Ernie Harwell, the long-time voice of the Tigers, will receive the Vin Scully Lifetime Achievement Award in Sports Broadcasting during WFUV Radio’s Spring Gala at Fordham University. The 92 year-old Hall of Fame broadcaster is the third recipient of the VSLA, named for the former alum and Dodger broadcast icon, joining inaugural honoree Vin Scully (2008) and Dick Enberg (2009).
Jon Miller, who has been broadcasting San Francisco Giants games since 1997, is this year’s Ford Frick Award winner. Widely respected for his work, Miller broadcast games for four teams prior to working for the Giants, including those of the Baltimore Orioles from 1983 to 1996. Since 1990, he has described ESPN’s nationally-televized Sunday night game in partnership with Joe Morgan.
Sports Illustrated names Derek Jeter as its Sportsman of the Year, making the ‘Captain’ the first Yankee honored by the magazine. The other baseball recipients to win the award, given annually since SI’s inception in 1954, include Johnny Podres (Dodgers – 1955), Stan Musial (Cardinals – 1957), Sandy Koufax (Dodgers – 1965), Tom Seaver (Mets – 1969), Pete Rose (Reds – 1975), Orel Hershiser (Dodgers – 1988), Cal Ripken Jr. (Orioles – 1995), Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa (Cardinals, Cubs – 1998), Randy Johnson and Curt Schilling (Diamondbacks – 2001), and the entire Red Sox team (2004).
New York Yankees Public Address announcer Bob Sheppard officially retires at the age of 99. Known as the “Voice of God,” Sheppard had been the Yankees PA announcer from 1951 to 2007 before his deteriorating health forced him to step down. He briefly returned in 2008 to announce the Yankees lineup for the final game at the old Yankee Stadium.
Major League Baseball launches MLB Network, a cable and satellite television channel based out of Secaucus, NJ. The channel debuts in nearly 50 million cable and satellite homes – the largest debut in cable television history, exceeding any other cable television launch by approximately 20 million homes.
“We can’t tell you to survive the storms of life, we can tell you to dance in the rain, and you can do it. You really can do it. Very difficult, but possible.” – VIN SCULLY, delivering the commencement address at Pepperdine University. Vin Scully receives an honorary Doctor of Laws degree from Pepperdine University in Malibu, the institution’s highest honor. The Dodgers’ Hall of Fame broadcaster delivers a stirring commencement address to the 2008 Class of Seaver College, telling the graduates that achieving dreams may be “very difficult, but possible”.
Barry Bonds’ Reality TV Show chronicling the slugger during his pursuit of Hank Aaron’s career home run record will debut April 4th on ESPN2, the television network announces.
Nikko Smith, Ozzie’s son who made it to the third round of theAmerican Idol semi-finals, is voted off the popular reality show. A few days later, the young entertainer will be asked back by the producers to replace Mario Vazquez, who withdrew from the competition, prompting judge Paula Abdul to call him “The Comeback Kid” after his performance of West Side Story’s “One Hand, One Heart”.
“You want the truth. You can’t handle the truth. The truth of this situation is an extremely talented bunch of guys who want to look at all directions except where they should really look and kind of make excuses for what happened. At the end of the day, boys, don’t tell me how rough the water is, you bring in the ship.” – STEVE STONE, Cubs veteran broadcaster criticizing the team for making excuses during an October interview on WGN radio.The Cubs, hoping to fill the void created by Steve Stone’s resignation, hire former Diamondback manager and current Fox television analyst Bob Brenly to broadcast games on WGN. After spending twenty years in the broadcast booth, Stone left Chicago after his on-air comments concerning the team’s swoon in the wild-card race angered manager Dusty Baker and some of the players.
On December 12, 2003 – The Voice of the Milwaukee Braves, radio broadcaster Earl Gillespie, died in West Allis at age 81. Earl had also called games of the Green Bay Packers, the Marquette football Warriors, Wisconsin Badger football, and the Milwaukee Hawks basketball. You can listen to dozens of his games on our YouTube…