The 2002 Major League Baseball season finished with two wild-card teams contesting the World Series; the Anaheim Angels defeated the San Francisco Giants in seven games for the World Series championship. It was the first title in Angels team history. This was the first season for MLB.tv.
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ñhosted the MLB All Star Game
This was the second season that national television coverage was split between ESPN and Fox Sports. ESPN and ESPN2 aired selected weeknight and Sunday night games, and selected Division Series playoff games. Fox televised Saturday baseball, the All-Star Game, selected Division Series games, both League Championship Series, and the World Series.
The Thursday night national broadcast that had moved from Fox Sports Net to Fox Family for 2000 was discontinued after Disney purchased Fox Family and rebranded it as ABC Family. As part of the deal, ABC Family's now-corporate sibling ESPN was given the broadcast rights that had previously belonged to Fox Family and FX; the postseason games that Fox Family had been airing continued to air on ABC Family for the 2002 season, after which they were moved to ESPN for the remainder of the contract.