90% of the contract's value to Fox, which paid Major League Baseball $417 million per year under the deal, came from the postseason, which not only attracted large audiences, but also provided an opportunity for the network to showcase its fall schedule.

NBC Sports president Ken Schanzer stated regarding its decision not to renew its contract, "We have notified Major League Baseball that we have passed on their offer and we wish them well going forward."

[9] For the first year of its exclusive six-year contract (2001), Fox did a split telecast (which had not been attempted since the ill-fated "Baseball Network" arrangement existed) for the League Championship Series.

Fans and sports journalists were unimpressed with the situation and MLB commissioner Bud Selig vowed that it was a one-time deal necessitated by circumstance.

However, in later years, Fox used split telecasts on a few occasions to keep the playoffs "on schedule" and maximize its prime time advertising revenue, and aired the second game on FX, which has virtually nationwide distribution on cable and satellite.

Under the terms of the arrangement, Fox retained its rights to the network's regular-season package, which would now begin in April, and would remain the exclusive home of the All-Star Game and World Series.

As part of its coverage of Mark McGwire's bid to break Roger Maris's single-season home run record in 1998, Fox aired a Sunday afternoon game between the Cincinnati Reds and St. Louis Cardinals on September 6 and a Tuesday night game between the Chicago Cubs and the Cardinals on September 8 of that year (McGwire hit his record-breaking 62nd home run of the season in the latter game, which earned a 14.5 rating share for Fox, and remains the network's highest-rated regular season Major League Baseball telecast to this day).

[citation needed] On April 16, 2004, Fox aired a Friday night game between the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox to cover those teams' first head-to-head meeting since the memorable 2003 ALCS.

For this particular game, Fox introduced "Catcher-Cam" in which a camera was affixed to the catchers' masks[38] in order to provide unique perspectives of the action around home plate.

According to Fox, the cable-cams can roam over the field at altitudes ranging from about 12 to 80 feet above ground, and would be able to provide overhead shots of, among other things, "close plays" at bases and "managers talking to their pitchers on the mound."

Announcers later spent time explaining and demonstrating the use of virtual fans[41] during the July 25 game between the Chicago Cubs-Milwaukee Brewers at Wrigley Field.

[56] The score banner was modified to match the layout adopted by the network's football coverage at the start of the 2004 season, but using the abbreviations of the teams playing instead of their logos.

The diamond graphic was placed to the right of the scores, and slimmed down to only consist of the main three bases (unlike other implementations which included home plate); the MLB on Fox logo was moved to the far left side.

For the 2009[58][59] and 2010 seasons,[60] telecasts used the same graphics package[61] implemented by FSN,[62] with the FoxBox now reverting to a rectangular box in the top-left corner of the 4:3 safe area.

In late-March 2013, the Fox Sports Networks began using this version in time for the start of the 2013 MLB season[65] (the previous scoring bug was used for 2013 Spring training games).

In June 2015,[71][72] this was also expanded to include a white area featuring the last name of the current batter and their performance throughout the game (or their average for their first time at-bat).

In the same season, Fox debuted a retro-inspired graphics package designed for broadcasts for the annual Field of Dreams game, using classic team logos and old-looking scoreboard-based animations for the score bug.

In an interview with Richard Sandomir of The New York Times, Buck defended his reduced baseball commitment:[106] If you or the casual fan doesn't want to consider me the No.

[107] In 2008, Buck drew criticism for comments he made during an appearance on ESPN Radio's The Herd with Colin Cowherd, in which he admitted to spending "barely any" time following sporting events he does not broadcast, and facetiously claimed that he preferred watching The Bachelorette instead.

[108] In general, Fox's initial lead broadcast team of Joe Buck[109][110][111][112] and Tim McCarver[113] had been heavily scrutinized, much less criticized[114][115][116] over time.

Fox color commentator Steve Lyons responded by saying that Piniella was "hablaing Español" – Spanglish for "speaking Spanish" – and added, "I still can't find my wallet.

[122] Lyons had previously maligned Los Angeles Dodgers outfielder Shawn Green, who is Jewish, for sitting out a game on Yom Kippur in 2004, saying "He's not even a practicing Jew.

[123] On July 24, 2012, Matt Yoder of Awful Announcing questioned Fox's need to hire local broadcasters on their national telecasts and therefore, bringing about a perceived sense of favoritism towards one of the participating teams.

McCarthy and Williams were in particular, singled out for their rather downbeat manner of calling a Matt Cain home run off Cole Hamels in the top of the 3rd inning.

[126] For example, during Game 5 the 2015 American League Championship Series, when Toronto's Chris Colabello hit a solo homer in the second inning, Reynolds' simple contribution was, "Well, I guess he made an adjustment."

More to the point, immediately after, Verducci jumped in and explained how that was the first home run that Kansas City starter Edinson Vólquez had allowed in his past 1,228 changeups.

[128] While covering the 2005 Major League Baseball All-Star Game at Comerica Park in Detroit, host Jeanne Zelasko angered many fans for her treatment of legendary broadcaster Ernie Harwell.

During Fox's coverage of the 2005 Major League Baseball All-Star Game from Detroit, cameras at the start of bottom half of the third inning, tightly focused on a Chevy sponsored banner that read "HHRYA.com".

During the 2012 National League Championship Series, Fox's camera angles were criticized for being directly in-line with home plate,[150] thus often ensuring that a pitcher's head blocked the view.

This immediately drew a lot of complaints on Twitter from viewers, who were used to seeing the center field camera angle for Rays' home games, and wanted a better look at the pitch movement and location from Houston's Justin Verlander and Tampa Bay's Diego Castillo.