at 9:00 p.m. ET. This will be the first time that Gammons, a baseball journalist for 40 years, and Costas, a 30-year sports broadcasting veteran, will work together.

Also on Wednesday, Victor Rojas, Dan Plesac, Sean Casey and Jon Heyman will cover the latest updates and moves all 30 clubs are making and planning in preparation for the upcoming season with Hot Stove, MLB Network’s nightly studio show in the offseason, at 6:00 p.m. ET.

There couldn't be a better opportunity to use Peter Gammons in his first time on the network. The Hall of Fame is one of Gammons' specialties, and of course he's a HOFer himself. I'll try to give it a watch an let your know how he does. Not like it will be a hard transition.

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.”

Wow. This comes as a complete shock, but hot off the presses comes word that Peter Gammons is done at ESPN and plans to persue "other endeavors". (UPDATE: Apparently those endeavors are with the MLB Network.) Here are Gammons' comments via ESPN PR....

“My decision to leave ESPN and move on at this point in my life has been conflicted. I owe a great deal of my professional life to ESPN, having spent more than half of my 40 years in journalism working for the network, and the choice to move on was made with nothing but the strongest feelings for the people with whom I worked. ESPN gave me a great deal more than I gave it, and will always be a huge part of who I am.

“I will forever be joined at the hip with John Walsh, who hired me as an ink-stained wretch, plunked me on TV and has always been a guiding spirit. Understand how the people who run ESPN treat people: when I was felled by a severe aneurysm in 2006, George Bodenheimer, John Skipper, Norby Williamson, my former Boston Globe boss Vince Doria and everyone made certain that my family and I had the best care and support, far, far beyond any reasonable expectation. My ESPN life has been lined with foxhole people whom I’ll never forget.

“I’ve been able to work with my closest and oldest friends, like Jayson Stark, Tim Kurkjian, Buster Olney, Peter Pascarelli, Jerry Crasnick and Charlie Moynihan. I spent three seasons doing games with a producer, Tom Archer, who is among the most revered leaders I’ve ever met. I told everyone last October that the team baseball coordinating producer Jay Levy put together with Mark Preisler and Marc Carman was the most creative in my 20 years on the show. I apologize to hundreds of people I owe for all these years for not mentioning their names.

“You would have had to be there for 20 years to know how hard so many good people sweated in anonymity to make all of us look as if we knew what we were doing.

“My friend Tom Rush – who taught James Taylor and me our first guitar chords – once wrote how strange it seems to walk away alone. With no regrets.”

What a sad, sad day for ESPN and Baseball. Obviously I wish Gammons all the success in the future, but Baseball Tonight and Baseball as a whole won't be the same without him. In his honor, I urge you to watch the greatest Peter Gamomons video ever made....

Peter Gammons is an amazing reporter, but this ESPN spot (which debuts today) illustrates some of his tricks for getting the information he wants. The main one being the use of carrier pigeons....

Too funny. There are others, featuring Karl Ravech, Steve Phillips and John Kruk, but unless they talk about the Krukster's mullet, they're probably not better than that one.

This could very well be LeAnne Schriber's last column with the "Leader", but at least she had a lot to talk about. The Ombudsman tackled all things A-Rod, and more importantly, the Peter Gammons-Larry King talk....

My own assessment is that Gammons asked the hard questions -- Did you take steroids? For how long? Where did you get them? Did you lie to Katie Couric? -- but that after getting Rodriguez' opening admission of guilt, he did not press hard enough when Rodriguez gave evasive or self-serving answers to the what/where/when/why questions. I also think Gammons' lack of follow-up was attributable, in large part, to his genuine sympathetic engagement in the human drama of what the viewer somewhat cynically called "Rodriguez's first step toward personal redemption."

Gammons told me, as well as other interviewers, that he was stunned by Rodriguez' admission that he had taken banned substances for three years.

"When I talked informally with Alex the night before," Gammons said, "I got the impression he was going to say whatever he tested positive for in 2003 was related to prescription drugs he had taken for a back injury in spring training."

When Gammons returned the next day for the interview -- which Rodriguez had first rescheduled from Sunday night to Monday morning, and then postponed again to early that afternoon -- he was prepared, with input from several ESPN producers and reporters, to do a more prosecutorial interview than the one that transpired. But Rodriguez offered his unexpected admission of guilt after the first question, and, Gammons says, "Obviously, there was a shift in direction."

"I realized right away that this was the first surefire, by his performance, Hall-of-Famer to admit this," Gammons said, "and therefore I thought keeping him talking, and getting as much as I could out there, was very important. I really felt my first duty was to get his words onto my employer's network."

Interesting. I still think Gammons did a fine job, but this certainly sheds some light on his mindset during the sitdown. It's always hard to conduct something like this under so much scrutiny and pressure, and you usually get a sense of revisionist history after the fact, but people criticizing Gammons should just give it a rest.

Gammons/A-Rod was no Frost/Nixon (ESPN)

I personally thought Peter Gammons did a great job in his interview with Alex Rodriguez, but some people are not agreeing today, namely Sports Illustrated. SI writer Jeff Pearlman has criticized the ESPNer for not sticking up for Pearlman's co-worker, Serena Roberts, and Gammons is now apologizing for not doing so. Via an email to Deadspin....

I think in retrospect, I should have interrupted the Arod rant. My first question asked if Selena's story were true, he essentially admitted it was, and I believed she was therefore vindicated. I usually don't get into grudges, and felt he was promoting her book, which will be her response. I was trying to get Alex in his own words, but Jeff's criticism has merit that I accept.

Pearlman called Gammons the "Larry King of sports", and while I think that's a little harsh, I can sort of see how some would feel that way. The only problem is that both MLB (who has a new deal with ESPN), and Scott Boras, probably were all over the questions that were asked, and ESPN obviously wanted to be delicate with the piece. That's obviously not an excuse to avoid getting to the bottom of things, but it might explain the tone a bit more.

Oh and one more thing. I know it's slow now that Football is over, ESPN, but good lord! I've seen this damn interview about 40 times now!!! There was some Basketball played yesterday right? Hockey perhaps??? I know what will get us to forget about all this A-Rod nonsense. PETTTTTERRRRRR GAMMMMMMONNNNSSSS!

Ah...that's better.

Peter Gammons is the Larry King of sports television (Jeff Pearlman)
Peter Gammons Regrets Not Sticking Up For Roberts (Deadspin)

I thought ESPN was a little bit off in airing the meat of the piece earlier in the day, but there are a ton of other interesting parts in the full version. Some of which are: It was a 30-minute interview (!), A-Rod denies taking steroids in High School, he also denied that he knew what the drugs were, and finally saying that SI's Serena Roberts stalked him and tried to break into his house.

Obviously, due to the length, I had to break it up into three parts, but here is the entire interview if you want to relive the thirty minute sitdown, or check it out for the first time.

ESPN just aired a brief clip of the Peter Gammons interview with Alex Rodriguez, and while it's not the full one that will be on Sports Center tonight, it seems to be the most important part of the discussion. Here is the video in case you missed it....

"When I arrived in Texas in 2001, I felt an enormous amount of pressure. I needed to perform, and perform at a high level every day. Back then, [baseball] was a different culture. It was very loose. I was young, I was stupid, I was naïve. I wanted to prove to everyone I was worth being one of the greatest players of all time."- Alex Rodriguez (Via ESPN)

"I did take a banned substance. For that, I'm very sorry and deeply regretful."

So what we now know is that he is admitting to using PEDs during a three-year period with the Texas Rangers, and that he's apparently extremely sorry for doing so. It's still not surprising, but what is surprising is that he actually came clean and admitted to doing so. I don't think many people are willing to forgive right away, especially when you take into account he lied during his 60 Minutes interview, but this was definitely a step he needed to take.

A-Rod admits, regrets use of PEDs (ESPN)

I was checking out the end of Baseball Tonight last night and they decided to run a recap of the entire week of the show. Since I didn't watch it much, and I knew many of you hadn't either, I pressed record. Not only do you get a recap of all the trades and rumors, but you also get John Kruk slapping Karl Ravech on the ass!

I'm sorry, but the jokes about the Krukster's hair never get old. It looks like Bear Grylls stitched together some grass and moss for a shelter, but it ended up on Kruk's head. Good times, and see how much better Baseball Tonight is ESPN, when you don't have 8,000 on the set? Just Ravech, an analyst and a few writers/reporters, and you're good.

It was a forgone conclusion that this World Series was going to be the low, but exactly how low? Even with the help of a 3 1/2 inning primetime game, that pulled a the 2008 out of the lowest rated spot in World Series history. The overnight total for last night's Game Five continuation was a 13.4 and when you average all of the game out the grand total should be around the low to mid 9.0's once all the numbers are collected. Not only is that .5 less than the previous low of 10.0 in 2006, but it obviously marks the first time a World Series averaged under 10.0.

I think the ultimate sentiment is that the World Series has just lost the overall luster that it once had. In fact even Peter Gammons thinks that it might be time to overhaul the entire October Event....

In the mid-'90s, several owners went to a Miami Super Bowl and discussed the notion of having a 10-day World Series at a neutral site. They'd have to get local fans to buy into destination and vacation packages. There wouldn't be the feel in Anaheim, San Diego or Los Angeles that there is in New York, Chicago, St. Louis or Boston. But then the Cardinals are the only team since the 2002 Angels to win in front of their home fans. It would be a hard sell, but the notion of a World Series week has some advantages.

May I suggest Punta Mita, Mexico? The Four Seasons would be a perfect headquarters hotel. Anguilla would work.

The World Series is, after all, significant television programming, and the good folks at Fox would love predictability. It's better than the official first dud of the fall TV season, "The Perfect Storm Hits the World Series."

There are a lot of questions that will be weighed after this, the worst World Series in memory. The first? With plummeting television ratings and the collapse of the economy, will the free agent market continue to inflate, or will it cool the market? The impact of this World Series may last right through into January.

Wow. That's pretty depressing. I don't know if something as drastic as Gammons is suggesting needs to be done, but something has to change. I personally enjoyed this World Series because of its overall randomness, both the teams involved and the 3.5 inning shootout, but the majority of Baseball fans don't think like I do. The "Winter Meetings" should be extra interesting come December.

Weather turns Series into worst ever (ESPN)
Rays-Phils Likely To Be Lowest Rated World Series Ever (Awful Announcing)

I mentioned that Baseball Tonight is holding a Battle of the Bands competition to see who can do the best rendition of Take Me Out to the Ballgame last week, and we have our first video today. I missed John Pizzarelli last night, and I'll have his submission up when I can find it, but Peter Gammons rocked out a tribute to Bo Diddley on Sunday night.

Unfortunately Peter isn't in the competition, but I have to say that was pretty badass. Everyone knows the guy can jam with a band, but I've never seen him go solo like that. Great start to the competition and I'll try to get each up as we go along.

Introducing Baseball Tonight's Battle Of The Bands (Awful Anouncing)

It's Summer programming time folks! Are you ready?! Oh, I'm not so sure. Of course Titletown is going to be annoying but how about a "Battle of the Bands" playing "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" on Baseball Tonight? What if I told you Journey and Peter Gammons are involved???

But you won't see it from ESPN analyst Peter Gammons, who will play Ball Game on-air Sunday (7 p.m. ET) in a sort of homage to the late guitar legend Bo Diddley: "It's how Bo Diddley would have played it."

And ESPN's Baseball Tonight on Monday will begin airing music videos from nine musical acts — including REO Speedwagon — playing the 100 year-old anthem. (FYI: Lyricists Jack Norworth and Albert Von Tilzer never went to a baseball game — and weren't even interested in the sport. Art needn't imitate life.)

The idea, says ESPN producer Jay Levy, is to create a battle of the bands decided by online voting, starting June 29, with a winner announced July 13: "Personally, I'm a huge American Idol fan, so I figured why not have our own little American Idol."

Other contestants: Jazz guitarist John Pizzarelli, bluegrass band Punch Brothers, rhythm-and-blues singer Lloyd, rockers The Cab, country singer Gretchen Wilson, Latin and salsa hip-hop group Ozomatli — "they're fabulous," Gammons says — as well as saxophonist Branford Marsalis and rockers Candlebox.

Wait, Candlebox?!?! I love Gammons, Journey, and Ozomatli, but f'ing Candlebox??? Actually, come to think of it....I might actually get into this. At least they tried to get a nice variety of different musical acts and this could be fun. If they hadn't tried to compare it to "American Idol" then I would definitely be on board.

(Yeaaaaaah. You left me faaaaaar behinnnd yind. Now may-a-a-be I dint mean to treat youuuuu oh sooooo ba-a-d, but eye diddddd it anyway yay!!)

Try to get that out of your head the rest of the day.

Old 'Ball Game' will get new treatments on ESPN (USA Today)

If you thought the first one was cheesy....

Occasionally cheesy can be good but these are just downright bad. It's not really the acting or the dramatization itself, but more the writing. A buried suitcase and hot sauce turning into "bringing the heat"? Okaaaaay. I did enjoy the Steve Phillips slam of the rosin bag and Karl Ravech winking at me though.

Reader SF sent me this new quote from Peter Gammons's Wikipedia Page that just cracked me up. Enjoy....

On February 29, 2008, Gammons admitted to using performance-enchancing drugs including but not limited to anabolic steroids over the past four years. Many speculators have questioned whether this has been the primary reason for his outstanding performance, especially near the downside of his career.

Well that's good to know and I love how he admitted to doing so during a random Spring Training game at Disney World. Good job Peter...the first step is admitting you have a problem.

Peter Gammons (Wikipedia)

The thing I find most funny about the whole MSM vs. Blogs war is the fact at how easy it is for a MSMer to become a blog hero. All you have to do is speak nicely about a few sites and they will probably never bash you again. Of course Peter Gammons doesn't need this to be respected but it's nice he sees value in multiple sources of information....

The fact is that we all know more about baseball because of the proliferation of creative thought. Run through Baseball Think Factory, The Baseball Analysts, Squawking Baseball, Sabernomics, Beyond the Box Score, Dan Agonistes, John Sickels’ minorleagueball.com. For everything, Deadspin.

Unfortunately, time keeps most of us from getting to those sites specific to teams. It’s amazing how many club officials read USS Mariner (Seattle), Fire Brand of the American League (Boston), Ducksnorts (San Diego), Athletics Nation (Oakland), Viva El Birdos (St. Louis), Lone Star Ball (Texas), River Ave. Blues (Yankees), MetsBlog.com, FishStripes (Florida), Dodger Thoughts, Bronx Banter (great writing), The LoHud Yankees Blog, Reds Reporter (Cincinnati), Bleed Cubbie Blue, Brew Crew Ball (Milwaukee) and more.

Now just pass that information on to Joe Morgan and maybe he'll do a little homework before each game using those sites.

Peter Gammons Discovers the Joy of Blogs (The Big Lead)

A couple people emailed this to me, so I figured I'd throw up the video of Peter Gammons going off regarding the timing of the A-Rod contract opt out.

Amen Peter. Glad to see someone at ESPN has their priorities straight. It was refreshing after having both the game and Sports Center on last night. Scott Van Pelt had to interview just about everyone on Baseball Tonight over the phone about the A-Rod thing. In the meantime I was watching the Red Sox celebrate on the field.

How does anyone who knows about Sports portray to ESPN that no one cares about Torre and A-Rod when the Playoffs are happening?

This has to be the weirdest and downright scariest tribute video ever made. With that said it is pretty funny and watch for a death stare at the :30 mark. Peeee-terrrr.

Gammons Gammons! (Peter)

(Found at Extra Mustard)

It's not really Baseball's fault that they can't draw the same interest in their draft as Football and Basketball. They have a built in Minor League system so most fans don't even pay attention.

Either way you have the opportunity to watch the MLB Draft for 4 hours today on ESPN2. Karl Ravech is the host, and helping him out are Peter Gammons and the genius that is Steve Phillips*

Rumors and Rants has done a great job outlining the event, and will be live-blogging the thing. I'd rather live-blog an elementary school basketball game, but hey that's me. They are better men than I.

P.S.- The o/u on the spots that Scott Boras' top prospect will fall is 11. I'm taking the over.

So how are you going to celebrate your 62nd Birthday? Have a CD release party at a bar in Boston??? Sweet.

Game On! is hosting a CD release party for Peter Gammons Monday night. Peter will play songs from his album. Tickets are on sale for $15 and can be purchased online at www.gameonboston.com or at the door. All proceeds go to The Foundation To Be Named Later. Raffle items include Opening Day Red Sox Tickets. Complimentary appetizers will be served.

AND complimentary appetizers?!?!?!?! Damn I wished I lived in Boston....okay not really. But if you live there then hey....you can listen to songs like this. No word on a Brandon Rice (Bronson Arroyo) appearance, but it should be a good time.

I kid I kid.....Peter Gammons is a genuine guy that loves music, and you can't fault him for that. If you're in Boston go say hi to one of the most enjoyable (and intelligent) baseball analysts ever.

P.S.- Can someone explain how his album came out last July, but they're just having a release party now?

UPDATE: As Coke Zero quickly points out.....it was because of the stroke that he suffered last summer. That makes a whole lot of sense now....hopefully it's just a celebration that Peter is still alive since most have heard the CD by now. Praise be!

Never Slow Down, Never Grow Old (Peter Gammons' Album: Amazon)
Peter Gammons CD Listening Party (Boston, Hey Lets Go)