Prior to 1979, local team announcers called the World Series on the national radio feed. Since then, the broadcast has been led by national guys. That latter list of national play-by-players isn’t long:
Vin Scully
Jack Buck
Jon Miller
Dan Shulman
Beginning next year on ESPN Radio, a new name will be added to that list, The Post has learned.
Jon Sciambi
Sciambi will take over for Shulman on next year’s World Series. Shulman remains on the call this year, his final one on ESPN Radio.
New deals: The moves are all very cordial and come with both Sciambi and Shulman receiving new contracts. Shulman, by his choosing, will only do college basketball for ESPN, where he is the network’s lead play-by-player.
Oh, Canada: A big reason why Shulman chose to relinquish the spot is that he is the Blue Jays’ TV play-by-player on SportsNet. The way it works in Canada, if the Blue Jays ever made a run to the World Series, Shulman would be on the call throughout. If he were to continue on ESPN Radio as the World Series play-by-player, he would not be able to do that. Plus, after doing a full load of Blue Jays’ regular season baseball, if Toronto doesn’t go to the playoffs, having a break before college hoops travel is probably not the worst thing.
Boog time: Sciambi is ESPN Radio’s No. 1 MLB play-by-player, doing the vast majority of Sunday night games. He also does the playoffs. As good as Shulman is, it did not seem right that Sciambi did the whole season and then Shulman parachuted in for the playoffs and got to do the World Series. Everyone seemed to agree it was Sciambi’s time, including Shulman.
History lesson: For national radio, the World Series used the local announcers until 1979. From then on, Vin Scully and Jack Buck volleyed it back and forth until Miller took over in 1998. When ESPN Radio got the rights, Miller got the mic and had it until 2010. It’s been Shulman’s ever since. Now, it will belong to Sciambi.
Why it matters: While TV pays more, radio is often where the everlasting calls come from. There is a romance to the radio calls. It is a great honor for Sciambi to have that mantle now.
Quick clicks
• Carlos Correa was very good as a guest analyst in TBS’s MLB studio during the Division series. He made a great point about the elimination of the shift. While most have focused on what it means for added offense, Correa said, as a shortstop, he is looking forward to being able to be an athlete again as he will play where his position has historically been situated. Correa, 28, is going to play for a long time, but, post-playing, TV could be something to pursue.
• On Thursday’s Amazon Prime Thursday Night Football game, Al Michaels said, “Just my feeling,” the league would love for Dan Snyder to sell the Washington Commanders. Friday, Michaels introduced Pats owner Robert Kraft and his new wife, Dana Blumberg at their surprise wedding reception in New York. I don’t really believe in coincidences; it’s just my feeling that Michaels may have had some insight into what the league and influential owners want.
• Fox Sports may have lost Joe Buck, but it has added some really good voices in the last couple of years. It decided to go with Joe Davis as its No. 1 MLB play-by-player and its No. 2 NFL game-caller. It also hired Adam Amin and Jason Benetti, who both may be better on baseball and football than Davis. On Sunday, it had Noah Eagle, 25, call his first NFL game — on 49ers-Falcons. Eagle, the son of CBS’s Ian, was added by Fox Sports this college season after he worked at CBS last year. He also called the two Nickelodeon NFL games, which have been huge successes. On hoops, he is the radio voice of the Clippers and has done a ton of tennis for the Tennis Channel. With the Jets and Giants on my main TVs during the early window (Ian was doing Giants-Ravens at the same time as Noah’s debut), I heard Noah’s calls through the “Red Zone Channel.” It wasn’t a surprise, as I’ve watched a good amount of Noah’s college work to know, he sounds a lot like his father, which is another way to say, even at such a young age, he is up to calling big games. To use the vernacular of the podcast, Noah is, “On the way up.”
• NFL reporters want to cover sports media, and we can’t blame them; it’s fun. Adam Schefter tweeted about the Eagle family, comparing them to the Bucks and Alberts. NFL insider Peter Schrager noted on Fox that with Kevin Burkhardt and Greg Olsen on the Jets game, it was the first time that the network’s “A” crew had been on a Jets’ game in nearly two decades. The last time featured the three-man team of Buck, Troy Aikman and Cris Collinsworth. Time should always be marked by who was broadcasting games.
• Rob Gronkowski has rejoined Fox’s NFL studio shows to do goofy things, like he did in his previous stint.
• There are not a lot of minority play-by-players, so it was noteworthy to hear the radio calls of the Astros-Mariners by Houston’s Robert Ford and Seattle’s Dave Simms. They both have New York connections, as Ford grew up in The Bronx, while Simms was a WFAN mid-morning host for years, partnering with Ed Coleman.
• With Burkhardt on the NFL, Matt Vasgersian, a favorite of Fox Sports executive producer Brad Zager, was back in the fold for the network, hosting the network’s MLB playoff studio show.
• Speaking of Fox’s baseball studio show, good stuff from Alex Rodriguez when he said it was “gimmicky” and “ridiculous” that Aaron Judge batted leadoff. While I got a little chuckle when A-Rod referenced himself with all the great hitters who never batted first (he deserves to be included, but still funny), what made it work was that he backed up what he said, by making a chess analogy. He explained that Judge needed protection in the lineup both in front of him and behind. He called out Yankees GM Brian Cashman and manager Aaron Boone in the process.
• The United States women’s national team’s friendly with England drew 726,000 viewers on a Friday afternoon. That’s pretty good. …… NBC’s Arlo White replacement on the Premier League, Peter Dury, is excellent. No surprise, he was up to the Liverpool-Manchester City Sunday match.
• Props to ESPN New York’s Anita Marks for starting the year 12-3 against the spread on her locks of the week. While that is an incredible record, the reason she deserves credit is because, while she knows her stuff, she mentioned Sunday morning there is luck involved. With gambling so prevalent, there is a real currency in acting like you really know what outcomes will be. Marks could actually say that so far this year, but chose humility.
Ebersol on Romo
Dick Ebersol wasn’t plausibly believable when he walked back his comments made to CNN’s Chris Wallace about Tony Romo as a broadcaster.
This was Ebersol’s first crack at it with Wallace:
Ebersol: I’ve known Tony Romo since he first got to the pros. He’s an unbelievably engaging guy, he should have been a terrific, great broadcaster. Something’s happened since he got into that chair. And it doesn’t seem like he’s into it. Like he was on his way up. He does not seem to be the storyteller that he should be. The thing that makes [Al] Michaels great, [Joe] Buck great, and all these guys, are they’re really, they’re really storytellers. And Tony has gotten further and further away from that, I think.
Wallace: That’s interesting you say that, because I’m very much in [the] minority, I kind of feel the same about Tony Romo, which is, there’s a lot of enthusiasm and a lot of predicting the play, but I don’t really feel we’re watching the game together.
Ebersol: I’d love to be his producer for about six months. I think I could cure this quickly.
Wallace: What would you say to him?
Ebersol: Get your head in the game. I mean, you’ve really got to work hard to be prepared. I’m sure I’ll get all kinds of phone calls and notes and stuff like that. But that is how I feel and, you know, I’m sort of a veteran of the Wallace family.
Wallace: But I was gonna say that.
Ebersol: You didn’t have to press hard.
Wallace: Is there anybody else you’d like to say controversial things about you know?
Ebersol: No, but this … is somebody who should be an announcer for the ages, but clearly has lost his passion for it. And I would have him in my office often; not to kick his ass, but just to keep reminding him of what put him there in the first place.
Later, after the quotes were public, in a statement to The Post’s Ryan Glasspiegel, Ebersol back-tracked in an amazing reversal.
“Tony Romo is like a son to me. I am truly his biggest fan on and off the field. As a fan, and a producer, I have always been known to offer up unsolicited notes. But this time, after a long day of interviews, I went too far and frankly said things that I do not believe and are simply not true.
“No announcer is more passionate about the NFL than Tony Romo, and I personally cannot wait to hear his call this and every Sunday. He is as good as it gets.”
Despite his attempt to soften his critique, Ebersol’s original sentiment has been bubbling in sports media circles; especially behind the scenes. I criticized the team of Jim Nantz and Romo last year, because they have been disjointed, not sounding on the same page. They sometimes sounded like they were calling two different games and not playing off each other as a team that likes each other’s company. The funny thing is, last Friday, Romo, on with Adam Schein just talking football on CBS Sports Network, sounded relaxed and really into it.
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