ESPN and FOX have unveiled initial broadcast schedules for the 2024 Major League Baseball season, and even without a complete picture, there’s plenty to get excited about.
Postseason rematches, international road trips and special events abound. Here are some intriguing nationally televised games to mark on your calendar in 2024.
The 2024 campaign will mark the 35th consecutive season of ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball and will feature many of the sport’s top superstars, including Dodgers teammates Shohei Ohtani and Mookie Betts, Yankees stars Aaron Judge and Juan Soto, Rangers World Series MVP Corey Seager, Astros slugger Yordan Alvarez and many more.
Karl Ravech, David Cone and Eduardo Pérez will return for their third season as the Sunday Night Baseball broadcast team. The trio will be joined by Buster Olney, who enters his 14th season as the Sunday Night Baseball reporter. ESPN Radio’s Jon “Boog” Sciambi and Doug Glanville will return for their third season together calling Sunday Night Baseball, which will also be available in Spanish on ESPN Deportes.
March 20-21: Padres vs. Dodgers
2024 Seoul Series
The 2024 season will kick off in Seoul, South Korea, with the first of four series that will comprise this year’s MLB World Tour. The Seoul Series opener will be the ninth Opening Day game to be played outside the United States or Canada, and the first regular-season game played on Korean soil in MLB history. This game will also be Shohei Ohtani’s official Dodgers debut after signing his 10-year, $700 million contract in December.
April 7: Astros vs. Rangers
A faceoff of division rivals and, more importantly, a rematch of the incredible 2023 American League Championship Series — what more could we ask for? Aside from a few notable on-field altercations between the clubs in 2023, you’ll remember that the Rangers spent 159 days at the top of the AL West in 2023, only to lose the division to the Astros on the final day of the season courtesy of a tiebreaker. Later, of course, the Rangers would win their first AL pennant since 2011 and the franchise’s first World Series title after defeating the Astros in a seven-game LCS matchup. If there wasn’t a rivalry here to draw you in before, there certainly is one now.
April 28: Cubs vs. Red Sox
The Cubs will make just their fourth regular-season trip to Fenway Park — and their first since 2017 — in a series that should feel pretty nostalgic for all involved, with its finale featuring on Sunday Night Baseball.
June 9: Dodgers vs. Yankees
For all their World Series matchups, the Dodgers have played just five regular-season games against the Yankees in New York, the last of which came in 2016. The overarching narrative, however, is a familiar one — this series will be your only guaranteed opportunity to catch a highly-coveted Aaron Judge-Shohei Ohtani matchup in 2024.
Aug. 18: Tigers vs. Yankees
Little League Classic
The seventh annual MLB Little League Classic at Historic Bowman Field in Williamsport will be the first for both Detroit and New York — something of a fitting honor for a promising young Tigers team.
FOX Sports is heading into its 29th season providing Major League Baseball coverage. Its schedule opens with the latest chapter in an NL East Division rivalry as Ronald Acuña Jr. and the Braves host Bryce Harper and the Phillies. All games on FOX, FS1 or FOX Deportes will be simulcast on the FOX Sports app.
Beyond its slate of premier regular-season games, FOX will also celebrate its 25th year broadcasting the MLB All-Star Game. The 2024 MLB All-Star Game presented by Mastercard will be held on July 16 from Globe Life Field, the home of the Rangers.
March 30: Phillies vs. Braves
As part of Opening Weekend festivities, FOX will air three games on March 30, but of the group — which is scheduled to include Yankees-Astros, Giants-Padres and Braves-Phillies — it’s the last that’s likely to be the most compelling. In each of the past two seasons, an underdog Phillies squad has unceremoniously dashed the Braves’ playoff hopes in the NLDS, so it’s only appropriate that they should get another shot at each other right off the bat in 2024.
June 8: Phillies vs. Mets
2024 London Series
The third edition of the MLB London Series will feature yet another great rivalry. The city hosted the Red Sox and Yankees in 2019 and the Cardinals and Cubs in 2023, and FOX will air the first game of the series between the Phillies and Mets on Saturday, June 8.
June 20: Giants vs. Cardinals
MLB at Rickwood Field
Rickwood Field, once the home of the Birmingham Black Barons, is the oldest professional ballpark in the United States, having opened all the way back in 1910. For one special night this season, in observance of Juneteenth and as a salute to the Negro Leagues, the ballpark will host its first Major League Baseball game, with both clubs sporting special uniforms honoring their respective cities’ Negro Leagues histories. The event should be extra significant for Giants fans, as franchise legend Willie Mays, a Birmingham native, played at Rickwood Field as a member of the Black Barons as a teenager.