BOSTON, MA – SEPTEMBER 8: ESPN Sunday Night Baseball color commentator Matt Vasgersian exits the Green Monster before a game between the Boston Red Sox and the New York Yankees on September 8, 2019 at Fenway Park in Boston, Massachusetts. (Photo by Billie Weiss/Boston Red Sox/Getty Images)
Sunday Night Baseball is being done differently in 2020.
ESPN has suffered in the ratings department without its usual slate of live sports. That was to be expected when everything shut down back in March.
Now the network is set to get MLB and NBA action back later this month. Sunday Night Baseball is a staple of the network and will return with Matt Vasgersian and Alex Rodriguez as the duo conducting the broadcast. Only this year they will not be attending actual games.
Sunday Night Baseball is going remote
Staying in the ESPN studios makes sense given how difficult it would be to travel all over the country every single week. That would just be a reckless move and would involve not just the announcers, but an entire crew of people.
ESPN has been conducting remote broadcasts of KBO games, but those are a more casual and laid-back broadcast. The Sunday Night Baseball games will hopefully be produced in a way that is more professional and less like a hangout.
Teams are playing exhibition games this weekend and the ESPN crew will get a trial run this Sunday with a rivalry matchup between the Chicago Cubs and the Chicago White Sox.
Fans will also notice Jessica Mendoza is no longer part of the broadcast team. However, she does remain with ESPN in an analyst role. Some controversy was created when she took an advisory role with the New York Mets so the decision was made to take her off broadcasts due to potential conflicts of interest.
Every single MLB game is going to look and sound different in 2020. Having Sunday Night Baseball broadcasts on the television again will help provide some sense of normalcy and fans can get together to criticize the announcing just like the good old days.