New Year’s Day, sports wise, for years was dedicated to college football. In years gone by, there were four bowl games, the Cotton Bowl, Sugar Bowl, Rose Bowl, and the Orange Bowl. Today, there are more bowl games on the days leading up to the new year, New Year’s Day, and the days after, than you can count on two hands.

But New Year’s Day is changing. For the second year in a row, a hockey game will be played outdoors on the first day of the year. Last year’s game played in the Buffalo Bill’s stadium was a whopping success. This year, the game will be played in a baseball park. Wrigley Field will open its doors on the year’s first day for a hockey game. I’m not a big hockey fan, but that will be cool to watch.

There is also another event that is occurring this New Year’s Day and it relates to baseball. Major League Baseball will launch the MLB Network in fifty-million homes, the largest role out of a cable television station ever. The big players like Cablevision and Comcast will be aboard as well as others. The stations content is baseball, 24-7. The new channel will turn their cameras on at 6:00PM Eastern Standard Time with a hot stove program. Following the panel show will be a ballgame. That’s right, on New Year’s night you can watch a major league ballgame. It will not be live of course but it will be baseball. The MLB Network will air the Don Larsen perfect game from the 1956 World Series.

The Network will include All-Time Games, Hot Stove, shows that focus on individual teams and players. Plus there will be historical documentaries including Ken Burn’s “Baseball”. The new network will also broadcast World Baseball Classic games and 26 regular season games. It’s baseball, everyday on the new MLB Network.

Al Leiter from Yes and Harold Reynolds, who was on SNY briefly last season, will be hosts on the new channel as well as Matt Vasgersian, Victor Rojas, and others. The station will also air a nightly recap show similar to Baseball Tonight on ESPN during the regular season.

More good news is that the station will be placed on the basic digital tier and will not cost a dime more in your cable bill. This is a smart move in contrast to the NFL channel that locked them into Direct TV limiting their exposure. In addition to Cablevision and Comcast, the MLB Network will be carried on Cox, Direct TV, Time Warner, Charter, and Verizon FIOS. It is unclear if they intend to offer programming in high definition. Regardless, baseball now has a home 365 days a year. There is no off season anymore. 

Notes: Today, Jeff Wilpon emphatically stated that the Mets are not for sale. The Mets finances are fine and nothing that happened in regards to the assets lost from being swindled by Bernard Madoff will effect baseball operations.