ESPN Analysts allowed only on ESPN-owned stations--NY Post

Accordingly, the voices of 19 names on the ESPN baseball analysts' 2006 post season predictions would never be heard on XM again, and certainly not on local stations such as WEEI in Boston, and WFAN and the YES Network in New York. If this ends up being so, it's a great step forward in my view. The 19 names are:

• Peter Gammons, Tim Kurkjian, Jayson Stark, Jerry Crasnick, Gary Gillette, Bob Klapisch, Buster Olney, Jim Caple, Steve Phillips, Eric Neel, Keith Law, Alan Schwarz, Pedro Gomez, Sean McAdam, John Shea, Phil Rogers, Enrique Rojas, Eric Karabell, and Rob Neyer. I can think of a 20th--Orestes Destrade. Oh, and a 21st---the very busy Will Carroll.

NY Post piece about the ESPN memo from 12/15 edition by Andrew Marchand,

• "ESPN sent down an internal directive this week that bans any of its on-air personnel from appearing as a guest on WFAN, The Post has learned.

• As part of a larger memo that impacts its owned and operated stations in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Pittsburgh and Dallas, ESPN is preventing its analysts from appearing on non-ESPN radio stations in those markets.

• This means that guests such as Peter Gammons or Kirk Herbstreit will have to go against company policy if they want to appear on FAN.

"It makes good business sense that ESPN should be the home of ESPN talent,'' ESPN spokesman Dan Quinn said." I hope they mean it.

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