Legendary MLB Play-by-Play Voice to Call New York Yankees Opening Day Game

One of baseball's preeminent voices will call the Opening Day game at famed Yankee Stadium against the Milwaukee Brewers.

Feb 17, 2025; Tampa, FL, USA; New York Yankees outfielder Aaron Judge (99) smiles during spring training batting practice at George M. Steinbrenner Field. Mandatory Credit: Dave Nelson-Imagn Images / Dave Nelson-Imagn Images

ESPN is going to the bullpen and calling for Monday Night Football play-by-play voice Joe Buck to broadcast the season opening game between the New York Yankees and the Milwaukee Brewers on March 27.

The game will be Buck's first in a national baseball booth since 2021. The story was first reported by The Athletic.

Buck has actually brought New York luck over the years as he has called five World Series victories for the club, the last of which was in 2009 when CC Sabathia and Alex Rodriguez led the Yankees to the title.

Buck's last national baseball game on the microphone was the World Series in October 2021. Buck was working for Fox Sports at that point. In 2022 he left the Fox network to join ESPN as the voice of Monday Night Football. He has been paired with Pro Football Hall of Famer Troy Aikman since then exclusively calling MNF games.

ESPN does not have a contract with Buck to call baseball games and this is merely a "one off" situation for the two. According to The Athletic, Mark Gross, a senior VP of production for ESPN called Buck to gauge his interest in doing the opening-day game from Yankee Stadium. Buck was interested and will now be on the call.

The main selling point for Gross was the game was being played at Yankee Stadium. Buck also said he is not good at telling people "no."

“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.’”

Buck was given his choice of broadcast partners. He is going to call the game with former Yankees skipper Joe Girardi and Bill Schroeder for the Brewers. Buck made it clear the telecast will be on opening day and the glorious history of baseball, and not about him or his broadcast career.

“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.”

Buck said he remembers an adage his father, the great Jack Buck, once told him when he drove him to a Triple-A game he called early in his career. He told him just to call the game and not to inject himself of the weather in to the broadcast. The people are listening because they want to know about the game.

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