In 1979, the start of ABC's Monday Night Baseball coverage was moved back to June, due to poor ratings during the May sweeps period.

[13] ABC also had a clause where they could air a game the last day of the regular season if it had playoff implications, such as in 1987 in regards to the Detroit Tigers' American League East pennant chase against the Toronto Blue Jays.

The team of Michaels, Palmer, and McCarver called that game in Detroit that day, in which the Tigers clinched the American League East crown.

However, in 1986, ABC did do a number of early season Sunday afternoon games before they went into Monday Night Baseball.

On April 7, 1983, Major League Baseball, ABC, and NBC agreed to terms of a six-year television package worth $1.2 billion.

During the 1986 season, Don Drysdale did play-by-play ABC's Sunday afternoon games, which aired until July, when Monday Night Baseball began.

Al Michaels did the main Sunday game usually with Jim Palmer, while Drysdale and Johnny Bench did the backup contests.

And then on Sunday, July 14 of that year, Dick Stockton and Jim Kaat called a game in Anaheim between the New York Yankees and California Angels.

[26][27][28] In March 2022, it was reported by The Wall Street Journal that NBC Sports was finalizing an agreement to establish a new package of Sunday afternoon games beginning in the 2022 MLB season.