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River Ave. Blues ยป Jack Curry

YES adds Curry to on-air staff

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In early December, long-time New York Times baseball writer Jack Curry took a buyout offer and departed from the Gray Lady. Today, we learn that Curry will join the YES Network as a Yankees studio analyst, YES program contributor and website columnist. “I look forward to this new chapter of my career, and am eager to contribute to YES on air and online,” Curry said in a statement. “I’m eager to provide insight and information to our television viewers and Web readers.”

Curry started at The Times in 1987 and began covering the Yanks in 1991. In 1998, he took over as the paper’s national baseball writer, and over the last 18 years, he has appeared on TV during Yankee pre-game shows on both MSG and the YES Network. Now, he’ll serve as Bob Lorenz’s sidekick. “He will be a tremendous addition to our Emmy Award-winning multi-platform Yankees coverage,” John Filippelli, YES’ president of production and programming said, “and will complement Bob Lorenz, our pre- and post-game host, extremely well in the studio.”

Updated: Gammons out at ESPN for MLB; Curry takes Times buyout

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Just a few media hits for the afternoon: Via a release at their media center, ESPN announced a few minutes ago that Peter Gammons will be departing the network after the Winter Meetings are over. Gammons has not yet announced his next move, but Norby Williamson, ESPN executive vice president for production, says Peter wants “new challenges and a less demanding schedule.” In local media news, Jack Curry has taken a buyout offer from The New York Times and will be leaving the Grey Lady shortly. The Sports Section of The Times will seem a little less complete without him.

Update 5:58 p.m.: The Associated Press is now reporting that Gammons will be joining the MLB Network with an official announcement coming perhaps as early as tomorrow. This move seemed nearly inevitable when Gammons announced his decision to leave ESPN. Say what you will about Gammons’ biases, but this is a huge move for the one-year-old MLB Network. They get a bona fide giant in the field and steal one of ESPN’s most senior reporters. I wonder how much it’s going to cost them.