Joe Buck will be on the play-by-play call of his first national baseball game since 2021 when the New York Yankees host the Milwaukee Brewers on Opening Day, The Athletic reported Tuesday.
ESPN will air the game on March 27.
The most noted baseball announcer of his generation, Buck’s last national broadcast was the 2021 World Series — his 24th. Last year, he joined Chip Caray on the local broadcast of a St. Louis Cardinals game.
Buck, 55, left Fox Sports in 2022 for ESPN, where he calls “Monday Night Football” but isn’t part of the network’s baseball package. He said it’s a one-time assignment and not a permanent return to the baseball booth.
The Athletic reported that Buck had been reluctant to return to baseball because he doesn’t follow the game as closely as he once did. But when Mark Gross, a senior vice president of production for ESPN asked, he agreed.
“Why wouldn’t I,” Buck said. “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.'”
Joining Buck in the booth will be former Yankees manager Joe Girardi and Bill Schroeder, the lead color analyst for the Brewers.
Buck said he is excited to return to Yankee Stadium.
“It’s fun,” Buck said. “It is exciting to think about doing the game at Yankee Stadium, where I’ve called World Series. I’m not saying that if it wasn’t the Yankees, I probably wouldn’t have done it, but that might be true. It’s the Yankees at home on Opening Day against a division winner.”
–Field Level Media
