Blanket coverage of Cardinals opener set for club’s radio, television outlets: Media Views

Expectations for how the Cardinals will fare are at a generational low heading into this season. But the grumbling likely will be put aside Thursday, at least for a while, at Busch Stadium. That’s where the energy level is expected to be high for the unofficial St. Louis holiday known as the home opener.

In this case, it’s also the season opener, as the Cardinals are set to face the Minnesota Twins at 3:15 p.m., and the team’s broadcast rightsholders plan extensive coverage throughout the day.

KMOX (1120 AM and now also on 104.1 FM), the flagship outlet of the team’s 158-station network, gets things rolling early by broadcasting from its annual Kegs and Eggs event — this time from Cardinals Nation restaurant at Ballpark Village. Chris Rongey and Amy Markxors are to be on from shortly after 9 a.m. until noon, with Dave Glover and Kevin Wheeler taking over until 1:35 p.m. Interviews with Cardinals owners, management, coaches, broadcasters and alumni are to be parts of that programming.

KMOX joins the network at 1:35, and that coverage features the on-field ceremonies that begin at 2:30 and include the Clydesdales rumbling around the ballpark and the introduction of Cards executives, prominent retired player and those who will be playing in the game. Matt Pauley anchors the network coverage, including the postgame show, as well as additional local baseball-related programming after all of that.

John Rooney and Ricky Horton then call the game.

FanDuel Sports Network also has a long day of television coverage planned, beginning with two network shows. “Foul Territory,” airs earlier then usual, at 10 a.m., leading to a special program, “Countdown to Opening Day.” That show will bounce to various ballparks to discuss events transpiring there. FanDuel Cards broadcaster Mark Sweeney is to be part of that program, with fellow analyst Gaby Sanchez and host Rich Hollenberg.

FanDuel’s local coverage begins at 1:30 p.m., with Alexa Datt as the host, Horton adding commentary and Jim Hayes providing reports. The on-field ceremonies will be included in this coverage, then Chip Caray (play-by-play) and Brad Thompson (analysis) call the game with Hayes reporting.

Mostly stable

Jim Edmonds is out on the TV side, after his loud departure in which he took verbal shots at the team and broadcast operation, but otherwise, stability is in place with the team’s broadcast lineup.

On TV, Caray is back for his third season of doing play-by-play and is expected to call all 151 games scheduled to be shown on FanDuel and work with either Thompson or Sweeney as the analyst.

Sweeney, who joined the TV crew as a studio analyst on a limited basis last year, has been elevated to the role Edmonds had been filling — having about 40 game-commentary assignments and a similar number of appearances on pregame/postgame programs. Sweeney also does some national baseball broadcasting for Fox — a mixture of studio and game-commentary assignments, just like he will do with the Cardinals.

He is scheduled to make his studio debut this season for the Cards' series April 7-9 in Pittsburgh, then begin his game-commentator role in a series against Philadelphia on April 11-13.

“It’s kind of like a smorgasbord of things to do with the game that I absolutely love to do,” Sweeney said. “Studios are different from games, and I feel very comfortable (with both). I’m blessed they gave me an opportunity to do this.”

Tom Ackerman had a handful of play-by-play assignments the past two seasons but is not scheduled to have any this year. Hayes and Alexa Datt will rotate as reporters. Scott Warmann and Datt again will share the primary anchoring duties for the pregame/postgame shows and be joined by a rotating cast of analysts — Al Hrabosky, Tom Pagnozzi, Horton and Sweeney.

For the first time, FanDuel’s telecasts will be sold directly to fans this season, and 10 games also will be available for free over the air on KMOV (Channel 4) and Matrix Midwest (Channel 32) as well as broadcast stations in other markets across the Cardinals’ TV territory.

On radio, Rooney, Horton will serve as the primary team while Mike Claiborne again is set to fill in when one of them is absent. Pauley is the lead host of studio programming, with Joe Pott the primary weekend anchor and Ackerman occasionally filling that role.

The club again will broadcast its home games in Spanish, with Polo Ascencio and Bengie Molina back for their 10th season together. Those productions will air on WIJR (880 AM), and most of them also can be heard on FanDuel’s Cards telecasts by utilizing the secondary audio program (SAP) feature.

Carpenter’s farewell

Former Cardinals announcer and native St. Louisan Bob Carpenter is entering his 20th year as the Washington Nationals’ lead TV broadcaster, and he said it will be his final one before retiring.

“I’ve got a new deal working for next year as a full-time husband, dad and grandpa,” Carpenter, 72, said in a video posted this week on social media. “... My objective is to, all season long, thank you Nats fans for the way you’ve been to my wife, Debbie, and I and our family over these 19 years previously. Let’s make No. 20 a lot of fun. I’m sure next year at this time I’ll be a little melancholy and a little bit sad with opening day approaching, but feeling like I’m doing the right thing for my family, and that’s good enough for all of us.”

The Nats are to be in St. Louis from July 8-10, and Carpenter — who has cut back on his schedule in recent years — said he plans to be on hand for that series.