It's going to be a little bit weird this season to turn on NBC for Sunday Night Baseball.
For years, Sunday Night Baseball has been on ESPN, but frankly, the quality of the coverage has waned on ESPN in recent seasons, so I think the move to NBC might be a welcome change.
NBC will air a pair of games on Opening Day this year, plus a slate of games on Sundays. That schedule has been revealed, and here it is (all times Central):
- Opening Day, March 26: Pittsburgh at N.Y. Mets, noon; Arizona at L.A. Dodgers, 7 p.m.
- April 12: Cleveland at Atlanta, 6 p.m.
- May 31: Cubs at St. Louis, 6 p.m.
- June 7: San Francisco at Cubs, 7 p.m.
- June 14: Texas at Boston 6 p.m.
- June 21: N.Y. Mets at Philadelphia, 6 p.m.
- June 28: N.Y. Yankees at Boston, 6 p.m.
- July 5: N.Y. Mets at Atlanta, 11:30 a.m.; San Diego at L.A. Dodgers, 6 p.m.
- July 19: L.A. Dodgers at N.Y. Yankees 6 p.m.
- July 26: N.Y. Yankees at Philadelphia, 6 p.m.
- Aug. 2: Boston at L.A. Dodgers, 6 p.m.
- Aug. 9: Houston at San Diego, 7 p.m.
- Aug. 16: Seattle at Houston 6 p.m.
- Aug. 23: San Francisco at Boston, 2 p.m.
- Aug. 30: Cincinnati at Cubs, 2 p.m.; Houston at N.Y. Mets 6 p.m.
- Sept. 6: Atlanta at Philadelphia, 2 p.m.
- Sept. 7: St. Louis at San Francisco, 7 p.m.
You'll probably notice this schedule feature a lot of teams from bigger markets, with two notable absences. Neither the White Sox nor the Los Angeles Angels get an appearance.
I've seen some grumpy posts on social media from Sox fans, angry that a network has once again snubbed a team that resides in America's third-largest market.
Well, fans, you can thank Jerry Reinsdorf. As a matter of fact, the Sox and the Angels have both sunk into irrelevancy while being plagued by bad ownership. These are teams that should be draws, but they simply are not. It's the price of years of poor management.
