{"id":480932,"date":"2026-02-21T01:11:12","date_gmt":"2026-02-21T01:11:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/480932\/"},"modified":"2026-02-21T01:11:12","modified_gmt":"2026-02-21T01:11:12","slug":"baseball-is-back-but-sunday-nights-are-changing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/480932\/","title":{"rendered":"Baseball is back \u2014 but Sunday nights are changing"},"content":{"rendered":"

If you\u2019re a baseball fan, you\u2019ve likely been twiddling your thumbs since November when the Los Angeles Dodgers won their second World Series in a row.<\/p>\n

The regular season for college football ended in late November, and the NFL regular season in early January.<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

However, Friday is the first day of spring training games in Florida and Arizona.<\/p>\n

\"Padres<\/p>\n

San Diego Padres right fielder Fernando Tatis Jr. runs onto the field before a spring training baseball game against the Seattle Mariners, Friday, Feb. 20, 2026, in Peoria, Ariz. | Charlie Riedel<\/p>\n

The Yankees took on the Orioles in Grapefruit League play, and the White Sox took on the Cubs in Cactus League action, with several more games this afternoon.<\/p>\n

And while that\u2019s glorious news to avid MLB watchers, there\u2019s already some bad news for baseball junkies.<\/p>\n

ESPN will replace \u201cSunday Night Baseball\u201d with \u201cWomen\u2019s Sports Sundays,\u201d featuring top games from the WNBA and the WNSL.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s what people are saying onlineNBC to pick up \u2018Sunday Night Baseball\u2019\"Tigers<\/p>\n

The Detroit Tigers take batting practice during workouts at spring training baseball, Friday, Feb. 20, 2026, in Lakeland. | Mike Stewart<\/p>\n

ESPN aired \u201cSunday Night Baseball\u201d for the past 35 years, but the program will move to NBC for the 2026 MLB season.<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

The schedule will feature 25 \u201cSunday Night Baseball\u201d games across NBC and Peacock, beginning Sunday, March 29, and an Opening Day doubleheader on Thursday, March 26.<\/p>\n

The New York Post<\/a> reported that ESPN is boosting its investment in women\u2019s sports programming after seeing increased viewership for WNBA broadcasts. Last season, ESPN and ABC saw ratings for WNBA games rise 6%, with an average of 1.3 million viewers.<\/p>\n

\u201cWomen\u2019s sports are experiencing continuing momentum, and Women\u2019s Sports Sundays is ESPN\u2019s next step in meeting that demand,\u201d Rosalyn Durant, an ESPN executive, said.<\/p>\n

\"Wilson<\/p>\n

Las Vegas Aces center A’ja Wilson, center right, holds up her MVP trophy after Game 4 of the WNBA basketball finals against the Phoenix Mercury, Friday, Oct. 10, 2025, in Phoenix. | Rick Scuteri<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If you\u2019re a baseball fan, you\u2019ve likely been twiddling your thumbs since November when the Los Angeles Dodgers…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":480933,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[188707,1017,9894,372,352,57684,363,5551,2328,481,99,221886,82415,59462,36362,434,12404],"class_list":{"0":"post-480932","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-a39ja-wilson","9":"tag-arizona","10":"tag-cubs","11":"tag-detroit-tigers","12":"tag-espn","13":"tag-fernando-tatis-jr","14":"tag-mlb","15":"tag-phoenix-mercury","16":"tag-san-diego-padres","17":"tag-seattle-mariners","18":"tag-sports","19":"tag-spring-training-baseball-game","20":"tag-sunday-night-baseball","21":"tag-the-los-angeles-dodgers","22":"tag-white-sox","23":"tag-wnba","24":"tag-yankees"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/480932","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=480932"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/480932\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/480933"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=480932"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=480932"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=480932"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}