MLB Network does it again

MLB Network has another solid offseason programming addition with its "20 Greatest Games" series. Each Monday night, the channel spotlights one of the ranked games of the last 50 yars chosen by an online poll in an hourlong presentation combining archival video, audio from multiple broadcasts of the game, discussions with hosts Bob Costas and Tom Verducci, and interviews with participants.

It's a fun way to spend an hour, and while I'd wish for more old-school and rarer games, and I'm kind of sad this has apparently supplanted "All-Time Games," which offered complete games, I think this is a great idea. This past week's look at a Giants-Marlins playoff game from 2003 was OK, but the week before was a riot.

#20 was a super-high-scoring regular season Phillies-Cubs affair from May 1979, and Costas, Verducci, and guest (and then-Phillies SS) Larry Bowa had a great time looking back at it. Best was when they chuckled along with some of the frustrated announcing clips of exasperated Cubs play-by-player Jack Brickhouse.

The series delivers all the key plays but also finds time for notable un-key plays, like Cubs long reliever (later Tigers closer and MVP) Willie Hernandez swinging and missing horribly in a rare at-bat. Costas and Verducci strike the right tone in showing reverence for the games but having fun with them as well.

I highly recommend this program to any hardcore baseball fan, and I also recommend that NFL Network do something like this. How is it that despite the incredible dominance that pro football has in our culture right now, the MLB Network can so totally slay the NFL Network? With the resources of the amazing NFL empire, plus the machine that is NFL Films, that channel should be much, much better than it is. But despite several high-profile successes like "America's Game" and the recent Top 100 Players of All Time series, there is a real lack of originality going on there, and the channel seems content to run "Total Access" and "Top 10" all the time.