NY Islanders: After busy playoffs, Brendan Burke ready to call MLB games this summer

There's no off-season for Brendan Burke.

As first reported by the New York Post back in April, the New York Islanders play-by-play announcer for MSG Networks will be calling Major League Baseball games for Peacock, NBCUniversal's streaming service this season.

His summer gig starts on Sunday with Yankees-Reds from Cincinnati.

Peacock's exclusive national television baseball package, MLB Sunday Leadoff, is national games with early start times during an exclusive window before other games start. For example, the first pitch for Yankees-Reds is scheduled for 11:35 AM.

This latest career development for Burke comes after he was one of several fill-in radio announcers for John Sterling on Yankees radio broadcasts during the summer - which was a dream come true for the broadcaster who had recorded himself calling games from the left field stands at Yankee Stadium growing up.

The itch to do baseball games has always been there, but making it work with a hockey schedule that includes the Islanders and national games on TNT was always going to be a challenge - especially since Burke is one of TNT's playoff voices for the first two rounds of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Then there's his most important job, being a husband and father to three little ones.

However, as he told Neil Best in Newsday, this opportunity to call baseball games on a weekly basis during a break in his hockey schedule was unique and perfect for his situation. “It’s kind of a perfect fit for somebody who is trying to do baseball but still have somewhat of an offseason to recharge from what I have just gone through with hockey,” said the 38-year-old Burke.

Burke will have the opportunity to call 15 Major League Baseball games this summer after missing the first four of the Peacock package due to his hockey commitments with TNT, something that wasn't viewed as an obstacle for the network. “It was never really me asking them if they could make it work,” Burke told Newsday. “It was them saying, ‘We understand it can’t work while you're doing hockey, but after that would you be interested?’”

While Yankees fans will get to listen to Burke on Sunday, New York Mets fans will hear him call a game for another New York team wearing orange and blue on August 27th when the Mets take on the Los Angeles Angels.