''MLB Sunday Leadoff'' is an American presentation of

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...

(MLB) games produced by NBC Sports for the

NBCUniversal NBCUniversal Media, LLC is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate corporation owned by Comcast and headquartered at 30 Rockefeller Plaza in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, United States. NBCUniversal is primaril ...

-owned streaming service

Peacock Peafowl is a common name for three bird species in the genera '' Pavo'' and '' Afropavo'' within the tribe Pavonini of the family Phasianidae, the pheasants and their allies. Male peafowl are referred to as peacocks, and female peafowl are r ...

. Peacock's coverage will include 18 Sunday regular season games during the

2022 MLB season The 2022 Major League Baseball season (MLB) was originally scheduled to begin on March 31 and end on October 2. The 2021–22 MLB lockout caused the season to be delayed by one week, starting on April 7. The regular season ended on October 5. Th ...

, which will all have an 11:30 a.m. or 12:00 p.m. ET start time. It is NBC Sports' first national MLB package since 2000.

History

In March 2022, it was reported by ''

The Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...

'' that NBC Sports was finalizing an agreement to establish a new package of Sunday afternoon games beginning in the

. The package would be a successor to TBS's previous Sunday afternoon package during the later half of the season; as part of a contract renewal, TBS replaced these games with a new Tuesday night package across the entire regular season. As a prelude to the deal, Peacock had exclusively aired a June 2021 series between the Philadelphia Phillies and

San Francisco Giants The San Francisco Giants are an American professional baseball team based in San Francisco, California. The Giants compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) West division. Founded in 1883 as the New Y ...

. It was co-produced by NBC Sports Bay Area and

NBC Sports Philadelphia NBC Sports Philadelphia is an American regional sports network owned by the NBC Sports Group unit of NBCUniversal, which in turn is owned by locally based cable television provider Comcast (and owns a controlling 75% interest), and the Philadelp ...

, and featured a broadcast team led by the Giants' lead play-by-play announcer

Jon Miller Jon Miller (born October 11, 1951) is an American sportscaster, known primarily for his broadcasts of Major League Baseball. Since 1997 he has been employed as a play-by-play announcer for the San Francisco Giants. He was also a baseball annou ...

and his partner

Mike Krukow Michael Edward Krukow (born January 21, 1952), nicknamed "Kruk", is an American former professional baseball player and sportscaster. As a starting pitcher, he played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Chicago Cubs, Philadelphia Phillies, and ...

, joined by the Phillies' analysts

John Kruk John Martin Kruk (born February 9, 1961) is an American former professional baseball first baseman and outfielder. Kruk played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the San Diego Padres, Philadelphia Phillies, and Chicago White Sox from through . Du ...

and

Jimmy Rollins James Calvin Rollins (born November 27, 1978), nicknamed "J-Roll", is an American former professional baseball shortstop, who played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Philadelphia Phillies (–), Los Angeles Dodgers (), and Chicago White S ...

. NBC formally announced the deal on April 6, with a reported value of $30 million per-season. As part of the agreement, Peacock will also carry the All-Star Futures Game, as well as an MLB content hub featuring classic games and other video content. On April 13, 2022, NBC Sports announced that the games would be branded as ''MLB Sunday Leadoff''. The inaugural broadcast was a game featuring the

Chicago White Sox The Chicago White Sox are an American professional baseball team based in Chicago. The White Sox compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Central division. The team is owned by Jerry Reinsdorf, and ...

at the

Boston Red Sox The Boston Red Sox are an American professional baseball team based in Boston. The Red Sox compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) East division. Founded in as one of the American League's eigh ...

on May 8. The game was also

simulcast Simulcast (a portmanteau of simultaneous broadcast) is the broadcasting of programmes/programs or events across more than one resolution, bitrate or medium, or more than one service on the same medium, at exactly the same time (that is, simulta ...

on the NBC broadcast network, marking its first MLB broadcast since Game 6 of the 2000 American League Championship Series on October 17, 2000, and its first regular season MLB broadcast since September 29, 1995. All other games will be exclusive to Peacock Premium subscribers. In

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

, where Peacock is not available, games featuring the

Toronto Blue Jays The Toronto Blue Jays are a Canadian professional baseball team based in Toronto. The Blue Jays compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) East division. Since 1989, the team has played its home games ...

are telecast by Sportsnet using its regular broadcast team. For all other games in Canada and in all other international markets, MLB Sunday Leadoff games are available live and on demand on the MLB.TV subscription service.

Production

The broadcasts were described as aiming for a "hyper-local telecast with a national flair". The games' on-air presentation builds upon that of NBC Sports' regional MLB coverage. Former

Los Angeles Dodgers The Los Angeles Dodgers are an American professional baseball team based in Los Angeles. The Dodgers compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) West division. Established in 1883 in the city of Brooklyn ...

broadcaster

Vin Scully Vincent Edward Scully (November 29, 1927 – August 2, 2022) was an American sportscaster. He was best known for his 67 seasons calling games for Major League Baseball's Los Angeles Dodgers, beginning in 1950 (when the franchise was located ...

(who served as NBC's lead play-by-play commentator for its MLB coverage from 1983 to 1989) narrated a special introduction for the first broadcast, emphasizing NBC's history as an MLB broadcaster (including its historic ''Game of the Week'' broadcasts).

Personnel

Jason Benetti Jason Benetti (born September 9, 1983) is an American sportscaster. Since 2016, he has been the primary television play-by-play announcer of Chicago White Sox baseball. He is also the alternate play-by-play announcer of Chicago Bulls basketball f ...

(who calls

games for

NBC Sports Chicago NBC Sports Chicago (formerly Comcast SportsNet Chicago) is an American regional sports network that broadcasts regional coverage of professional sports teams in the Chicago metropolitan area, as well as college sports events and original sports- ...

, and also worked NBC's telecasts of

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding t ...

during the

2020 Summer Olympics The , officially the and also known as , was an international multi-sport event held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some preliminary events that began on 21 July. Tokyo was selected as the host city during the 1 ...

) served as the lead by-play announcer for the first season, joined by rotating analysts from each participating team.

Ahmed Fareed Ahmed Fareed is an American studio host and sports reporter for American television network NBC Sports. Early life Fareed is a native of Sparta, Michigan, where he played quarterback for the Sparta High School (Michigan), Spartans. After graduati ...

would serve as the studio host. Benetti joined

Fox Sports Fox Sports is the brand name for a number of sports channels, broadcast divisions, programming, and other media around the world. The ''Fox Sports'' name has since been used for other sports media assets. These assets are held mainly by the F ...

in August 2022; NBC has not yet named a replacement play-by-play announcer for future seasons.

Schedule

The

2022 File:2022 collage V1.png, Clockwise, from top left: Road junction at Yamato-Saidaiji Station several hours after the assassination of Shinzo Abe; Anti-government protest in Sri Lanka in front of the Presidential Secretariat; The global monkeypo ...

schedule has 23 of the 30 teams within MLB appearing at least once. Not appearing are the

Arizona Diamondbacks The Arizona Diamondbacks (colloquially known as the D-backs) are an American professional baseball team based in Phoenix. The Diamondbacks compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) West division. The ...

, Colorado Rockies, Milwaukee Brewers, Minnesota Twins,

Seattle Mariners The Seattle Mariners are an American professional baseball team based in Seattle. They compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) West division. The team joined the American League as an expansion team ...

Tampa Bay Rays The Tampa Bay Rays are an American professional baseball team based in St. Petersburg, Florida. The Rays compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) East division. Since its inception, the team's home v ...

, and Texas Rangers. The games have an exclusive midday window, with the first games carrying an 11:30 a.m. ET scheduling, and later games having an 12:00 p.m. ET scheduling; on days scheduled for games on Peacock, no other MLB games will begin until at least 1:30 p.m. ET. In an August 2022 press release, the NBC Sports Group indicated a "full season" of ''MLB Sunday Leadoff'' in 2023, presumably meaning the schedule will feature more than the 18 weeks in 2022 and begin in April. Source:

Notes

: Jon Miller filled in for primary play-by-play voice

, who instead called the Crosstown Classic between the Chicago Cubs and

. : While there wasn’t a regular commentary team,

Craig Monroe Craig Keystone Monroe (nicknamed "C. Mo") (born February 27, 1977) is a former Major League Baseball (MLB) outfielder and current sportscaster. He played for the Texas Rangers, Detroit Tigers, Chicago Cubs, Minnesota Twins and Pittsburgh Pira ...

, and Britney Eurton did select commentary, mostly interviews, during the broadcast.

References

External links

* {{NBC Sports Sunday Leadoff American sports television series Sports telecast series Major League Baseball on NBC Peacock (streaming service) original programming 2022 American television series debuts 2020s American television series