An American sports tradition ended Sunday night, and unless you follow sports media, you might not have noticed.
ESPN aired what likely was its last “Sunday Night Baseball” broadcast. The Mariners-Astros game marked the end of a run that began April 15, 1990, with a Mets-Expos game. The Mariners and Astros were in different leagues back then, and the Expos are now the Nationals. A lot has changed in 36 years, and now baseball on Sunday nights will, too.
In February, commissioner Rob Manfred announced that MLB and ESPN had agreed to end their rights deal three years early, citing ESPN’s “demand to reduce rights fees.” The network didn’t slam the door on baseball, saying it was “open to exploring new ways to serve MLB fans across our platforms beyond 2025.”
Those new ways are expected to include a midweek package of games, the in-market rights for several teams and the licensing of MLB.TV. “Sunday Night Baseball” would move to NBC and Peacock, along with the wild-card round, which ESPN has aired. The Home Run Derby, another ESPN property, would move to Netflix.
ESPN’s last “SNB” broadcast didn’t mourn the series’ demise. Play-by-play voice Karl Ravech kept his comments succinct, given that specific plans haven’t been announced and that ESPN still has playoff games to air. An ESPN spokesperson said the network wasn’t yet commenting on its rights deal with MLB.
“For my partners David Cone and Eduardo Perez, great friends, and all of us on our Sunday night crew, a very special ‘So long’ from Houston,” Ravech said. “We will see you again. We will be in Chicago for ‘Wednesday Night Baseball.’ … Thanks to everybody for watching another season of ‘Sunday Night Baseball.’ ”
Karl Ravech’s sign-off from the final edition of “Sunday Night Baseball” on ESPN for the foreseeable future ⚾️📺 pic.twitter.com/sBSEkHHUVI
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) September 22, 2025
It was a moment befitting of a video montage with glimpses at Sunday nights of yore. After putting the NFL on Sunday nights in 1987, ESPN gave MLB a new window for its game of the week, giving fans who’d normally be winding down their weekend another game to watch.
Jon Miller and Joe Morgan called the action for the first 21 seasons of the franchise. They gave it the gravitas of a big game, and ESPN produced it as such.
“I remember the producer was kind of freaking out,” Miller told the Houston Chronicle. “They were doing a huge truck with like 18 cameras. Their idea of doing ‘Sunday Night Baseball’ was they were doing it like it was doing the World Series every Sunday.”
Though maintaining such production was untenable, the Sunday night spotlight stayed bright. But as announcers changed, the broadcast lost some of its luster. Alex Rodriguez’s addition in 2018 was more of a distraction than anything, and the current booth has its warts, particularly Ravech’s mistakes (he kept calling the Cubs’ Michael Busch “Matthew” on Wednesday).
Nevertheless, ratings have been strong. Entering September, ESPN said “SNB” averaged 1.765 million viewers this season, up 11% from last year. That’s on pace to be the franchise’s largest average audience since 2017. The Cubs-Cardinals game Aug. 10 averaged 1.977 million viewers, peaking at 2.115 million.
But Manfred wasn’t wrong when he accused ESPN of scaling back its baseball coverage. “Baseball Tonight” became a weekly show, and MLB rarely comes up on ESPN’s talk shows. Still, it’s better to be in business with ESPN than not, and it appears Manfred has found a way.
Unfortunately, it comes at the expense of a special broadcast that deserved to go out on a higher note. ESPN put “Sunday Night Baseball” in the pantheon of baseball programming with “This Week in Baseball” and NBC’s “Game of the Week.” After 865 broadcasts, there were countless memories to share, including several Cubs-White Sox tilts.
In June 2010, the Cubs’ Ted Lilly and the Sox’ Gavin Floyd each had no-hitters through six innings. Floyd’s bid ended in the seventh and Lilly’s in the ninth. In June 2008, both teams were in first place when they met on a Sunday night. And fans celebrated the Fourth of July with a Sunday night crosstown game in 2004.
ESPN could reclaim “Sunday Night Baseball” after the 2028 season, when all of MLB’s national TV contracts go to market. In the meantime, the franchise will have a new steward, which will have a lofty bar to reach.
Remote patrol
NFL Network personality and Chicago-area native Kyle Brandt is hosting “NFL Classics: After Further Review” on VICE TV. At 8 p.m. Wednesday, Brandt will be joined by Bears Hall of Famer Brian Urlacher and Chicago-born comedian Sebastian Maniscalco to examine the Bears’ memorable 2006 comeback against the Cardinals on “Monday Night Football.”
• Fox’s “Big Noon Kickoff” will make its first appearance in Champaign on Saturday, when No. 23 Illinois hosts No. 21 USC. The show will air from 9 to 11 a.m. from Grange Grove, just outside Gies Memorial Stadium. Gus Johnson, Joel Klatt and Jenny Taft will call the game at 11.
• Spero Dedes, former Bear Adam Archuleta and reporter Aditi Kinkhabwala will call the Bears-Raiders game at 3:25 p.m. Sunday on CBS.