Clayton Kershaw, Anthony Rizzo, and Joey Votto have been hired as analysts by NBC when it returns to broadcasting Major League Baseball this year.

The network made the announcement during Sunday's Super Bowl pregame show.

Kershaw, Rizzo and Votto will appear on pregame shows leading into “Sunday Night Baseball” games depending on their schedules and availability. They also will be pregame analysts during coverage of the Wild Card round games on NBC and Peacock.

All three have recently retired from the game. Kershaw, a three-time NL Cy Young Award winner in 18 seasons, retired last year after the Los Angeles Dodgers won their third World Series title in six seasons.

Rizzo played 14 seasons for three teams and caught final out of the 2016 World Series to give the Chicago Cubs their first title since 1908. Rizzo, who retired last September, was also a three-time All-Star selection and four-time Gold Glove-winning first baseman.

Votto was with the Cincinnati Reds for 17 seasons and was the NL Most Valuable Player in 2010 before retiring in 2024.

“We’re excited to welcome Clayton, Anthony and Joey, three stars right off the field who can provide fresh perspective on the players, teams, and everything that makes baseball special,” NBC Sports Executive Producer Sam Flood said. “We look forward to rolling out some new concepts to take advantage of the unique insights of each analyst, beginning on Opening Day.”

NBC recently announced Bob Costas would host the “Sunday Night Baseball” pregame show. Ahmed Fareed will also be one of the hosts. It still has not announced its play-by-play announcers and analysts for the games.

NBC also debuted a Major League Baseball spot leading into Sunday's Super Bowl featuring New York Yankees slugger Aaron Judge along with NBC personalities. The spot will also air during the network's coverage of the Winter Olympics.

“Our new partnership with NBC and Peacock is off to an incredible start," said Uzma Rawn Dowler, MLB's Chief Marketing Officer and Senior Vice President of Global Corporate Partnerships. "They are promoting one of our top stars in a new spot, integrating popular NBC talent, and airing it in highly viewed programming. NBC’s promotional plans for MLB have been creative and demonstrate they are bringing great energy to promoting baseball.”

NBC has a long history with baseball, albeit not much recently. The network carried games from 1939 through 1989. It was part of the short-lived Baseball Network with ABC in 1994 and ’95 and then aired playoff games from 1996 through 2000.

NBC will have an opening-day doubleheader on March 26.

Reigning NL Cy Young Award winner Paul Skenes and the Pittsburgh Pirates will face Juan Soto and the New York Mets at 1 p.m. Eastern on NBC and Peacock. At 8 p.m., the two-time defending World Series champion Los Angeles Dodgers will host the Arizona Diamondbacks in the scheduled primetime game for that day.

“Sunday Night Baseball” debuts on Peacock and NBCSN on March 29 when the AL Central champion Cleveland Guardians face the AL West champion Seattle Mariners. The first Sunday night game on NBC will be on April 12 when the Guardians visit the Atlanta Braves.

The next six weeks will be on Peacock and NBCSN before NBC has Sunday night games from May 31 through Sept. 6.

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Donovan Mitchell was already in store for an emotional week.

The Cleveland Cavaliers guard was selected to the NBA All-Star Game for the seventh straight season and will watch his fiancée, Coco Jones, sing “Lift Every Voice and Sing” before Super Bowl 60 on Sunday.

Things took an unexpected turn on Wednesday when the Cavaliers traded Darius Garland to the Los Angeles Clippers for James Harden.

“It’s been a lot. There’s just so much going on,” Mitchell said after Cleveland’s 124-91 victory over the Clippers on Wednesday night.

The Cavaliers are on their longest road trip of the season and face the Sacramento Kings on Saturday night. Mitchell will then travel three hours to Santa Clara, California, to watch Jones perform before rejoining the Cavaliers in Denver for Monday’s game against the Nuggets.

Mitchell and the Grammy-winning singer announced their engagement last July after two years of dating. When the Cavaliers were eliminated in five games by the Indiana Pacers in the Eastern Conference semifinals last year, Mitchell said he was taking time off and “going on tour with good music.”

Jones was on tour last summer after releasing her debut studio album.

“I’m excited for her. It’s just great to see the success she’s having in her own right. She deserves this,” Mitchell said last week before the Cavaliers started their six-game road trip. “It’s something that is new for me to kind of just watch it. As much as I am her fiancée, I’m a fan of her work and her work ethic. And to see it on the biggest stage, it’s special.”

Mitchell, in his ninth season, is sixth in the NBA in scoring and averaging a career-high 28.8 points. He also leads the NBA with 178 made 3-pointers.

The Harden trade moves Mitchell back to full-time shooting guard. Garland was sidelined for stretches this season with big toe injuries, and Mitchell took on some point guard duties.

Harden, expected to make his Cavaliers debut Saturday night, is averaging 25.4 points per game and is on track for his best season since 2019-20.

“I think our ceiling is definitely higher when you have a guy like James Harden. You know what he brings, but with that, there’s definitely a higher expectation,” Mitchell said Wednesday night. “It’s not gonna always be pretty. You make a move at the deadline, there’s gonna be bumps in the road, but for us this is the time.”

Cavaliers president of basketball operations Koby Altman also admitted there will be a little bit of an acclimation period for his new backcourt to get up to speed.

“We’re going to have to adapt to James. He’s that good a player, but I think we’re going to still run,” he said. “We need to get the ball in Donovan’s hands, and we need to get the ball in James’ hands so that we’re going to have a great possession. And in the playoffs, I do still think it comes down to largely a half-court game, and so we really are thinking about that.”

Jones said during a press conference on Thursday that taking part in the Super Bowl is “pretty much the top of the top.” Her father, Mike Jones, was on the Tennessee Titans squad that played in Super Bowl 34.

“I just think that this is one of the most highly-viewed events of all time, and so it’s hard to compete. Maybe my wedding will be up there,” she said.

However, Mitchell hopes this will not be Jones’ only Super Bowl appearance.

“She’s going to perform at the Super Bowl at halftime. That’s the next goal. She’s going to keep doing her thing, but it’s a blessing to be able to somehow find a way to be a couple of hours away the night before. So it’s going to be special.”

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AP NBA: https://apnews.com/hub/nba

Mike Tirico doesn’t have many firsts left in what has been an extraordinary broadcast career.

However, this isn’t a normal February for Tirico.

On Sunday, Tirico will call his first Super Bowl. Immediately following the conclusion of the Seattle-New England game, Tirico will transition to his role as NBC’s primetime host for Olympic coverage. That will make Tirico the first to call a Super Bowl and serve as the main Olympic host in the same year.

“Nothing can match this winter. You don’t even think about dreaming of doing something like this because it’s stupid to think that this is reality. But I’m so excited for it and very blessed to be a part of it,” Tirico said.

Tirico’s unique February began Sunday, when he called a Los Angeles Lakers-New York Knicks game at Madison Square Garden to launch NBC’s “Sunday Night Basketball” package. The NBA returned to NBC this season for the first time since 2022.

It is the third time NBC has had the Winter Games and the Super Bowl in the same year, but only the second time both have overlapped on the same Sunday.

When the Patriots faced the Philadelphia Eagles in Super Bowl 52, the opening ceremony for the PyeongChang Games was five days away. Tirico did a remote hit from South Korea during the Super Bowl pregame show.

Tirico was the Super Bowl pregame host in 2022 when the game was in Los Angeles. After the presentation of the Vince Lombardi Trophy to the Rams, he did the Olympic primetime show from a set outside the stadium.

"For him to have this moment in time where he’s going to do the Super Bowl, he’s going to be the lead voice in the Olympics, he’s going to be the lead voice in the NBA — I can barely keep these two teams straight in my mind. How he keeps all of that inside that computer brain of his, I have no idea, but there’s nobody like him,” said Cris Collinsworth, who will be doing his sixth Super Bowl as an analyst.

Super Sunday milestone

Tirico becomes the 13th announcer to handle play-by-play duties for a Super Bowl, and the fourth to do it for NBC. Dick Enberg called eight of NBC’s 20 previous Super Bowls, while Curt Gowdy did seven, and Al Michaels called the last five.

One reason Tirico left ESPN for NBC in 2016 was the chance to eventually do a Super Bowl. Tirico was the voice of “Monday Night Football” from 2006 through ’15, but it wasn’t until the NFL’s current broadcast contracts began in 2023 that ESPN joined the rotation of Super Bowl broadcasters. ESPN will have next year’s game.

Sunday will be Tirico’s 290th NFL game, excluding preseason, according to NBC.

“I think if you call one (NFL game), you hope that this is one that you get to call eventually, and that opportunity is not lost on me. I’m extraordinarily grateful to all the people who’ve helped me get to this point,” he said. “We all work towards things in life, and maybe once we get there, we don’t appreciate the view. So just try to be part of this in a different, more magnetic way to make sure that these images, these days, stick. Just to enjoy it."

Even with extra time to prepare, Tirico has used the same approach as always. As soon as Seattle defeated San Francisco in the NFC championship game on Jan. 25, he was in his office, getting his game charts together and analyzing the backup quarterbacks.

Tirico will have plenty of storylines for Sunday, from Mike Vrabel turning around the Patriots in his first year as coach to quarterback Sam Darnold leading Seattle to the Super Bowl after signing as a free agent from Minnesota.

No matter how the game goes, producer Rob Hyland is confident Tirico will paint the perfect picture. Hyland pointed to Tirico telling the story of Baltimore rookie kicker Tyler Loop leading into a last-minute kick during the regular-season finale at Pittsburgh, without videotape, as evidence of Tirico’s performance.

“I think Mike has become, in my opinion, the best storyteller in live television. He told that kicker story in 25 seconds, and you really understood a lot about him, a lot about the Ravens organization, why they moved on from Justin Tucker,” Hyland said. “I think Mike’s ability to tell stories has only gotten better every single year since he’s been a part of NBC, and I think that’s an area where he is the best at what he does.”

Off to Milan

As soon as Sunday night’s Olympic show ends, Tirico will join a group of NBC personnel on a plane from Northern California to Italy. He is expected to begin reporting from Milan during Tuesday’s daytime coverage.

Besides Tirico, Gowdy, Greg Gumbel, and Jim Nantz have also done the Super Bowl and served as Olympic primetime hosts. The other three, though, didn’t do it the same year.

This will be Tirico’s fifth Olympics as primetime host and his third for a Winter Games. Before joining NBC, he covered the FIFA World Cups and UEFA European Championships for ESPN. Those month-long events helped shape how he approaches the hectic pace of the 16 days of the Olympics.

“Usually when I get to Olympics or World Cups, I’ve found myself on a really good schedule, getting your daily routine dialed in and just maintaining that because I think it maintains your sanity. Your sleep isn’t too long, but it’s quality sleep, you get a workout, and you get good meals, and you find the comforts that you need, and you make your way through it.”

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