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Joe Buck to Call Big MLB Opening Day Game for ESPN

Andy Nesbitt

Joe Buck will call the Orioles-Yankees Opening Day game on ESPN.
Joe Buck will call the Orioles-Yankees Opening Day game on ESPN. / Jasen Vinlove-Imagn Images
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Joe Buck is coming back to baseball. Well, at least for one day.

The Athletic reported on Tuesday morning that Buck will call the Baltimore Orioles-New York Yankees Opening Day game on ESPN on March 27. It will be his first time calling a national baseball game in four years.

Buck, who was the lead play-by-play voice for years at Fox before leaving for ESPN in 2022 to be the face of Monday Night Football, said this will be a one-off assignment and it doesn't appear that it will lead to him calling more games for the network either during the season or in the playoffs.

He said calling the chance to call a Yankees game was a big reason why he jumped at this opportunity.

“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.”

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Andy Nesbitt
ANDY NESBITT

Andy Nesbitt is the assistant managing editor of audience engagement at Sports Illustrated. He works closely with the Breaking and Trending News team to shape SI’s daily coverage across all sports. A 20-year veteran of the sports media business, he has worked for Fox Sports, For the Win, The Boston Globe and NBC Sports, having joined SI in February 2023. Nesbitt is a golf fanatic who desperately wants to see the Super Bowl played on a Saturday night.

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