Dan Shulman picks Sportsnet over ESPN for next Blue Jays' playoff run
Over the past several decades, Toronto Blue Jays fans may know Dan Shulman best for his work covering the team for Sportsnet.
But in the US, he’s earned quite the reputation for being one of the league’s rare radio broadcasters of the annual MLB postseason, including the World Series.
“Since 1979, just four people have called World Series for ESPN radio: Vin Scully,
Jack Buck, Jon Miller, and Dan Shulman,” the New York Post‘s Andrew Marchand wrote in an article today.
But this World Series will be Shulman’s last — at least on the radio call for ESPN, according to Marchand.
Jon Sciambi will take over the duties from Shulman, Marchand added. Sciambi is currently the regular play-by-play announcer for the Chicago Cubs TV broadcasts on the Marquee Sports Network and intermittent calls for ESPN radio during the regular season and postseason, as well as the MLB: The Show video game series.
Shulman first took over the World Series duties for ESPN radio in 2011 from Miller, who started the calls in 1988. He was just the fourth person on the national radio call since 1979, after Scully, Buck, and Miller.
“If the Blue Jays ever made a run to the World Series, Shulman would be on the call throughout [on Sportsnet],” Marchand wrote. “If he were to continue on ESPN Radio as the World Series play-by-player, he would not be able to do that.”
Marchand added that Shulman’s decision is “cordial,” and he will remain with ESPN on a new contract focused on the network’s college basketball coverage.
The Blue Jays were eliminated in the American League Wild Card Series earlier this year in a two-game sweep by the Seattle Mariners.
Shulman was on the radio call for ESPN, while Buck Martinez handled the TV call for Sportsnet.
The news comes on the heels of retirement rumours around Martinez, who was diagnosed with cancer in April and has admitted he’s unsure about his future on the call.
“I don’t know,” 73-year-old Martinez said on his future with Sportsnet in a wide-ranging interview with Simon Houpt of The Globe and Mail earlier this month. “It has nothing to do with Rogers. It’s just me. You know, I’ve been through a lot. And, you know, my wife and I have had a lot of discussions about it. I don’t know.”
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