TVSquad

As anyone who follows sports on TV knows, Bob Costas is a baseball guy. He loves, loves, loves the National Pastime. Therefore, since NBC has not had major league baseball for years, it's been rough on Bob. He's managed to keep his love for the game alive with books and speeches and as part of his work for HBO. Well, now he's going to be doing a lot more baseball.

Bob Costas is upping his commitment to the MLB Network, and leaving HBO. When the new baseball channel launched on January 1, 2009, included in the charter line up All Time Games, the rebroadcasting of vintage baseball games with Costas as the host.






Costas will continue with NBC, but he's dropping his HBO duties, including the talk show Costas Now.

Starting February 5, Costas will be doing more for MLB, including a one-hour interview with Los Angeles Dodgers manager Joe Torre whose new book about his years with the New York Yankees has been making headlines from coast to coast.

Costas will host specials for the network during baseball season, roughly April to October, and most important of all, he'll be calling games. That's the real carrot here for Costas. He was never happy about NBC dumping baseball, and was further cut back in his duties when the network got out of the NBA package.

Still, in addition to the MLB gig, Costas will remain the main man for NBC Sports. When the NFL resumes in late summer with exhibition games, he'll be part of the network's coverage, much as he has been this past season as one of the many anchors on Football Night in America. He was all over the NBC Super Bowl coverage, and even appeared on USA's Monk last week, too.