{"id":484001,"date":"2025-12-19T00:19:12","date_gmt":"2025-12-19T00:19:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/484001\/"},"modified":"2025-12-19T00:19:12","modified_gmt":"2025-12-19T00:19:12","slug":"joe-buck-set-to-call-mets-dodgers-game-on-espn-in-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/484001\/","title":{"rendered":"Joe Buck set to call Mets-Dodgers game on ESPN in 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Joe Buck will be back in the baseball broadcast booth this season for ESPN, at least for one game.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The venerable sports broadcaster, and the voice of the World Series on Fox from 1996-2021, will be behind the mic when the Worldwide Leader kicks off its revamped MLB broadcast package with a Mets-Dodgers game on April 15.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Buck revealed the news while appearing on the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=XUhuSeI6IMw&amp;t=2729s\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">\u201cSI Media with Jimmy Traina\u201d podcast<\/a> on Thursday.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The Wednesday game in Los Angeles will be the first broadcast of a 30-game package ESPN \u2014 which will no longer air \u201cSunday Night Baseball or the wild-card playoff round \u2014 has with MLB.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><img style=\"aspect-ratio:1.53984962;display:block\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-modal-image=\"37967394\" width=\"909\" height=\"590\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/NYP052425METS55JS.jpg\" alt=\"Juan Soto hits against the Dodgers at Citi Field during the 2025 season.\" class=\"wp-image-37967394\"  \/>Juan Soto hits against the Dodgers at Citi Field during the 2025 season. JASON SZENES\/NY POST<\/p>\n<p>Buck stopped regularly calling baseball games after 2021 when he made the jump from Fox to ESPN, but has since made a pair of appearances in the baseball broadcast booth.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>He <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2025\/02\/18\/sports\/joe-buck-getting-back-in-baseball-booth-on-espn\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">called ESPN\u2019s opening day broadcast<\/a> of the Yankees and Brewers game in 2025 after being on the call for a midseason contest between the Cardinals and Rangers on Bally Sports Midwest in July 2024.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Buck explained Thursday that it was easier to prepare for broadcasts earlier in the season than later, especially for a sport he hasn\u2019t been involved in regularly.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFor someone who hasn\u2019t been involved in the game for four years, and I did do Opening Day last year, I think it\u2019s easier to do the launch off of the beginning of a season because it\u2019s looking back,\u201d Buck said. \u201cIt\u2019s a Dodger game, I think it\u2019s Dodger-Mets, so there\u2019s a lot to talk about. I mean, I could probably do it right now. The Dodgers, half their lineup\u2019s going to end up in the Hall of Fame. They\u2019re easy names.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img style=\"aspect-ratio:1.49926794;display:block\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-modal-image=\"37967395\" width=\"885\" height=\"590\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/AP_Frick_Award_Buck__67415-09dfb-0.jpg\" alt=\"ESPN broadcaster Joe Buck walks the field before an NFL football AFC divisional playoff game between the Baltimore Ravens and the Houston Texans, Jan. 20, 2024, in Baltimore. \" class=\"wp-image-37967395\"  \/>Joe Buck will call the Mets-Dodgers game on ESPN on April 15. AP<\/p>\n<p>He added that as seasons go on, accepting a gig later in the year or in the playoffs would be tough to do \u201cwithout putting myself in solitary confinement for a month and trying to catch up with everything that\u2019s gone on.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Joe Buck will be back in the baseball broadcast booth this season for ESPN, at least for one&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":484002,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2396],"tags":[5,649,29037,57,101,4,1690,61,2548,4203,185,4298,7486],"class_list":{"0":"post-484001","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-mets","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-espn","10":"tag-joe-buck","11":"tag-los-angeles-dodgers","12":"tag-mets","13":"tag-mlb","14":"tag-new-york","15":"tag-new-york-mets","16":"tag-newyork","17":"tag-newyorkmets","18":"tag-sports","19":"tag-sports-entertainment","20":"tag-sports-media"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/115743369916727693","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/484001","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=484001"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/484001\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/484002"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=484001"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=484001"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=484001"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}