ESPN reportedly interested in World Series rights, with Joe Buck on the call

Joe Buck has insisted he’s done being the voice of the World Series since leaving Fox, but that could change if MLB’s championship comes to ESPN.

Andrew Marchand of The Athletic reported Buck has agreed to a deal with ESPN worth more than $100 million. The six-year extension will keep Buck with ESPN long enough to call a second Super Bowl for the network in 2031. Buck and Troy Aikman will call the Super Bowl for ESPN this season, their first since calling Super Bowl LIV for Fox in 2020.

The deal should come as no surprise, with Buck recently admitting he hopes to finish his career at ESPN and that he would blindly sign a contract if it were handed to him. But the most surprising news in Marchand’s report might be that it teases a possible return to baseball for Buck. According to Marchand, ESPN chairman Jimmy Pitaro has an eye on acquiring World Series rights in 2029, and if it happens, he wants Buck to call it.

Last year, ESPN appeared to be finished with MLB, opting out of its media rights package that included the Home Run Derby, Sunday Night Baseball and a slate of playoff games. ESPN and MLB ultimately reached a smaller media rights package that began this season, but Pitaro apparently wants something much bigger, like the World Series. Fox still holds rights to the next three World Series, including this season.

Buck called a record 24 World Series in his career, the last coming in 2022 before he left Fox for ESPN. And in the years since leaving Fox, Buck has maintained that it was time to pass the World Series baton to someone else, with Joe Davis since becoming a more than adequate successor. Buck scratched his baseball itch by calling a game for ESPN this season and last. But Buck previously admitted he misses calling “big moments” in baseball. And how could he not? He was the voice of the World Series for a quarter-century; he has to miss it at least a little bit.

Missing those big moments doesn’t mean Buck was ever going to chase calling the World Series again. But that could change if ESPN eventually gets the World Series on their network. And when ESPN really wants something, they tend to get it. Buck and Aikman can attest to that.