Long Time Voices Staying Only A Short Time

As we prepare to find out which teams will be in the Super Bowl this coming Sunday, it's baseball broadcasters taking the headlines this week.

While Bob Costas will call at least 20 telecasts for MLB Network again this season and have an expanded role there, The New York Post confirmed that Costas is officially gone from NBC Sports. The report claims that his NBC contract was ended three years before it had been scheduled to per mutual agreement.

As for the most significant baseball broadcaster announcement of the year, "this one belongs to the Reds". Marty Brennaman, who is about to start his 46th consecutive season calling Reds games, announced that the 2019 season will be his last. The 76 year old Brennaman took over the Reds job for the 1974 season, which began with his calling Hank Aaron's 714th career homerun during the opening series.

Despite his longevity in the position, the broadcaster he replaced in Cincinnati remains on the air as well. It was none other than Al Michaels who left the Reds gig after the 1973 season for his network career.

Although Brennaman settled on baseball, his basketball play-by-play early in his career included calling the Virginia Squires of the ABA, which had a star forward by the name of Julius Erving during his tenure there. Michaels, while now associated with calling NFL games for NBC, called baseball for ABC and is also known for calling the 1980 Olympic hockey games during the USA's run to the Gold Medal.

Brennaman was joined for the majority of his career by the late Joe Nuxhall. Looking forward to his being honored at the visiting parks throughout the season.

It's a similar story in Pittsburgh, where Steve Blass is also going to retire following his 34th full season in the Pirates' booth. Even more incredibly, Blass will have been with the Pirates, going back to his pitching days, for 60 years. Blass and former pitcher Bob Walk will have been broadcast partners for 25 years. He is also 76 years old.

In New York, Howie Rose has his new broadcast partners on Mets radio starting with the coming season. Wayne Randazzo joins the booth as analyst, while continuing as host of the post-game show. Ed Coleman, who covers the Mets for sister station WFAN, will take over the pre-game hosting. The Mets broadcasts are moving to WCBS 880 starting this season.

The Detroit Tigers TV broadcast roster is finally settled after the ouster of both Mario Impemba and Rod Allen resulting from their reported altercation late last season. Matt Shepard, who filled in for Impemba in September, has been given the play-by-play spot. Kirk Gibson and Jack Morris, who were used occasionally as analysts last season, will rotate in the role. Shepard has been the morning host of WDFN-AM. He has been the radio voice of University of Michigan basketball and Eastern Michigan football. No word yet as to whether he will continue with the football broadcasts.

Not a change, but still another honor for Cubs radio voice Pat Hughes. The National Sports Media Association has named him "Illinois Sportscaster of the Year", the ninth time he has earned this honor. These are in addition to having won this Award in Wisconsin during his tenure with the Brewers prior to coming to the Cubs in the mid-90's.


Elsewhere, Yahoo Sports has partnered with Turner Sports and the NBA to produce a streaming game night show. The show will air for three hours five nights per week and include updates, highlights from live games, interviews, and analysis. The show will also have social media interaction. It will run from 8 to 11 PM ET starting on Tuesday (1/22), with a special debut edition from 5 to 8 PM on Monday (1/21) due to earlier action on Martin Luther King Day.


Along those same lines, Fox Sports will co-produce a streaming MLB highlights show, also slated for five nights a week, to begin with the coming baseball season. This show is expected to have live look-ins. The length and time slot has yet to be announced, but we do know that this show will be separate from Fox's MLB Whiparound and MLB Network's MLB Tonight.


MINNEAPOLIS: The new Sports Director at WCCO-TV is Mike Max, who comes across from his "Sports to the Max" show on WCCO-AM. No word yet as to whether or not his radio show will continue.


NORFOLK: Now we know more about why Nick Cattles returned to WVSP-FM ESPN 94.1 last june after having left for WBZ-FM Boston Sports Hub. Cattles has been promoted to Program Director. His first stint with the station was from 2012 to 2017.