ESPN’s coverage of Major League Baseball ends this season and that means the end, for now, of Sunday Night Baseball.
The long-running telecast debuted in 1990 with a game between the New York Mets and Montreal Expos. On the call that night were Jon Miller and Joe Morgan. That duo remained together for 21 seasons before their contracts were not renewed in 2010.
Morgan passed away in 2020 but Miller is still in the broadcast booth, calling games for the San Francisco Giants just as he has since 1997.
While the SNB days are long behind him, Miller still thinks fondly of that era and everything he and Morgan got to see while calling those games.
OnPattison’s Tim Kelly spoke with Miller as the Giants are in Philadelphia this weekend, asking him what he thinks about all the people who say they miss hearing Miller and Morgan calling games on ESPN.
What does it mean to Jon Miller that so many people still miss the era of him and Joe Morgan on Sunday Night Baseball? @TimKellySports asked him that, and got so much more in the Hall of Famer’s answer. pic.twitter.com/NQtL06UPgK
— On Pattison (@OnPattison) April 20, 2025
“It’s gratifying if I happen to see that. But at the same time, I had 21 years where Joe and I were together in primetime every Sunday night. Who has a run like that on national TV? We had no regrets. It was probably time for them to do something different anyway,” said Miller. “But I think the main thing for us was that we had fun.”
While some ESPN viewers have bemoaned that the modern iteration of SNB mostly focuses on the most prominent teams, Miller remembers a time when they would showcase every MLB team throughout the season.
“When the thing started, the idea was it was 26 weeks of Sunday Night Baseball, and we would be in 26 ballparks,” he said. “We could never go to a ballpark a second time. That was the first time in baseball and national TV that every ballpark was going to be included because when we started, there were only 26 teams, so we were going everywhere. I think we enjoyed that. Right away, we’re going to every ballpark every year.
“I think as time went on, they thought, well, if we could go to Yankee Stadium a second time, that would be good, or Fenway, or Wrigley, or Dodger Stadium, or the ballparks that people really want to see.”
Miller remembers the impact that a telecast like Sunday Night Baseball could have back in the 1990s, before the internet. Whereas the Seattle Mariners were often a forgotten franchise, being able to showcase them, and young star Ken Griffey, Jr., on national television, may have had an impact on how he was appreciated across the nation.
“The thing I really remember was 1990 when we started, Ken Griffey, Jr. was a young, up and coming guy,” said Miller. “We not only saw Ken Griffey Jr. on a national TV, but Joe had known him since he was a little kid and had been a teammate with his dad. So we’re not only seeing Griffey, we’re seeing him at the Kingdome. When was the Kingdome ever on national TV with Mariners’ baseball? They were still a team down. I think Griffey that year ended up being voted into the All-Star Game. I think a lot of people really felt that that national exposure on ESPN helped him get well enough known that was something that became inevitable that he would get voted in.
“As time went on, of course, he ended up being one of the greatest players of the era and voted on many lists, the greatest of that era or even of the 20th century. So not so surprising. But at that time, he was in a ballpark that nobody ever saw, on a team that nobody ever saw, whose games happened late at night on the East Coast. They weren’t even in the papers the next morning. I think that was fun for us.”
Ultimately, Miller said that while calling local games for the Giants was the most fun, getting to go to a new ballpark and see different teams each weekend made for an unforgettable time in his life.
“It was the best of both worlds for a baseball fan like me,” he said.
