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NBC will roll out World Series heroes Orel Hershiser and Luis Gonzalez for its MLB Opening Day telecast, Front Office Sports has learned.
Hershiser and Gonzalez will join play-by-play announcer Jason Benetti in the broadcast booth for NBC’s primetime telecast of Dodgers-Diamondbacks from Los Angeles on March 26, say sources.
It will be the first iteration of NBC’s hybrid announcing model where Benetti calls most of NBC’s national baseball telecasts alongside local color commentators from the teams playing. In 1988, Hershiser won the NL Cy Young Award, NLCS MVP, and World Series MVP. Gonzalez delivered the game-winning hit against Derek Jeter’s Yankees in Game 7 of the 2001 World Series. The game between Shohei Ohtani’s Dodgers and Corbin Carroll’s Diamondbacks will be the only primetime game on MLB’s Opening Day. Earlier in the day, color commentators Al Leiter and Neil Walker will join play-by-play announcer Matt Vasgersian in the broadcast booth to call Mets-Pirates, which will air on NBC and Peacock.
NBC is also planning to have studio crews on-site for both Opening Day games. Bob Costas and recently retired Dodgers great Clayton Kershaw will be on-site at Dodgers Stadium as the team raises its latest championship banner. Ahmed Fareed and Adam Ottavino will be on-site at Citi Field in New York as Juan Soto’s Mets meet Paul Skenes and the Pirates.
FOS previously broke the news that Benetti was landing NBC’s baseball play-by-play job. FOS has also reported that NBC will roll out the triple play of Kershaw, Joey Votto, and Anthony Rizzo as studio analysts as the network returns to MLB coverage for the first time in 26 years.
As part of a three-year, $600 million deal with MLB, NBC is taking over the Sunday Night Baseball package from ESPN.
NBC declined to comment.
