At long last, Joe Buck is returning to a Major League Broadcast booth. In an interview with Andrew Marchand of The Athletic, the ESPN Monday Night Football play-by-play voice has said he will be on the call for ESPN’s broadcast of the New York Yankees and Milwaukee Brewers games on Opening Day March 27.
Buck is no stranger to national baseball play-by-play since leaving the broadcast booth following the 2021 World Series to focus solely on ESPN’s Monday Night Football since 2022. Buck has called more World Series on television than anyone in history with 24 broadcasts, matching his longtime television partner in the late Tim McCarver, who passed away in 2023 due to heart failure.
The 55-year-old broadcaster says he will be focused on calling the game between the two teams and the special nature that an Opening Day broadcast brings instead of making the broadcast about his return to the booth. Buck signed a five-year, $75 million dollar contract with ESPN in 2022 with a sole focus on just NFL play-by-play.
Buck was asked a few weeks ago by Senior Vice President of Production Mark Gross about the idea of calling an Opening Day game on the network at Yankee Stadium. Buck, the son of the late Hall of Fame broadcaster Jack Buck, said he couldn’t pass up the opportunity.
“Why wouldn’t I,” Buck said via The Athletic. “I know what I’ve said in the past about this stuff, but I’m not really good at saying no and I think I inherited that from my dad. Because Mark asked me and I really love the guy and think the world of him, I said, ‘Yes.’”
ESPN will pair Buck with former Yankees manager Joe Girardi and former Brewers player Bill Schroeder during the broadcast.
ESPN President of Content Burke Magnus commented via a statement released by ESPN that Joe Buck is synonymous with Major League Baseball and adds his addition to the broadcast booth on Opening Day is an “incredible addition” to the coverage.
MLB Opening Day will come just a week after the regular season officially begins as the Los Angeles Dodgers and Chicago Cubs play a two-game series in Tokyo, Japan, on March 18-19.
Barrett Media produces daily content on the music, news, and sports media industries. To stay updated, sign up for our newsletters and get the latest information delivered straight to your inbox.
