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When NBC Sports executive producer Sam Flood learned in November that his network would be back doing baseball, he immediately knew who he wanted as his play-by-play voice and the format for it.<\/p>\n
Viewers will get their first look and listen on Thursday when NBC has an opening day doubleheader.<\/p>\n
The prime time game between the two-time defending World Series champion Los Angeles Dodgers and Arizona Diamondbacks will be Jason Benetti\u2019s debut as the network\u2019s lead baseball announcer.<\/p>\n
Benetti will be the voice of \u201cSunday Night Baseball,\u201d which moves to NBC and Peacock after 26 seasons on ESPN. He handled play-by-play for the \u201cMLB Sunday Leadoff\u201d package on Peacock in 2022 after calling baseball for NBC during the Tokyo Olympics in 2021.<\/p>\n
\u201cSam and I always joked after 2022 \u2014 and he was serious, and it turned out I was, too \u2014 that if NBC ever got baseball back in this sort of state, that I would be on the list of people that he would call. And I firmly appreciate that,\u201d Benetti said.<\/p>\n
Benetti had been with Fox Sports since 2022, calling baseball, NFL, college football and college basketball. Fox let him out of his contract early for this opportunity.<\/p>\n
NBC will do the Sunday night games and Wild Card rounds the next three seasons after ESPN opted out of its original rights deal with MLB.<\/p>\n
Benetti is a familiar voice for baseball fans, especially those in Detroit and Chicago. This will also be his third season calling Tigers games locally after eight seasons with the White Sox.<\/p>\n
The format of \u201cSunday Night Baseball\u201d will be the same as it was for \u201cSunday Leadoff.\u201d Benetti will be joined in the booth by analysts from both teams. On Thursday night, it will be former Dodgers pitcher Orel Hershiser and Diamondbacks slugger Luis Gonzalez, who led the franchise to a World Series title in 2001.<\/p>\n
For the first \u201cSunday Night Baseball\u201d game between the Cleveland Guardians and Seattle Mariners, it will be Rick Manning and Ryan Rowland-Smith.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt some point, somebody will ask if you\u2019re around a bunch of baseball people, what three people would you want to have at the dinner table to talk baseball? And I kind of get to do that with this every week,\u201d Benetti said. \u201cIt\u2019s going to be two separate people who maybe you haven\u2019t heard have a baseball conversation before. That brings me a lot of joy and curiosity, and we think it\u2019s going to be for fans as well.\u201d<\/p>\n
Having analysts from both teams also harkens back to when NBC did the World Series. From 1947 through \u201976, NBC would use either the play-by-play announcers or analysts for the Fall Classic.<\/p>\n
In 1975, Carlton Fisk\u2019s epic home run in the 12th inning of Game 6 was called on NBC by Red Sox announcer Dick Stockton, who would later become the lead NBA voice for CBS.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe biggest complaint you hear during the postseason in baseball is, I can\u2019t hear my people. I can\u2019t hear my guys call the game. We\u2019re going to have one person that\u2019s authentic to that team calling games through the season,\u201d Flood said, the executive producer of NBC Sports. \u201cWhen we do the Wild Card round, it will exist as well. Because it\u2019s the best way to know exactly what\u2019s going on inside each clubhouse, on the field, who\u2019s hot, who\u2019s not, and what matters most to those fans.\u201d<\/p>\n
Benetti said he will enjoy the challenge of working with different analysts every week, and that working nine innings with two people each with their own cadence and tenor will be a fun puzzle to solve.<\/p>\n