NBC Sports California Sets Athletics 2020 Television Schedule

NBC Sports California will televise 58 of the Oakland Athletics 60 games this season, the other two games, both on the road, to be carried by FOX.

The fact that Major League Baseball is back was underscored Monday when NBC Sports California announced that it would be airing 58 of the Oakland A’s 60 games in the shortened season that begins Friday.

Two of the A’s road games, Aug. 15 at San Francisco and Aug. 27 at Texas, will be televised nationally by FOX.

In total, the A’s will play 60 games, including 10 games against each of the teams of the American League West: The Angels, the Astros, the Mariners and the Rangers. The A’s will have seven of their 10 games against the Astros and the Angels at home and seven of their 10 games against the Mariners and Rangers on the road.

Also on the schedule are games against the Diamondbacks, the Giants, the Padres, and the Rockies, home and home. Oakland has a road series against the Dodgers, but the Dodgers will not be visiting the Coliseum. And while the Padres will visit, the A’s won’t be playing in San Diego.

Be ready for some time changes from what you’ve been used to. While Friday’s game on NBCS California starts at the relatively standard time of 7:10 p.m., most night games the rest of the season will start at either 6:10 p.m. or 6:40 p.m. Day games will start at either 12:40 p.m. and 1:10 p.m.

Another change is that all games, even games on the road, will be called from the Coliseum. While the home game telecasts featuring play-by-play man Glen Kuiper and analyst Ray Fosse will be done on-site, Kuiper and Fosse will be at the Coliseum and call road games virtually. One-time A’s starting pitcher Dallas Braden will join the crew as an analyst for all home games and some road games.

The always-at-the-Coliseum plan is a concession to the needs for social distancing for MLB teams, including the A’s. Following MLB guidelines, the club needs the number of persons traveling to road games to be at an absolute minimum.

The network is planning on both pregame and postgame shows with Bay Area native Dontrelle Williams, the 2003 National League Rookie of the Year with the Marlins, joining the returning regulars – anchor Brodie Brazil and former big leaguers Dave Stewart, Bip Roberts and Shooty Babitt.

Although the A’s revisited the organization’s offseason decision to go without a radio home in the Bay Area, the season will start without a local radio station, although games will be heard in stations around Northern California on a dozen stations head ed by KHTK-AM 1140.

For the Bay Area proper, fans will have to turn to the club’s audio streaming service at athletics.com/ascast with Ken Korach back for his 25th season with the A’s and Vince Cotroneo back for season No. 15. Ray Fosse will join the audio crew from time to time.

The club will have 26 of the 30 home games broadcast in Spanish on KIQI (10100 AM) and KATD (990 AM) with Amaury Pi-González in his 27th season with the A’s and Manolo Hernández-Douen, starting his 12th season.

Follow Athletics insider John Hickey on Twitter: @JHickey3

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