Isles broadcaster Brendan Burke has a summer gig with baseball
New York Islanders broadcaster Brendan Burke works a game between the Islanders and the New Jersey Devils at UBS Arena on Thursday, Oct. 6, 2022 in Elmont, New York. Credit: Jim McIsaac
Brendan Burke knows and loves baseball. He grew up as the son of a baseball writer. He called Yankees games on radio as a fill-in for John Sterling last season.
But he also is a full-time hockey announcer, and a family man with a wife and three young children.
How does one wrap all that into a workable personal and professional package?
Burke believes he has found a way.
Starting with Sunday’s Yankees-Reds game, he will be the lead play-by-play man for Peacock’s exclusive national streaming package of Sunday baseball games.
The 15 games he is set to do will allow him to keep his hand in baseball but keep his primary focus on hockey, including Islanders games for MSG Networks.
“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,” he told Newsday.
“So one game a week is certainly a nice pace and not an opportunity that you get in baseball very often. If you get a baseball job, it’s usually a regular thing in terms of four, eight, 12 games in a row.
“To be able to do it once a week is a nice kind of easy pace where I can spend some time at home with the family but also continue to work all summer.”
Burke, 38, joined MSG in 2016 and was an immediate hit with most fans. He soon got national work with NBC and later Turner (now Warner Bros. Discovery).
It was through his previous connections at NBC that he was offered the Peacock gig, with the understanding that he could not start until after his playoff hockey duties were complete.
So he missed the first four Peacock games but now is on board through summer, including Angels-Mets on Aug. 27.
“It was never really me asking them if they could make it work,” he said. “It was them saying, ‘We understand it can’t work while you’re doing hockey, but after that, would you be interested?’ ”
He said starting with a Yankee game is a bonus.
“It’s actually the perfect way to kind of ease into it, where I have a little bit of knowledge, more knowledge about the Yankees than anybody else,” he said.
Burke, whose father, Don, covered the Yankees when Brendan was growing up, was thrilled to get an opportunity in the radio booth last season and got good reviews for his work.
But WFAN was looking for a full-time pregame and postgame host and a regular fill-in for Sterling for this season. The station hired Justin Shackil for that role.
Then Peacock came along, allowing Burke to scratch his baseball itch. He will succeed Jason Benetti, who called Peacock’s first season of MLB games but left for Fox.
“[Last season] definitely plugged me back into baseball,” Burke said. “Just being a part of it on a daily basis and talking to some people that I haven’t talked to in a while, I think it did two things.
“One, it sparked that within me, and two, it kind of put my name back into the baseball stratosphere where if I hadn’t done those Yankee games, I don’t know even with my relationship with people at NBC if they would have thought of me.”
Might Burke someday want to return to more of a role with the Yankees?
“I wouldn’t rule anything out in the future, but I’m certainly happy to be doing the baseball that I’m doing,” he said. “If the Yankees called and needed me to do something, I’m more than willing to listen to them.
“At this point, this is what my baseball schedule looks like, and we’ll take it from there.”
Burke said he likes Peacock’s 11:30 a.m. and noon start times and the fact that it uses local announcers as analysts.
“I get really knowledgeable people about the teams we’re covering, as opposed to somebody coming in and studying up on the game notes for a week and working through that game,” he said.
“I can ask them questions and they’ll have answers to them, not only leading up to the games but also while we’re on the air.”
Burke’s contract to work national hockey games for WBD is up and the one with Peacock is for only this year, so his 2024 schedule is TBD. For now, though, this works.
“I can kind of plug in and do a game a week and enjoy that but also not spend my entire summer doing baseball,” he said. “It’s perfect.”
Neil Best first worked at Newsday in 1982, returned in 1985 after a detour to Alaska and has been here since, specializing in high schools, college basketball, the NFL and most recently sports media and business.
