Championship Playoffs begin on FOX tonight and TBS on Friday

POSTED October 9, 2008 | 10:21 AM

Championship Playoffs begin tonight on Fox and TBS on Friday
By: Jim Williams
The Examiner

OK for those of you who need help finding your baseball let me assist you. The National League Championship Series starts tonight when the Dodgers visit the Phillies. The entire series will be seen on FOX 5 in Washington, FOX 45 in Baltimore and FOX 2 in the Bay Area.

Game time tonight will be 8pm with the pregame show followed by first pitch at 8:17pm.

Friday’s game is an afternoon ball game starting at 4pm and then they head to the west coast where Sunday’s game three will a primetime affair starting at 8pm.

Joe Buck and Tim McCarver, will be doing the NLCS and the World Series with field reporter’s local favorite Ken Rosenthal and Chris Myers handling the field reporting.

I caught up with McCarver yesterday for some thoughts on a trap the Phillies could fall into.

One of the biggest factors in this year’s NLCS is the play of one man, Manny Ramirez. But as Philadelphia prepares to host Los Angeles McCarver cautions the Phillies not to buy into the notion that so many teams before them have.

“Manny Ramirez is an extraordinary hitter, “said McCarver. “As great of a hitter as he is, Philadelphia can not go into every situation thinking ‘don’t let Manny beat you.’ That’s fine, well and good if it’s the 7th inning with first base open in a tie game, but there are going to be situations where you are going to have to pitch to him. If you are a starting pitcher, you have to think ‘my job is to get him out.’”

Friday night the Red Sox and the Rays get underway at 8pm on TBS. The entire ALCS will be seen on TBS. The pregame show will feature Cal Ripken along with Ernie Johnson, Dennis Eckersley, and Harold Reynolds.

Orioles/MASN broadcaster Buck Martinez will join Chip Caray and former Nats/MASN analyst Ron Darling as the broadcast team for Turner.

Game 2 of the Red Sox-Rays series will be Saturday night in primetime.

All the games can be heard on ESPN radio as well as on XM-Sirius.