What an unfortunate thing to happen on "Dozen-Egg Night."
Viewers tuning into the ALDS on Tuesday night will hear a familiar, velvety voice coming over the airwaves — that's because Bob Costas returns to the postseason baseball scene, decades after hanging up his microphone on the equally high-stakes BASEketball scene.
Costas heads up a duo that features former MLB player and current analyst Ron Darling in the TBS booth for the Yankees-Guardians ALDS series, marking a return of Costas to the broadcast booth for a playoff series for the first time in over 20 years.
MORE: Watch Yankees-Guardians ALDS starting Tuesday
And, of course, for Costas, baseball is still his first love.
"It’s the sport that I still follow most closely," Costas told The Athletic. "Am I still interested in other sports? Yes. But am I connected to baseball? Yeah, more so than the other sports."
Here's why Costas is calling the ALDS starting on Tuesday night:
Why is Bob Costas calling Yankees-Guardians?
Costas is calling the Yankees-Guardians ALDS as an expansion of his TBS duties that he's handled throughout the 2022 season; Costas has been calling games for TBS' Tuesday night national package in 2022, sharing play-by-play role with Brian Anderson.
Costas has also held spot duty for MLB Network and YES Network recently, but this marks the first time since the 2000 ALCS between the Yankees and Mariners that he'll have the opportunity to call a playoff series in its entirety.
In years past, Costas has called a game here or there during the division series for MLB Network, but not a full series.
Calling a full series, of course, is a benefit for him (via The Athletic):
To do a full series like this, I haven’t done that since I did the ALCS for NBC in 2000, the Mariners against the Yankees. So it allows you to get into a rhythm. It isn’t quite like playing, but it’s the closest thing to it. You remember every pitch. So if something happens in Game 3 and it somehow connects to some tension from Game 1, you’re on top of it in the way that a good local announcer would be.
Costas has actually worked with TBS throughout the 2022 season, calling "Tuesday Night Baseball" games for the network's nationally televised games.
Beyond the ALDS, Costas will host TBS' on-site studio for the ALCS, joined by Pedro Martinez, Jimmy Rollins and Curtis Granderson.
