ESPN’s ‘Sunday Night Baseball’ Replacement Isn’t Exactly A Home Run

For the first time in three decades, ESPN will no longer have the rights to Sunday Night Baseball this season. That's right. 

No more Jon Miller and Joe Morgan! Well, to be fair, they've been gone for a decade now, but still, you get the point. It was a staple in households across America for 30 years. It's now gone forever. 

Last year, NBC acquired the rights to SNB in a landmark deal that will shake up how – and where – we watch Major League Baseball this season. 

Good luck trying to figure that out, by the way. Regular season games will be spread out just about everywhere throughout the season. ESPN will still air some mid-week games. FOX, of course, has plenty. NBC and Peacock are now a major player. TBS has Tuesday games. Apple still has Friday night games. Netflix even has Opening Night! 

Get all that? Like I said, goooooooood luck! 

Anyway, the big move here will be Sunday Night Baseball moving from ESPN to NBC this spring and summer. That's one part of the equation. The other part? What ESPN will replace it with. 

It seems we finally have that answer:

I get the WNBA, but the NWSL?

That's right. Sunday Night Baseball is OUT, and "Women's Sports Sundays" are IN. Thoughts? First impressions? 

Look, this has nothing to do with the WNBA. The WNBA – assuming the league actually plays this season – will be fine, as long as Caitlin Clark is playing. She's a content machine. This was the logical choice. 

It is curious to me, though, that ESPN believes that investing in the … NWSL … is better than investing in MLB. I don't see how the ROI comes out in the green on that one. 

It's also funny to me that ESPN, which refuses to say men don't belong in women's sports, is now dedicating an entire day to women's sports. Remember, this is the same company that honored LIA THOMAS during National Women's Month a few years back:

Amazing. That same network is now championing a "bold commitment to incomparable competition, consistency and storytelling, establishing women’s sports as the main event on Sunday nights," according to its press release. 

Why not college baseball?

Here's the second layer to this, at least for me …

How will ESPN replace Sunday Night Baseball in April and May? NBC has Sunday Night Basketball, so I guess they'll lean heavily into their NHL package down the stretch?

But I have another idea …

College baseball. Sunday Night College Baseball. To me, this seems like the bold choice. I think it would do exceptionally well. ESPN will predictably lean into it a bit when June rolls around, but why not use April and May to lay the foundation? 

Game 1 of last summer's College World Series got over 2 million viewers, and that's when half the audience bolted midway through the game because we struck Iran! Not an awful number, all things considered. 

(Thank goodness things are going great with Iran now!) 

I would think that a late-season Sunday night game in Oxford would do well. And hey! ESPN even gets to highlight the SEC. Win-win. 

Anyway, it's just a thought. ESPN will most likely never do it, mainly because it hates baseball. ESPN does not care about it. That much has been painfully obvious over the past few years. The network has put all its eggs in the basketball basket. 

Why? I have no idea. But, I don't pretend to understand why ESPN does anything at this point. 

Replacing Sunday Night Baseball was never going to be easy. There ain't a ton to choose from in the summer, you know. 

I just think there's some more meat on the bone here.