ESPN presented its weekly Sunday Night Baseball matchup between the San Diego Padres and Los Angeles Dodgers this past Sunday from Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles, Calif. The game featured at-bats from superstars including Shohei Ohtani, Mookie Betts and Manny Machado and a stellar pitching duel between James Paxton and Yu Darvish. ESPN viewers were also able to enjoy a mic’d-up interview with Padres outfielder Jurickson Profar, who was on the microphone during play in the bottom of the third inning. The coverage of the matchup culminated into a viewership milestone with an average audience measurement of 1.96 million viewers, according to data from Nielsen Media Research.

The broadcast of Sunday Night Baseball peaked at 9:30 p.m. EST with nearly 2.22 million viewers, marking the property’s most-watched game in the last six years, those featuring the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox notwithstanding.

Through the first four game broadcasts of the season, which included MLB Opening Night in Seoul, South Korea and three presentations of Sunday Night Baseball, MLB games on ESPN are averaging approximately 1.72 million viewers for the 2024 season. The metric is up 20% from the same point last season, which began with a game between the Philadelphia Phillies and Texas Rangers. Karl Ravech, Eduardo Perez, David Cone and Buster Olney have all remained on the Sunday Night Baseball broadcast team for the 2024 campaign.

Viewership for the Padres-Dodgers game was up 38% compared to last year’s Sunday Night Baseball season average, which ended with an average of 1.45 million viewers according to Sports Business Journal. Moreover, the National League West showdown was up 58% in the Persons 18-49 demographic. The Padres ended up winning the game 6-3 after overcoming a deficit in the late innings on the strength of a three-run double from the aforementioned Profar.

ESPN will broadcast the interleague matchup between the defending World Series champion Texas Rangers and National League East division champion Atlanta Braves this Sunday, April 21 at 7 p.m. EST. Additionally, ESPN was also recently nominated for a Sports Emmy Award in the category of “Outstanding Audio/Sound – Live Event” for its Sunday Night Baseball property.

Normally a Monday night baseball game in Oakland between the A’s and the St. Louis Cardinals wouldn’t draw much fanfare. In fact, you could actually count the number of fans that were on hand to witness the 3-1 Cardinals win on Jackie Robinson Day around Major League Baseball. However, for the Caray family, including Cardinals broadcaster Chip Caray and A’s broadcaster Chirs Caray, this game meant the world as father and son were on separate television broadcasts of the same game.

The broadcast booths were a couple doors down from each other as Chip called the game on Bally Sports Midwest and Chris had the call on NBC Sports California. Chip Caray is the son of the late baseball broadcaster Skip Caray and grandson of the late, great Harry Caray.

“I feel like the happiest man on Earth right now,” Chris Caray told Martin Gallegos who covers the A’s for MLB.com . “I get to see my Dad and him being incredibly proud of me. And me being equally, if not more, proud of him for being able to do this and set the framework for what our family does.”

A’s color analyst Dallas Braden talked about the father-son dup on the A’s broadcast saying, “This was awesome. I know you have done a fantastic job of everything that has come your way. To have the opportunity to be on a big-league diamond with your father has got to be an incredible, incredible moment, and really a full circle moment. One that I am very grateful to enjoy and share with you, but one that I was really excited to watch you share and enjoy with your dad.”

“Thank you, Dallas. It’s really special. I am just so proud of him…it’s all coming together,” an emotional Chris Caray replied.

“I would say so my friend, because it’s been a long road to get here, but I think it’s always nice to acknowledge and remember that there’s people who lay the path down for us to travel,” said Braden. “And on a day when we are acknowledging the path of so many before us, I think it’s also nice to acknowledge that you have earned every bit of what you have received up until this point and we are going to keep working harder my friend.”

According to a story in the Chicago Sun-Times, three Chicago sports teams, the Bulls, White Sox and Blackhawks, will soon be headed to a new television home. Jeff Agrest reports the teams’ contract with current rightsholder NBC Sports Chicago will expire in October and upon expiration, or before the White Sox begin play next season, the games will move to Stadium, a multiplatform sports network.

Stadium has its offices and studio inside the United Center, and according to the report would convert into a regional sports network and look for distribution on pay-TV providers. Bulls and White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf acquired a majority of Stadium last spring. He had initially been part of the project when it launched in 2017 along with Sinclair Broadcast Group.

Stadium offers live sports, mostly from college conferences. It also offers studio programming and highlight shows.