Jon Wallace Miller (born October 11, 1951) is an American sportscaster, known primarily for his broadcasts of Major League Baseball. He is currently employed as a play-by-play announcer for the San Francisco Giants. He was also a baseball announcer on ESPN from 1990 to 2010. Miller received the Ford C. Frick Award from the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 2010.
Jon Miller grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area. After graduating from Hayward High School in 1969, Miller commuted across the bay to take broadcasting classes at the College of San Mateo. He began his broadcasting career at the college's FM radio station (KCSM-FM) and UHF/PBS TV station (KCSM-TV), which reached much of the Bay Area. His first over the air baseball broadcasts were from CSM games.
Miller later worked as sports director for KFTY television in Santa Rosa. In 1974, he landed his first baseball play-by play job, calling that year's World Series champion Oakland Athletics.
For a brief period in the 1970s, Miller broadcast for the California Golden Seals of the National Hockey League. He also spent the early part of his career announcing San Francisco Dons and Pacific Tigers men's college basketball (1976–1980), the Golden State Warriors of the NBA (part-time, 1979–1982), and the original San Jose Earthquakes of the North American Soccer League.
Vincent Edward Scully (born November 29, 1927) is an American sportscaster, known primarily as the play-by-play voice of the Brooklyn and Los Angeles Dodgers baseball team on Prime Ticket, KCAL-TV and KABC radio. His 63 seasons with the Dodgers (1950–present) is the longest of any broadcaster with a single club in professional sports history, and he is second by a year to only Tommy Lasorda in terms of length of years with the Dodgers organization in any capacity.
Born in The Bronx, Scully grew up in the Washington Heights section of Manhattan. He made ends meet by delivering beer and mail, pushing garment racks, and cleaning silver in the basement of the Pennsylvania Hotel in New York City. His father was a silk salesman; his mother a Roman Catholic homemaker of Irish descent with red hair like her son. Scully attended high school at Fordham Preparatory School in the Bronx. He knew he wanted to be a sports announcer the moment he became fascinated with football broadcasts on his radio.
Scully began his career as a student broadcaster and journalist at Fordham University. While at Fordham, he helped found its FM radio station WFUV (which now presents a Vin Scully Lifetime Achievement Award each year), was assistant sports editor for Volume 28 of The Fordham Ram his senior year, sang in a barbershop quartet, played center field for the Fordham Rams baseball team, called radio broadcasts for Rams baseball, football, and basketball, got a degree, and sent about 150 letters to stations along the Eastern seaboard. He got only one response, from CBS Radio affiliate WTOP in Washington, which made him a fill-in.
Alan Richard "Al" Michaels (born November 12, 1944) is an American television sportscaster. Now employed by NBC Sports after nearly three decades (1977–2006) with ABC Sports, he is perhaps best known for his many years of calling play-by-play of National Football League games, including nearly two decades with Monday Night Football. He is also known for famous calls in other sports, including the Miracle on Ice at the 1980 Winter Olympics and the earthquake-interrupted Game 3 of the 1989 World Series.
Michaels was born to a Jewish family in Brooklyn, New York, to Jay Michaels and Lila Roginsky/Ross. He grew up as a Brooklyn Dodgers fan. Coincidentally, at the time the Dodgers left Brooklyn, Michaels' family also moved to Los Angeles in 1958. Michaels attended Alexander Hamilton High School in L.A., with Joel Siegel, Michele Lee and Michelle Phillips, and was a baseball player. He graduated in 1962 and later attended Arizona State University, where he majored in radio and television and minored in journalism. He worked as a sports writer for ASU's independent student newspaper, The State Press. He also was a member of Sigma Nu Fraternity.
Harry Caray, born Harry Christopher Carabina (March 1, 1914 – February 18, 1998), was an American baseball broadcaster on radio and television. He covered four Major League Baseball teams, beginning with a long tenure calling the games of the St. Louis Cardinals, then the Oakland Athletics (for one year) and the Chicago White Sox (for eleven years), before ending his career as the announcer for the Chicago Cubs.
Caray was born Harry Christopher Carabina of Italian and Romanian parentage in one of the poorest sections of St. Louis. He was an infant when his father died. His Romanian mother, Daisy Argint, remarried, but after her death when Caray was just eight, he went to live with his aunt Doxie at 1909 LaSalle Street in a tough, working-class section of St. Louis. As a young man, Caray played baseball at the semi-pro level for a short time before auditioning for a radio job at the age of 19. He then spent a few years learning the trade at radio stations in Joliet, Illinois, and Kalamazoo, Michigan. Caray did play-by-play for the St. Louis Hawks professional basketball team (now the Atlanta Hawks) and the University of Missouri football team, and he announced three Cotton Bowl games.
Robert Leo "Bob" Sheppard (October 20, 1910 – July 11, 2010) was the long-time public address announcer for numerous New York area college and professional sports teams, in particular the MLB New York Yankees (1951–2007), and the NFL New York Giants (1956–2006).
Sheppard announced more than 4,500 Yankees baseball games over a period of 56 years, including 22 pennant-winning seasons and 13 World Series championships; he called 121 consecutive postseason contests, 62 games in 22 World Series, and six no-hitters, including three perfect games. He was also the in-house voice for a half-century of Giants football games, encompassing 9 conference championships, 3 NFL championships (1956, 1986, 1990), and the game often called "the greatest ever played", the classic 1958 championship loss to Baltimore.
His smooth, distinctive baritone and precise, consistent elocution became iconic aural symbols of both the old Yankee Stadium and Giants Stadium. Reggie Jackson famously nicknamed him "The Voice of God", while Carl Yastrzemski once said, "You're not in the big leagues until Bob Sheppard announces your name."