(Evan Petzold/USA TODAY NETWORK)Chris CastellaniTue, February 3, 2026 at 1:41 AM UTC·2 min readThe times they are a-changin'. Usually, I spend my time on these blogs including the things that I forgot to talk about in the video, and that's exactly what I'm gonna do here. One thing that I left out is the fact that baseball is and has always been a different entity when it comes to scheduling. Unlike football, where you have 15 or 16 games a weekend and one of the major broadcasters like CBS or Fox can pick it up, and the game could be aired regionally. Baseball is notorious for being the longest and most bloated sports season of them all, so it's simply not realistic to go the route that the NBA or NFL does. Another thing I didn't quite think about is where we're at in the year. Once the holidays end, every day runs together in the state of Michigan until we get to Opening Day. But I didn't really think about how close we are to spring training. Over the last decade or so, the Tigers have aired a fair amount of spring training games on television. Will Detroit be able to reach a deal with a service or network by the time spring training games start? I have no idea.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementThis means that at some point, the Pistons will also no longer be on FanDuel. I'll let our NBA affiliates handle that one. And as legendary as George Blaha is as the play-by-play guy for the Pistons, there is just something different that hits about baseball broadcasters. Among sports broadcasters, calling baseball games is considered the highest art form. In a place like Detroit, where so many people grew up with Ernie Harwell, that sentiment continues to ring true. In an NFL game, you can plug in any random announcer, and I don't think it's going to bother Lions fans that much. The experience of watching the game matters a lot more in this sport than the game itself, which is why Tiger fans are understandably concerned with this. We don't want to see a ton of change.
I try to read the room's temperature during moments like this, and I don't get the impression that anyone within the Tigers organization is necessarily panicking about it, so I'm not either. This is more a reflection of where the sport and where television as a whole are currently at. I don't believe it's any negative look for the Tigers (for once). The only way this could end up being a disastrous look for the organization is if they're unable to find a home by the time the games start. As passive as this franchise can be, I can't imagine them reaching that point. They should have a new home soon.
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