As NBC rekindles its connection with Major League Baseball in devoting its coveted Sunday night slot to a national telecast, it is turning to an old voice to entice viewers on the pregame show.
Bob Costas, the 73-year-old former voice of NBC’s venerated ‘Game of the Week’ in the 1980s, will host the pregame show that will air on NBC and stream on Peacock, the network announced Jan. 22.
NBC will take over MLB’s Sunday night package after ESPN’s 36-year run, and much like its NFL package, will debut with a Thursday night opener on March 26 pitting the defending champion Los Angeles Dodgers against the Arizona Diamondbacks. Broadcasts will largely be relegated to Peacock in the periods where the end of the NBA regular season and beginning of the NFL season overlap with MLB’s schedule, but will air on NBC through the heart of the summer.
In a statement released by NBC, Costas called the arrangement – which will also include contributions to its NBA on NBC broadcast – ‘an emeritus role to conclude my career where so much of it played out.”
Costas teamed with Tony Kubek on NBC’s Game of the Week from 1982-89 – Vin Scully and Joe Garagiola largely comprised the other broadcast team in that era – and returned to baseball in the mid-’90s when the network reclaimed coverage after losing rights to CBS. Costas has also helped host a dozen Olympic Games and has been with MLB Network since its 2009 debut.
‘There is no more knowledgeable, authoritative and passionate voice on baseball than Bob Costas,’ NBC Sports president Rick Cordella said in a statement.
NBC still must build out most of its MLB broadcast infrastructure. The Athletic reported that the network hopes to hire Clayton Kershaw for select studio work, and has targed Detroit Tigers voice Jason Benetti as a potential play-by-play target.