Sean McDonough
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| Sean McDonough | ||
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| Background information | ||
| Date of birth: | May 13, 1962 | |
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| Sports: | Major League Baseball, National Hockey League, NCAA Basketball | |
Sean McDonough (born May 13, 1962) is an American television sportscaster.
The son of legendary Boston Globe sportswriter Will McDonough, Sean graduated from Syracuse University in 1984. It was in Syracuse where McDonough began his broadcasting career in 1982 as the play-by-play announcer for the Syracuse Chiefs of the International League. Four years after graduating from Syracuse, he began broadcasting Boston Red Sox games on WSBK-TV (Channel 38) in Boston with former Red Sox catcher Bob Montgomery.
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[edit] CBS Sports
He began work for CBS Sports in 1990 where he broadcasted college basketball (including 10 NCAA tournaments), college football (including the prestigious Orange Bowl game), the College World Series, the NFL, U.S. Open tennis, 3 Winter Olympics, and golf (including 4 Masters and PGA Championships).
[edit] Major League Baseball on CBS
Outside of New England, he is probably best remembered for his time as CBS' lead baseball announcer, a role in which he was teamed with Tim McCarver. In 1992, at the age of 30, he became the youngest man to announce the national broadcast of the World Series. Coincidentally, that particular record would be broken four years later by FOX's 27-year-old Joe Buck, the son of the man McDonough replaced on CBS, Jack Buck.
Perhaps Sean McDonough's most famous call is his emotional description of the Atlanta Braves' Francisco Cabrera (who had only 10 at-bats at the major league level going in) getting a dramatic, game-winning base hit in Game 7 of the 1992 National League Championship Series against the Pittsburgh Pirates:
| “ | Line-drive and a base-hit!!! Justice will score the tying run, Bream to the plate...and he's safe, safe at the plate!!! The Braves go to the World Series! | ” |
[1] McDonough got so caught up in the moment, that his voice cracked the moment Sid Bream beat out Barry Bonds' throw to home plate.
A year later, McDonough called Joe Carter's dramatic World Series ending home run off of Mitch Williams:
| “ | Well-hit down the left-field line! Way back and gone! Joe Carter with a three-run homer! The winners and still world champions, the Toronto Blue Jays! | ” |
[edit] NCAA Basketball on CBS
McDonough's other major endeavor at CBS was his coverage of the NCAA Tournament with then-partner (and fellow Irish-American) Bill Raftery. McDonough and Raftery covered a number of regional finals in the 1990s before McDonough's run at CBS came to an end. The pair developed a terrific on-air rapport, thereby enabling McDonough and Raftery to spice up their broadcasts. Before the 1999 South Regional Final between Ohio State and St. John's from Knoxville, Tenn., McDonough and Raftery donned fishing gear as they previewed the game from a boat on the Tennessee River, which was just outside the arena.
A year earlier, McDonough--with Raftery at his side--called one of the great buzzer-beaters in NCAA Tournament history, as Connecticut defeated Washington in the East Regional Semifinals on a last-second shot by Richard Hamilton.
[edit] ESPN on ABC/ESPN
Since 2000, McDonough has announced baseball, college basketball, college football, and professional hockey for ESPN on ABC and ESPN. Specifically, McDonough announces many Big East college football and basketball events, as well as mostly East Coast-based Major League Baseball games.
[edit] Leaving the Red Sox
McDonough continued to announce local Red Sox broadcasts during this time, moving over the years to different local stations including WFXT (Channel 25), WABU (Channel 68) and WLVI (Channel 56). Over the years, his other obligations began to interfere with his announcing of Red Sox games, and he seemed to call fewer and fewer each season. In 1996, he was teamed with former Red Sox second baseman Jerry Remy, with whom he worked for nine seasons before McDonough was replaced completely in 2005 by NESN announcer Don Orsillo.
He turned down an offer to become the New York Mets play-by-play man on television, and his full-time job is now with ESPN on ABC/ESPN.
[edit] External links
| Preceded by Jack Buck |
World Series network television play-by-play announcer 1992-1993 |
Succeeded by Bob Costas and Al Michaels |
Categories: 1962 births | Living people | American sports announcers | Major League Baseball announcers | Boston Red Sox | Golf writers and broadcasters | People from Boston | Irish-American journalists | Syracuse University alumni | National Hockey League broadcasters | National Football League announcers
