Triple-A Baseball National Championship on Versus
August 26, 2011 - International League (IL1) News Release
Triple-A Baseball (International and Pacific Coast Leagues) announced today that VERSUS, part of NBC Sports Group, will once again televise the Triple-A Baseball National Championship Game. This year's contest takes place at 6:05 p.m. mountain time (8:05 p.m. eastern).
Triple-A Baseball, Minor League Baseball's highest classification, is comprised of 30 teams throughout the United States which develop talent for Major League affiliates while providing affordable entertainment for fans of all ages. The 2011 campaign is the 109th season of operation for the Pacific Coast League and the 128th season for the International League.
The 2011 Triple-A Baseball National Championship Game will determine the overall champion of the classification. On September 20 the International League's Governors' Cup Champion and the Pacific Coast League Champion will meet in Albuquerque's Isotopes Park (home of the Albuquerque Isotopes - Los Angeles Dodgers) in a winner-take-all showdown. The International League club will be considered the home team for this year's game, thanks to the IL's 3-0 win over the PCL All-Stars in July.
Albuquerque Isotopes broadcaster Robert Portnoy will serve as the play-by-play voice of the Triple-A National Championship Game, to be joined in the booth by Bucky Dent, former Major League and Triple-A player and manager. Pawtucket Red Sox broadcaster Steve Hyder will serve as the field reporter.
Commentator Bios
Play-by-play duties for the National Championship Game will rest with veteran broadcaster Robert Portnoy, who has called games in both the International and Pacific Coast Leagues. He is currently in his sixth season with Albuquerque, where he came in 2006 after serving as a broadcaster for the IL's Indianapolis Indians. Portnoy has also handled play-by-play duties for minor league teams in San Jose, CA, Kinston, NC, and Huntsville, AL as well as for the NBA Developmental League's Albuquerque Thunderbirds. In 2008 Portnoy received the "Excellence in Broadcasting Award" from the New Mexico Broadcasters Association.
Alongside Portnoy will be a name familiar to baseball fans everywhere, Bucky Dent. The former Major League player and manager is most famous for his home run in the one-game playoff between the Yankees and Red Sox at the end of the 1978 season. The three-time All-Star played 12 seasons in the big leagues and later went on to manage the Yankees in 1989 and 1990. Dent has managed teams in both the International (Columbus) and Pacific Coast (Omaha) Leagues. He now lives in Florida where he runs the Bucky Dent Baseball School, teaching fundamentals of the game to youth of all ages.
The field reporter will be Steve Hyder, who is currently wrapping up his eighth season in the booth for the IL's Pawtucket Red Sox. Hyder has an extensive career in sports broadcasting, which includes time in Syracuse, New York where he was voice of the Syracuse Chiefs as well as Syracuse University football and basketball. Hyder is the reigning and four-time winner of the Rhode Island Sportscaster of the Year Award.
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