Jon Miller and Joe Morgan will not return to Sunday Night Baseball in 2011, with the latter leaving ESPN altogether.
ESPN has declined to renew the contract of MLB analyst Joe Morgan, reports the New York Times, ending his 20-year run with the network. The network is in negotiations with play-by-play voice Jon Miller, but only for radio broadcasts.
ESPN EVP, Production Norby Williamson in a statement: “Jon and Joe have contributed greatly to the success of Sunday Night Baseball for the past 21 seasons. … We owe them our deepest thanks for an outstanding body of work.”
Miller and Morgan joined ESPN in 1989 and began broadcasting Sunday Night Baseball in 1990. They have been the #1 MLB broadcast team on ESPN ever since, joined by Steve Phillips in 2009 and Orel Hershiser in 2010.
Replacements have not been announced, but the New York Times suggests that it is “nearly certain” that Dan Shulman and Orel Hershiser will make up at least part of the new broadcast team.
(New York Times; Williamson statement from TwitLonger via ESPN PR)
