There aren’t many holes on Mike Tirico’s resume.
But there’s one big one.
“It’s an easy one. I’ve said it. I’ve been asked multiple times,” Tirico said in a recent conversation with The Detroit News. “I’ve never called a baseball game … ever … at any level.
“At some point, I’d love to get a couple innings in during my career.”
There’s a good chance that happens someday, and potentially soon — especially now that his employer, NBC, again holds prime-time broadcasting rights for Major League Baseball.
Tirico, 59, the highly decorated sports broadcaster, grew up a big baseball fan in New York City. And on clear nights, he’d get a strong enough radio signal to listen to Jack Buck on KMOX 1120 in St. Louis, or Marty Brennaman on 700 WLW in Cincinnati, or, yes, Ernie Harwell and Paul Carey on 760 WJR in Detroit.
“I loved listening to all these great baseball announcers, and that somewhere deep down inside was the fuel for me to want to be a part of this,” said Tirico, “falling in love with baseball on the radio during the summer.”
But the closest he’s ever come to calling a baseball game was a summer at Syracuse in the 1980s, when he worked as the public-address announcer for the Triple-A affiliate of the Toronto Blue Jays.
Tirico has gone on, first at ESPN, now at NBC, to call some of sport’s biggest events, including this year’s Super Bowl and Olympics (on the same day!), and, more recently, the NBA’s Western Conference finals and golf’s U.S. Open. But baseball remains atop Tirico’s bucket list. Of course, there’s actually some benefit to having that void. It’s a cool job, but if there’s a drawback to being in sports media — if Tirico wasn’t, by the way, he figures he’d have made a good weatherman, or gone into politics — you naturally (and appropriately) lose your fandom. You root for good games and good story lines more than you root for any one team or player. But because he’s not a baseball broadcaster, Tirico still can be a fan, and he’s a fan of the Detroit Tigers. He’s been a season-ticket-holder since Comerica Park opened 2000. He moved to southeast Michigan in 1999. Wife Debbie is from Michigan.
“We were there on the snowy day against the Mariners when it was 35 degrees,” Tirico said of the first game at Comerica Park in 2000. “Such a crazy, silly, stupid day. I get down to Comerica whenever I can. … Like, I was in Vegas for an event (the other day), and the Tigers were on against the Rays at 10 a.m. and I’m like, ‘Hey, maybe we can win three in a row and get back in this,’ you know? Because I don’t cover baseball, it’s the one place I can still have fandom, and I do enjoy baseball a lot.
“I love listening to Dan Dickerson, Jason Benetti, all the people who’ve come before. Even when my wife and I moved here, Ernie was still going.”
Tirico has done some radio through the years — including the Masters — but he is known as a TV guy.
Yet, there’s just still something special about listening to a baseball game on the radio.
“There still is nothing like being Up North in the summer and listening to Dan Dickerson call a Tigers game,” said Tirico, who earlier this week was honored as a Detroit News Michiganian of the Year. “There is something about sitting on a porch during the summer, having a Summer Shandy or having a Bell’s something, a summer ale, and listening to Dan call the Tigers. I’ll never forget, my kids, who are now adults, they’d say Dan’s voice calling a Tigers game on the way Up North during the summer just feels like summer.”
No offense to baseball TV guys, of course, including Tigers TV play-by-play man Benetti, a friend of Tirico’s and a coworker, too. Benetti was named the lead voice of NBC’s “Sunday Night Baseball” for 2026.
In addition to the “Sunday Night Baseball” window, NBC has the “Sunday Leadoff” games on Peacock, too, leaving open the very real possibility Tirico’s bosses eventually will have him crossing baseball off his to-do list.
“At some point over the next few years,” said Tirico, “hopefully I’ll get a chance.
“It’s a sport that I love.”
tpaul@detroitnews.com
@tonypaul1984
This article originally appeared on The Detroit News: Tigers fan Mike Tirico has never called a baseball game. Well, not yet
Reporting by Tony Paul, The Detroit News / The Detroit News
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Tony Paul, The Detroit News | USA TODAY Network
