Random Thoughts: MLB Network Programming Ideas

It's that time of year again: Time to declare our love for MLB Network on one hand...while lamenting the countless airings of Hot Stove with the other. But hey, it's this kind of passive-aggressive blogger pressure that helped conceive the eminently watchable Clubhouse Confidential, with expert host Brian Kenny. Right?

Here are four simple programming suggestions for MLB Network to ponder, as baseball fans in the Tampa/St. Pete area witness another wind-aided homer in Grapefruit League play:

1. Bring back The Baseball Bunch repeats for Saturday mornings. This unpretentious kids show from the 1970s and early 80s, dedicated to baseball fundamentals and team-building concepts, made media darlings of Johnny Bench, Tommy Lasorda and the world famous San Diego Chicken. It also reaffirmed my childhood belief that powder-blue uniforms would NEVER go out of style!

2. Biography on Barry Bremen -- "The Great Impostor" who successfully infiltrated the 1979 All-Star Game in Seattle, along with other big-ticket sporting events.

3. Regular airings of This Week In Baseball episodes from 1977-90 during the morning hours, spawning a new generation of baseball fans having breakfast with Mel Allen—not unlike how children from the 1950s and 60s spent their lunch hours with Soupy Sales (a pure comic genius).

4. MLB Original: Post-apopalyptic movie depicting the state of baseball if Commissioner Bud Selig had attempted to contract the Yankees and Red Sox after the 2002 season—instead of wanting to dissolve the Marlins and Twins.

Jay Clemons can be reached on Twitter, day or night, at @ATL_JayClemons.