In ( the final year of ABC 's contract with Major League Baseball ) , ABC moved the baseball telecasts to Thursday nights in hopes of getting leg up against NBC 's '' Cosby Show '' . After braving the traumatic Loma Prieta earthquake and an all-time low 16.4 rating for the 1989 World Series , Al Michaels took ABC 's loss of baseball to CBS as " tough to accept . " Michaels added that " baseball was such an early stepchild at ABC and had come such a long way . " Gary Thorne , who served as ABC 's backup play-by-play announcer in 1989 and was an on-field reporter for the World Series that year ( and covering the trophy presentation in the process ) , simply laughed while saying " Great reviews , just as ABC baseball ends . " Meanwhile , Dennis Swanson , president of ABC Sports , noted in a statement that baseball had been '' a blue-chip franchise '' since 1976 for the network , which was '' disappointed '' to lose it . After ABC lost the Major League Baseball package to CBS , they aggressively counterprogrammed CBS ' postseason baseball coverage with made-for-TV movies and miniseries geared towards female viewers
Loma Prieta earthquake
1989 Loma Prieta earthquake
Major League Baseball on ABC