ESPN will air 30 games through its revamped MLB partnership next season, and Joe Buck will be on the call for at least one of them.

Buck joined the latest episode of SI Media with Jimmy Traina. And as Traina attempted to lure Buck back to calling more baseball games, the Hall of Fame announcer revealed he’s slated to call ESPN’s first MLB broadcast of the season, featuring the New York Mets and Los Angeles Dodgers on April 15.

Also according to Buck, Mets-Dodgers is currently the only MLB game he’s scheduled to call for ESPN next season. He similarly called ESPN’s first game last season on Opening Day, with Buck explaining he’s more comfortable preparing for those early broadcasts after being away from the sport for a few years.


“For someone who hasn’t been involved in the game for four years, and I did do Opening Day last year, I think it’s easier to do the launch off of the beginning of a season because it’s looking back,” Buck told Traina. “It’s a Dodger game, I think it’s Dodger-Mets so, there’s a lot to talk about. I mean, I could probably do it right now. The Dodgers, half their lineup’s going to end up in the Hall of Fame. They’re easy names.”

But if he’s offered a game later in the season, or even a playoff series for ESPN, Buck would be more reluctant to say yes.

“I’m not prepared to do that without putting myself in solitary confinement for a month and trying to catch up with everything that’s gone on,” Buck explained.

Buck called ESPN’s Opening Day broadcast of the New York Yankees and Milwaukee Brewers last season. It was the first time he called a baseball game nationally since 2021, when he left Fox for ESPN, and he did well enough to keep fans clamoring for more.

After 36 years, Sunday Night Baseball on ESPN came to an end last season as the Worldwide Leader’s future as a MLB broadcast partner seemed in doubt. But ESPN and MLB ultimately reached a 30-game package to continue their partnership, with most broadcasts taking place on Tuesdays and Wednesdays throughout the season. ESPN has not announced its team of announcers for those games yet, but it sounds like Buck will be happy to just do one.