32 Thoughts, A Few Too Many Stories, And What We Do

Good evening and welcome to another exciting edition of the sporadically-updated blog at Un/Necessary Sports Research.

Sometime last weekend, Lucas from Prince Edward Island wrote in to 32 Thoughts, a podcast hosted by Sportsnet’s Kyle Bukauskas and Elliotte Friedman. (Many of you likely recognize Bukauskas as the rinkside reporter for Hockey Night in Canada’s A-team. Some of you likely also remember that Friedman has done similar work, although he’s now billed as an NHL Insider rather than a rinkside reporter per se.) He inquired if the hosts knew who had appeared on the most Hockey Night telecasts.

On Monday’s edition of the podcast, a six-minute discussion ensued about various facets of that conversation. (Here’s the episode on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and the Sportsnet website. Scroll about nine minutes past the hour mark.)

Lucas wrote: “In recent memory, Ron MacLean seems like the easy answer, but with a long history, it may be someone else.” The short answer is that both parts of that statement are probably right. But we’re kind of into keeping receipts around here, so wait, there’s more.

Right before the 72-minute mark on the podcast, Bukauskas asks if Friedman has ever run across Un/Necessary Sports Research. Friedman responds “No, I haven’t, but I love the idea, even without knowing what it is.” This is the sort of reaction we endorse, both because it plays into our whole paradigm that sports are important because they are just (as my first boss like to call them) the toy department of life and because it sure beats people saying “I can’t believe someone wastes their time keeping track of this stuff.”

At any rate, Bukauskas went on to introduce actual numbers into the conversation and more discussion ensued. The longer answer to Lucas’ actual question is that MacLean is the easy answer, but if you’re counting him, it’s hard to use our data to tell, because we don’t keep track of studio personnel if they’re not covering an individual game. If you are just looking at game coverage, any answer involving Canadian announcer longevity starts with Bob Cole (1,723 telecasts from 1973-2019).

Chris Cuthbert is getting closer and closer to the conversation, sitting at 1,376 appearances in Canada as of Wednesday night, but then you have to start accounting for the fact that Cuthbert also worked for TSN and NBC, neither of which were part of Hockey Night, but some of those NBC telecasts also ended up on Sportsnet while he was still at TSN, and the whole enterprise gets a little muddy.

Beyond answering Lucas’ question, however, that podcast appearance brought a number of new followers into the fold, and it made me realize that I don’t think there’s a wonderful entry point for who we are and what we do around here. So let’s make one.

Welcome to Un/Necessary Sports Research. There are an awful lot of things that I wish this site could be, but given the practical realities of there only being so many hours in a day and the fact that I have to make a living somehow, most of what happens here involves recording the announcers of national sports telecasts in as objective a manner as possible. We try to stick to sports, because people from all walks of life find refuge in them, and we try to do so without favor or disfavor to any team or announcer, because everyone has parent/mentor sorts of figures that really like them and other people that … don’t. I do make exceptions to tell cancer what it can do with itself, because I have yet to meet anyone who likes cancer.

This is not to say that I don’t have opinions about these things. I’m as human as anyone else. But for what goes on here, the idea is to be as neutral as possible because it’s about the commentators doing the work, not what I think about them.

One of the functions of this announcer record-keeping is the daily schedule. This gets posted on our social media channels (which currently include Twitter/X, Instagram and Bluesky on a regular basis — I think we also have accounts on Facebook, Threads and Mastodon somewhere) on as many days as I remember to do it. The announcer schedule exists partially because it’s the first draft of the historical announcer database and partially because one of the things I miss about dead-tree newspaper sports sections is the agate page that, in some papers, pretty well passed along every sporting event known to humankind from the day before. Part of that usually included the listing of what sports were on TV the next day.

But the historical announcer counts are what got me into this business, and I don’t think I’ve ever really explained how or why that happened. Many of you are likely familiar with the 506 Sports website that is most famous for its weekly maps of which NFL game is airing in your area. Some of you likely also know about the message board, which is now a Discord server, connected to that site that serves as a hangout for people who care about this stuff a little too much.

I found the 506 sometime around 2008 or 2009, because I grew up in an area where sometimes we got the Bears, sometimes we got the Colts and sometimes we got neither even though they were playing. By early 2010, I was registered on their board and have since passed a few hours there that could probably have been spent doing something more financially lucrative.

One of the things I found on the board, in addition to all the contemporaneous commentary, was a Sports Broadcasting History section that included a chronological listing of telecasts and commentators in several sports. A lot of that listing predates me – John Moynahan, known as the Godfather of Sports Broadcasting History, at one point had as many as 10 satellite dishes in his yard and attended thousands of games while crisscrossing the nation and visiting libraries before he passed in 2014.

Moynahan wasn’t the only person who kept track of these things. Tim Brulia, who is also the lead historian at the Gridiron Uniform Database, and Jeff Haggar, the author of the Classic TV Sports blog that appears to have gone offline at some point, were two of the several others involved. But nevertheless, despite all the information, there still wasn’t a good way to answer quantitative questions like the one in the podcast that started this post.

So that’s where I showed up, parsing dozens of these forum posts into spreadsheets that now track every known national telecast of the NFL, Major League Baseball, the NBA and the NHL (the latter in both the U.S. and Canada). Since those spreadsheets started coming together in 2013 and 2014, thousands of new games have been broadcast, and I’ve added those too, but the core of the historical data now lives at the 506 Sports Archive.

As with any statistic, some decisions had to be made about what counted and what didn’t. The national broadcast listings omitted telecasts like the Chicago Cubs on WGN and the Atlanta Braves on (W)TBS, because they were the teams’ local telecasts that happened to air on nationally-available stations. In the same vein, today we don’t count local telecasts that are simulcast on league-owned networks (this is why there’s often an “MLB Network” or “NBA TV” footer on the daily schedule), but the network-produced games like MLB Network’s Showcase do show up.

The NHL has presented a couple of interesting challenges, because at a couple of points in league history, national broadcast rights were held by the same company that produced teams’ local feeds. In the United States, this happened with SportsChannel (1989-92), and in Canada, it’s happened since 2014 with Rogers Communications holding local rights to the Canucks, Oilers, Flames and Maple Leafs to some degree. In these cases, we do end up with some situations where the same announcers that call local games are also working the national telecasts.

Not everything in the daily schedules ends up in a database – for example, right now I don’t do any historical tracking for college sports, even though some of that is on the 506 archive – and there are some sports with databases in various states of construction or conception. Like the internet as a whole, my brainstorming sessions are dangerously chaotic places.

In addition to the five sport databases I mentioned earlier, there are some leaderboards that are constructed through addition of the single-sport totals. These include a total NHL listing (combining U.S. and Canadian totals while removing double-counting of telecasts that aired in both countries), a total listing for the four major U.S. sports, and a total listing for the four major pro sports including Canada. All of these can be found on our TV Databases page.

That’s what’s here. It’s certainly not perfect – several times a year I go in and add corrections and additions to the listings – and it’s hard to be all things to all people. But it’s what we have and I try to leave things in a better place than I found them.

If you have questions about the site, hit me up on your favorite social network or send an email: tony at unnecessary sports research dot com. Corrections to the historical listings can go on the 506 Sports Discord server if you have an account there; if you don’t want to go that far, send me an email and I’ll send it in. (Substantiating evidence is always a good idea.) There’s probably more that could be said, but this post is already reaching ZZ Top beard length territory as it is.

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice, your mouths in your headsets, or your eyes locked on the screen – whatever else you do to make the sports broadcast world happen.

Announcer Milestones From February 2024

If there are two things in life that are notorious for putting people to sleep, they are Thanksgiving turkey and bookkeeping details. Today is the fourth Thursday in November, so our staff (which is, uh, me) decided it was time to put a serving of both of those things on the same plate and get them out the door. Without further, let alone Freddy, Adu, here is the Un/Necessary Sports Research list of national telecast announcer milestones from February 2024.

For the sake of of setting the ground rules, we have five main lists: NFL, MLB, NBA, NHL in the U.S. and NHL in Canada. There are also three other lists that exist only by combining those five: NHL totals, totals in the four American leagues, and totals in the five leagues across the board. 

Commentators are sorted into three groups – play-by-play, analysts and reporters – and each list has a total column as well. At the moment, these figures only count pro sports, not because I don't think college sports should count but because we had to draw the line somewhere because there are only so many hours to track this stuff. All data is taken from the 506 Sports Archive.

The first installment of this series covers January 2024 and can be found here.

The stars of the NHL were out in full force in Toronto on Saturday, Feb. 3, even though the NHL All-Star Game took place at 3 p.m. local time. The four-team, 3-on-3 tournament counts as a single broadcast in our records because it’s still 60 minutes of hockey. Two-thirds of Rogers’ lead NHL crew moved up a leaderboard that day. Craig Simpson broke a tie with Harry Neale for the eighth-most appearances in NHL history, combining the U.S. and Canada, and the 16th-most appearances across our five main listings with his 1076th telecast. Kyle Bukauskas worked his 378th telecast as a reporter, passing Brian McFarlane for the ninth-most in our binational NHL records. Chris Cuthbert, the regular third man in that booth, helmed the telecast from the play-by-play position while analyst Kevin Bieksa and reporter David Amber made special All-Star Game appearances. Simpson had tied Neale on Jan. 27’s Maple Leafs-Senators telecast while Bukauskas tied McFarlane four days later on the Jan. 31 game between Nashville and Ottawa.

The following afternoon, the annals of broadcasting history shifted to London, and not the one that’s a couple of hours down the 401 away from Scotiabank Arena. At the Emirates Stadium in Holloway, on the north side of the English capital city, former Arsenal right back Lee Dixon broadcast his 380th Premier League fixture since NBC assumed broadcast rights in this country in 2013. That number represents an entire season of every match in the league or 10 seasons for a single club. Jon Champion and Graeme le Saux joined Dixon on the telecast.

Simpson edged his way past Neale again on Monday, Feb. 5, when the Maple Leafs hosted the New York Islanders as NHL regular-season play resumed. Again, the number was 1,076 appearances, but this time the category was different, counting only analyst appearances on NHL national telecasts to the U.S. or Canada. (Simpson was an ice-level reporter for ESPN on an Avalanche-Mighty Ducks game in 1998, which counted toward his overall total but not his analyst figure.) That gave Simpson sole possession of the number-two spot on the binational NHL analyst list, trailing only Pierre McGuire, and third place on the analyst list across all five main listings, also trailing Hubie Brown. For the second time in three days, Cuthbert joined Simpson across the Sportsnet family of networks; this time, Shawn McKenzie was the reporter.

Tuesday, Feb. 6, marked the fourth day in a row with a milestone as ESPN hockey analyst A.J. Mleczko moved up the American NHL rankings. Her 137th national broadcast as a color commentator, Avalanche-Devils on ESPN+ with John Buccigross, broke a tie with Darren Eliot for the 11th-most in our records. Mleczko, a two-time Olympic medalist, had tied Eliot on Jan. 23 when the Ducks hosted the Sabres.

Toronto has as good a claim as any city to being the ancestral home of national hockey broadcasting, since it was there that Foster Hewitt’s gondola hung in Maple Leaf Gardens to originate Hockey Night in Canada, and the city hosted a milestone for Hockey Night’s current lead commentator on Wednesday, Feb. 7. Chris Cuthbert became the third person in our records to handle play-by-play for 1,300 national NHL telecasts between the U.S. and Canada, reaching the plateau on a Stars-Maple Leafs telecast with Simpson and McKenzie. He trails Bob Cole and, at the time, Jim Hughson on the NHL list as well as Marv Albert, Dick Stockton, Kevin Harlan and Kenny Albert from the four main American lists.

Across the border in Boston, Mike Breen passed another longtime NBA broadcaster on the same night. The Hawks-Celtics game was Breen’s 1,085th national telecast between the NBA and NFL, pushing him ahead of Hubie Brown (a former Hawks coach) for the seventh-most appearances in our four American listings and 13th-most counting Canadian NHL work. JJ Redick was the color man and Andraya Carter reported. Breen had tied Brown on a Lakers-Knicks telecast the previous weekend with Doris Burke and Lisa Salters.

TD Garden was also the venue for a milestone the following night, albeit in a different sport and for a different country. Sportsnet reporter Dan Murphy, who primarily covers the Vancouver Canucks, reported on his 228th national telecast when Vancouver met the Bruins, passing Christine Simpson for the 13th most national reporterial repetitions in Canadian NHL history. John Shorthouse and Dave Tomlinson anchored the booth that night as they had when Murphy tied Simpson on Jan. 27 against Columbus.

The parade of milestones took a break on Friday, Feb. 9, but Hockey Night was at it again that weekend. Edmonton-based analyst Louie DeBrusk called the Oilers’ visit to Los Angeles on Saturday night: his 412th national NHL telecast to the U.S. or Canada broke a tie with McFarlane for 16th most for a colour commentator. Harnarayan Singh handled play-by-play and Scott Oake reported on that game after Jack Michaels and Gene Principe joined DeBrusk for the tying tilt in Las Vegas four nights earlier.

Early February saw a total of 11 milestones in a 10-day span which concluded with two more in a Calgary Flames road trip to the American portion of the East Coast. The Flames’ Sunday visit to the New York Islanders was the 192nd national NHL telecast of Ryan Leslie’s career, which moved him past Al Trautwig for 17th-most by a reporter between the U.S. and Canada. The next night in suburban Miami, colour man Greg Millen worked his 900th Canadian NHL telecast when the Flames visited the Panthers, which made Millen the ninth person to reach that mark. Play-by-play man Rick Ball called both bouts and was with Leslie and Kelly Hrudey when the former tied Trautwig on the Flames-Bruins game the previous Tuesday.

Following a midmonth slowdown that was helped in part by the NBA’s all-star break, Oilers-centric reporter and Prince of Puns Gene Principe got the derricks working again on Friday, Feb. 23 when he passed Frank Selke for the 11th-most appearances by a Canadian NHL reporter with his 264th game. That Wild-Oilers affair on the Albertan prairie was called from the booth by Michaels and DeBrusk, who had also been with Principe two nights earlier when Boston came calling and he tied Selke.

A colorful clash between the St. Louis Blues and the Detroit Red Wings on Saturday, Feb. 24, sent ESPN NHL reporter Leah Hextall up the leaderboard as well. (From 1979 to 2017, the Red Wings played in Joe Louis Arena: the building’s namesake, a Detroit native, was known as the Brown Bomber, which would have added to the colorful motif. The Red Wings have since moved to Little Caesars Arena, and anyway, we’re digressing.) That day, her 56th American national NHL telecast as a reporter allowed Hextall to pass Darren Pang for 10th place on that list. Bob Wischusen and Kevin Weekes called the game for ABC: Wischusen and the Blues were both involved in Hextall’s tying game, a Presidents’ Day matinee against the Maple Leafs, the previous Monday. Ryan Callahan handled color for the Monday game.

The dean of active NBA sideline reporters, Lisa Salters, reached her septuacentennial milestone later that night. The Celtics-Knicks game at Madison Square Garden on ABC was Salters’ 700th national telecast between the NBA and NFL: only Craig Sager has more sideline appearances in the four major American listings and Oake joins the list when we add Canadian NHL work. The game also broke a tie with Fox baseball insider Ken Rosenthal, who had 699 reporter credits at that point. Breen, Redick and Burke called the game with Salters: Breen and Burke also worked with her when she tied Rosenthal on the Feb. 10 Suns-Warriors game.

ESPN reporter Cassidy Hubbarth got in on the action on Sunday, Feb. 25, when she passed Heather Cox for ninth place on the NBA courtside reporter list by working her 182nd national telecast. Brown and Dave Pasch joined Hubbarth from the city of American independence as the 76ers hosted the Bucks. Hubbarth tied Cox on Feb. 11 with a Celtics-Heat game alongside Redick, Ryan Ruocco and Richard Jefferson.

As February drew to a close, Craig Simpson had lined himself up for another leaderboard pass, but that bit of detail will have to wait until this series moves along to March.

Announcer Milestones from January 2024

It’s high time to do some accounting around here, in the form of spelling out the 15 announcer milestones that happened in January on the way to 192, and counting, in 2024. There are parts of the year where we can cover a lot of ground pretty quickly on that front: anything between about Father’s Day and Labor Day is, after all, the offseason in basketball, football and hockey. January is not one of those times, which is why I’m currently staring down the prospect of writing eight or nine more of these to finish the year. So let’s get started.

 
(By way of setting the ground rules, we have five main lists: NFL, MLB, NBA, NHL in the U.S. and NHL in Canada. There are also three other lists that exist only by combining those five: NHL totals, totals in the four American leagues, and totals in the five leagues across the board. Commentators are sorted into three groups – play-by-play, analysts and reporters – and each list has a total column as well. At the moment, these figures only count pro sports, not because I don't think college sports should count but because we had to draw the line somewhere because there are only so many hours to track this stuff. All data is taken from the 506 Sports Archive.)

The Nuggets-Warriors game on Thursday, Jan. 4 marked the 250th play-by-play appearance of Brian Anderson’s career, making him the 10th announcer to reach that point. The late game of the TNT doubleheader featured Anderson on the call with Stan Van Gundy and Allie LaForce.

One night later, Doris Burke worked her way out of another 10th-place spot on an NBA list, calling her 314th national game as an analyst to break the tie with Steve Kerr and move into ninth place outright. (Burke and Kerr had been tied since Christmas 2023.) The Knicks-76ers game that broke the tie included Mike Breen on play-by-play and Katie George courtside.

2024’s first edition of Hockey Night in Canada included an announcer milestone in the early window. Maple Leafs-Sharks marked Craig Simpson’s 1050th national NHL telecast to Canada: he was the second analyst to that mark, trailing only Harry Neale, and seventh person overall. Chris Cuthbert handled play-by-play for the game with Kyle Bukauskas reporting.

Another milestone later in the weekend was also sparked by HNIC, because Kelly Hrudey’s appearance on Rogers’ studio panel in Toronto pressed Greg Millen into service on the Flames-Blackhawks telecast on Sunday, Jan. 7, in Chicago. The matinee telecast (with Rick Ball on play-by-play and Ryan Leslie reporting) was Millen’s 900th national NHL telecast between the U.S. and Canada, becoming the seventh hockey analyst to reach that point and the eighth color person in any sport we track.

Two HNIC stalwarts moved up on the first weekend of the year, but another got passed, albeit on the gridiron. Fox’s Erin Andrews appeared on the sidelines of the Cowboys-Commanders season finale on Sunday, Jan. 7. That marked her 413th sideline appearance across our five main listings, which broke a tie with Elliotte Friedman for #13 on that list. Kevin Burkhardt, Greg Olsen and Tom Rinaldi rounded out the crew for America’s Game of the Week.

The third Hall of Famer taken in the 1984 NHL Entry Draft was, paradoxically, Tom Glavine, who would go on to win 305 games and win a World Series with the Braves of the 1990s. The third overall pick in that draft, Ed Olczyk, is one of three people to handle 900 American national NHL telecasts as the analyst after hitting the milestone on Wednesday, Jan. 10, with a Golden Knights-Avalanche contest alongside Kenny Albert and Brian Boucher.

The television history of soccer in the United States is less well-documented than some other sports, in part because it’s difficult to gauge exactly what constitutes a “major” competition (as opposed to something like the World Series, which was established 17 years before the first commercial radio broadcast). But the Premier League is undoubtedly the league with the highest combination of viewership and international prestige in the U.S. today, and we started counting their commentators when NBC took over American TV rights in 2013. On Sunday, Jan. 14, analyst Graeme le Saux became the second person in that span to appear on 400 telecasts when Manchester United hosted Tottenham Hotspur. Play-by-play man Jon Champion found out about this and informed le Saux on the air, which sparked a minute-long conversation about how everything has a statistic now. (Unfortunately, I haven’t figured out how to post the video clip without running into an automated PL copyright censor.)

Back on the west side of the Atlantic, intrepid ESPN reporter Lisa Salters handled her 694th and 695th sideline reports in our listings in January. The 694th game, which tied Dave Hodge for the fourth-most reports in our five main listings, was a Texans-Colts game on Saturday, Jan. 6, while the 695th game that passed him was the Eagles-Buccaneers wild-card matchup five days later. Joe Buck and Troy Aikman staffed the booth for both games.

When Jon Champion brought up announcer counting on Jan. 14, he probably didn’t have an inkling that he was a week away from his own milestone, but he was. Sunday, Jan. 21, marked his 190th Premier League telecast back to the U.S. in the NBC era: 190 might not seem like an exceptionally round number, but it marks 5 complete seasons for a single PL club (or half of an entire season across the league). He again shared the gantry with le Saux for the Bournemouth-Liverpool clash.

Later that weekend, another NBC stalwart unseated an immortal in his field, albeit not in that immortal’s most recognizable record. Sunday Night Football play-by-play voice Mike Tirico’s 571st national play-by-play telecast across the four major U.S. pro sports broke a tie with Pat Summerall for #19 on the all-time list. Despite being played on a Sunday afternoon, Buccaneers-Lions still counted after Rams-Lions had been the tying telecast on Jan. 14. Cris Collinsworth analyzed both games with Melissa Stark on the sideline.

On Wednesday, Jan. 24, the milestone trackers went back inside. TNT hockey voice Brendan Burke called his 155th national NHL telecast on the American side, a Hurricanes-Bruins tilt with Jennifer Botterill and Boucher, to pass Pat Foley for 15th after tying him on Wild-Stars two weeks earlier. On the hardwood, ESPN mainstay Mike Breen called Suns-Mavericks that night with Doris Burke analyzing and Cassidy Hubbarth courtside: the game was Breen’s 1082nd in the four major U.S. pro sports, breaking a tie with Mike Emrick for the eighth-most on record. Breen had tied Emrick with a Mavericks-Lakers game on Jan. 17.

If Breen’s voice is synonymous with ESPN’s NBA coverage in 2024, his TNT counterpart is Kevin Harlan, who has a history in both kinds of inflatable leather balls thanks to also having decades of NFL experience. Those figures combined to push Harlan to his 1,392nd career national telecast on Thursday, Jan. 25, which passed Pierre McGuire for fifth-most across our five main listings. The tiebreaking game was a Celtics-Heat contest with Reggie Miller and Allie LaForce. (Yes, we realize the irony in a hockey announcer getting passed in a game involving the Heat.) The Grizzlies and Timberwolves played Harlan’s tying game on Jan. 18.

Not to be outdone, the Calgary Flames find themselves in the seemingly-contradictory position of merging fire and ice in the same sport, and they hosted a milestone game on Saturday, Jan. 27. The Chicago-Calgary tilt on the latter half of HNIC marked Scott Oake’s 1250th national NHL telecast, all as a reporter: he was the first reporter in any sport to reach that mark, and among all flavors of commentator he sat fifth on the NHL list and 10th in the five main listings. Ball and Millen helmed the booth at the Saddledome.

The final NFL milestone of the 2023-24 season came Sunday, Jan. 28, in the AFC championship between the Chiefs and Ravens. Tracy Wolfson, CBS’s lead sideline reporter, worked her 266th game across the four main U.S. pro sports to pass Tom Verducci for 13th on that list. (Verducci also has even more MLB telecasts under his belt as an analyst, but those don’t count toward his reporter total here.) Wolfson had tied Verducci a week earlier with the Chiefs-Ravens divisional game. Jim Nantz and Tony Romo called both games.

A pair of NHL milestones snuck in under the wire on the last day of January. Sportsnet reporter Shawn McKenzie passed Al Trautwig for the 17th-most reporter appearances on our five main lists (192) when he handled Senators-Red Wings with Harnarayan Singh and Garry Galley. Olczyk pushed his total to 904 total games, the 13th-most across all three commentator flavors in America, and passed Craig Sager when he called Kings-Predators with Albert and Boucher. (McKenzie had tied Trautwig on Canadiens-Penguins the previous weekend while Olczyk matched Sager on the Blackhawks-Kraken game Jan. 24.)

Four commentators (Simpson, Bukauskas, A.J. Mleczko and Dan Murphy) ended January in ties that we will cover when the series moves on to February.

Highly Exciting Bookkeeping Details From 2023

Below are several historical corrections that were applied to our listings at the end of 2023. This is something that I've been updating quarterly, although it looks like that didn't happen at the end of the third quarter, and having just made 76 changes at once, I'm beginning to wonder if I should do it more often.

National Football League

1. Nov. 28, 1965: Moved Gil Stratton from Los Angeles PBP to CBS Control of unified Packers-Rams broadcast, per newspaper evidence discovered by 506 Sports Discord user Timmy B.
2. Dec. 4, 1966: Removed analyst Eddie LeBaron from Cardinals-Cowboys and slid Pat Summerall from CBS Control to the analyst chair, per the Orlando Sentinel of that day.
3. Oct. 17, 1971: Replaced Bills-Jets PBP announcer Dick Rifenberg with Rick Azar per newspaper evidence discovered by 506 Sports Discord user Timmy B.
4. Dec. 9, 1978: Moved Mike Adamle from sideline to color on Colts-Steelers and removed John Brodie connected to Dec. 10, 1978 change.
5. Dec. 10, 1978: Replaced Jets-Browns analyst Len Dawson with John Brodie, per newspaper reference found by 506 Sports Discord user HamptonRoadsTVFan that indicated Dawson was mourning the death of his wife.
6. Nov. 8, 1981: Corrected Dolphins-Patriots analyst from Mike Haffner to Gene Washington, per video discovered by 506 Sports Discord user Jeff79. 
7. Dec, 17, 2005: Added sideline reporter Suzy Kolber to Broncos-Bills per video discovered by 506 Sports Discord user GCEDW.

Major League Baseball

1. Aug. 24, 1980: Removed Dodgers-Mets analyst Howard Cosell, who was double-booked with preseason NFL duty that day.
2. July 12, 1986: Replaced Phillies-Astros PBP Jay Randolph with Ted Robinson per video discovered by 506 Sports Discord user Philadelphia97.
3. Throughout the month of October 2023, an audit of MLB postseason field reporters conducted by 506 Sports Discord user Jeff79 resulted in the addition of 65 field reporter credits:
• 10/18/77, Dodgers-Yankees: Bill White
• 10/7/78, Royals-Yankees: Bob Uecker and Jim Lampley
• 10/17/79, Pirates-Orioles: Bob Uecker
• 10/10/80, Royals-Yankees: Bob Uecker
• 10/12/80, Phillies-Astros: Steve Zabriskie
• 10/21/80, Royals-Phillies: Bryant Gumbel and Merle Harmon
• 10/19/81, Dodgers-Expos: Byron Day
• 10/28/81, Dodgers-Yankees: Bob Uecker and Jim Lampley
• 10/10/82, Cardinals-Braves: Jim Lampley
• 10/10/82, Angels-Brewers: Bob Uecker
• 10/8/83, Orioles-White Sox: Bill Macatee
• 10/8/83, Dodgers-Phillies: Len Berman
• 1983 World Series; Reggie Jackson to three games, Tim Brant to one
• 10/5/84, Royals-Tigers: Al Trautwig
• 10/13/84, Padres-Tigers: Len Berman
• 10/14/84, Padres-Tigers: Len Berman and Bob Costas
• 10/16/85, Cardinals-Dodgers: Bill Macatee
• 10/16/85, Royals-Blue Jays: Dick Enberg
• 10/20/85, Royals-Cardinals: Reggie Jackson
• 10/26/85, Royals-Cardinals: Reggie Jackson
• 10/27/85, Royals-Cardinals: Reggie Jackson
• 10/15/86, Angels-Red Sox: Don Drysdale
• 1986 World Series: Marv Albert to five games, Bob Costas to two
• 10/9/87, Cardinals-Giants: Marv Albert
• 10/10/87, Cardinals-Giants: Jay Randolph
• 10/12/87, Twins-Tigers: Marv Albert and Don Sutton
• 10/14/87, Giants-Cardinals: Marv Albert and Jay Randolph
• 1987 World Series: Reggie Jackson to all seven games
• 10/12/88, Mets-Dodgers: Gary Bender
• 10/15/88, Athletics-Dodgers: Marv Albert
• 10/19/88, Dodgers-Athletics: Bob Costas
• 10/20/88, Dodgers-Athletics: Marv Albert and Bob Costas
• 10/4/89, Cubs-Giants: Marv Albert
• 10/29/89, Athletics-Giants: Gary Thorne and Joe Morgan
• 10/14/95, Reds-Braves: Johnny Bench
• 10/17/95, Indians-Marlins: Jim Gray and Hannah Storm
• 10/28/95, Indians-Braves: Hannah Storm
• 10/6/97, Yankees-Indians: Chip Caray
• 10/15/97, Indians-Orioles: Chip Caray and Steve Lyons
• 10/26/97, Indians-Marlins: Hannah Storm and Keith Olbermann

National Hockey League (Canada)

1. Jan. 10, 2016: Moved Louie DeBrusk from rinkside to analyst on the Panthers-Oilers game, correcting a typographical error discovered by 506 Sports Discord user JagsFan93.

National Basketball Association

1. May 16, 1996: Corrected Spurs-Jazz analyst from Chuck Daly to Hubie Brown, per video discovered by 506 Sports Discord user Jeff79. 

Mark Jones Becomes Seventh NBA Announcer With 400 National Play-By-Play Games

OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla. — Veteran ESPN sportscaster Mark Jones continued his ascent up the National Basketball Association's list of most frequent national commentators Wednesday night when he called play-by-play on his 400th national NBA telecast, becoming the seventh announcer to reach that milestone.

Jones marked the occasion with a Pelicans-Thunder telecast from the Paycom Center in Oklahoma City alongside colleagues Monica McNutt and Katie George. It was his 449th career national NBA telecast including sideline work.

The six announcers ahead of Jones on the play-by-play chart are Marv Albert (1130), Mike Breen (1041), Kevin Harlan (872), Dick Stockton (616), Bob Neal (450) and Dave Pasch (401). Pasch, incidentally, is slated to cover the second game of Wednesday night's ESPN doubleheader, a Clippers-Lakers tilt in Los Angeles alongside debutant Bob Myers.

Jones, who will celebrate his 62nd birthday on November 16, is the local television voice of the Sacramento Kings, a role he assumed in 2020. After working for TSN in his native Toronto from 1986-90, he joined ESPN and ABC in 1990. In addition to basketball, his on-air credits include college football, track and field, gymnastics and speed skating.

Jones' national NBA telecast career will celebrate its 19th anniversary later this week: his first such credit came on Nov. 3, 2004, as the courtside reporter on a Heat-Nets telecast alongside Brent Musburger and Tom Tolbert. His play-by-play debut was later that season on April 23, 2005, alongside Bill Raftery for the first game of the Pacers-Celtics first-round series.

While Jones has never served as ESPN's long-term lead commentator, so he has never called a full conference final under the NBA's arrangement where ESPN gets one conference final and TNT the other, he has handled two NBA Finals telecasts, spelling Mike Breen for the first two games in 2022. He also helmed the crew for Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Final that year alongside Jeff Van Gundy, Mark Jackson and Lisa Salters.

Following the 2016 departure of Mike Tirico for NBC Sports, Jones served as ESPN's de facto number-2 play-by-play voice, with 65 of his broadcasts ending up on ABC over-the-air during that span. With Jones still employed at ESPN but also working for the Kings, ESPN announced the formation of a "second core NBA broadcast team" of Ryan Ruocco, Richard Jefferson and JJ Redick for the 2023-24 season. The distribution of ABC telecasts between Ruocco, Jones and Pasch remains to be seen.

His most frequent partners as a play-by-play announcer include Doris Burke (116 games) and Hubie Brown (101), with Cassidy Hubbarth and Mark Jackson each appearing more than 50 times and five others 30 or more. Raftery is one of nine people who have called exactly one NBA game with Jones.

The milestone man was a four-year member of the basketball team at York University, from which he graduated in 1985 with a degree in economics. He is the brother of Toronto Raptors announcer Paul Jones and lives in Miami with his wife, Sara.

NBA Teams Called By Mark Jones as a National Play-By-Play Announcer
(Listed under current team name: Thunder include SuperSonics, Grizzlies include original Hornets, current Hornets include Bobcats)

• Celtics — 64
• 76ers — 44
• Rockets — 41
• Warriors — 39
• Lakers — 36
• Mavericks — 36
• Heat — 33
• Spurs — 33
• Raptors — 32
• Nuggets — 30
• Clippers — 30
• Bucks — 30
• Hawks — 30
• Pacers — 29
• Grizzlies — 28
• Thunder — 28
• Cavaliers — 26
• Nets — 23
• Knicks — 23
• Jazz — 22
• Pelicans — 22
• Suns — 21
• Bulls — 20
• Blazers — 20
• Timberwolves — 14
• Wizards — 14
• Pistons — 13
• Magic — 8
• Hornets2 — 6
• Kings — 5

Mark Jones' NBA National Telecast Partners

• Doris Burke — 116
• Hubie Brown — 101
• Cassidy Hubbarth — 56
• Mark Jackson — 51
• Israel Gutierrez — 49
• Jeff Van Gundy — 48
• Jon Barry — 46
• Lisa Salters — 41
• Malika Andrews — 30
• Jorge Sedano — 24
• Chris Broussard — 15
• Bill Walton — 14
• Richard Jefferson — 13
• J.A. Adande — 12
• Doug Collins — 11
• Heather Cox — 11
• Tom Tolbert — 10
• Jim Gray — 10
• Ric Bucher — 6
• Kara Lawson — 5
• Chris Mullin — 5
• Rachel Nichols — 5
• Tom Rinaldi — 4
• Adam Schefter — 4
• Ros Gold-Onwude — 4
• Vince Carter — 3
• Steve Javie — 3
• Katie George — 3
• P.J. Carlesimo — 2
• JJ Redick — 2
• Holly Rowe — 2
• Monica McNutt — 2
• Bill Raftery — 1
• Steve Jones — 1
• Len Elmore — 1
• Tim Legler — 1
• Kurt Rambis — 1
• George Karl — 1
• LaPhonso Ellis — 1
• Becky Hammon — 1
• Ariel Helwani — 1

Al Michaels Matches Pat Summerall's Record 737 NFL Telecasts

Al Michaels, the veteran sportscaster who has called all four major sports during a half-century career also highlighted by the emotional finish of the Miracle on Ice in 1980, tied Pat Summerall's record Thursday night, October 19, 2023, with his 737th known national telecast of a National Football League regular-season or postseason game.

The news was highlighted by Un/Necessary Sports Research, an online publication whose catalog spans more than 56,000 telecasts of baseball, football, hockey and basketball and includes nearly 150,000 announcer credits. The information has been parsed from the 506 Sports forums and archive since 2013.

Michaels, 78, becomes the fifth person to hold the top spot on the list of NFL announcers since 1950, also following in the footsteps of Red Grange, Jim Gibbons, Ray Scott and Curt Gowdy. Summerall took the mantle from Gowdy with his 330th telecast on Nov. 21, 1982.

The Brooklyn native reached the milestone with a Jaguars-Saints game in the Thursday Night Football package aired on Amazon Prime Video and simulcast on Twitch. Kirk Herbstreit handled color commentary with sideline reporter Kaylee Hartung. The same trio is slated to call the Buccaneers-Bills game next Thursday in which Michaels will pass Summerall outright/

Michaels made his NFL debut for NBC's coverage of the American Football Conference in 1971 while also serving as the radio announcer for the Cincinnati Reds. He jumped to CBS in 1975 before beginning a three-decade tenure at ABC Sports in 1977.

In 1986, Michaels succeeded Frank Gifford as the play-by-play voice behind Monday Night Football, where he would call 366 games including six Super Bowls. As the NFL reshuffled its broadcast contracts in 2006, Michaels and longtime partner John Madden moved to NBC and the Sunday Night Football package: there, Michaels worked four more seasons with Madden and 13 more (through 2021) alongside Cris Collinsworth, including another five Super Bowls. The current Thursday-night deal began in 2022 after Michaels received emeritus status at NBC Sports. 

He has been the NFL's most prolific play-by-play announcer since passing Don Criqui with Super Bowl XLIX on Feb. 1, 2015.

All told, Michaels' NFL career includes 19 color-commentary partners and 19 sideline reporters, with Dan Fouts the only person to appear on both lists. Michaels has worked 263 games alongside Cris Collinsworth, 239 with Michele Tafoya, 214 next to Gifford, 206 with Dan Dierdorf and 128 partnering Madden. Thursday marks Michaels' 22nd game with Hartung and 21st with Herbstreit.

A complete list of Michaels' NFL partners and teams called appears at the foot of this release.

Following a 10-year NFL career that crossed three teams and included a 1952 league championship with the Detroit Lions, Summerall joined CBS Sports in 1962. After 12 full seasons as a color commentator, he shifted to play-by-play in 1974. Summerall racked up 535 play-by-play credits, 199 games as the color man and 3 field-reporter appearances before retiring from Fox's lead crew in 2002; his final NFL appearances came in 2007 and he died on April 16, 2013.

Summerall's partners included Madden for 401 games and Tom Brookshier for 108.

Across the four major professional sports, Michaels has called 1,039 games through Thursday night. His championship work includes nine World Series (eight for ABC and one split between NBC television and radio) and two NBA Finals along with a resume of Olympic coverage.

Un/Necessary Sports Research wishes to thank the numerous contributors to the historical NFL announcers listings across the 506 Sports Discord, wiki and forum; several of the most significant include J.P. Kirby, the late John Moynahan, Tim Brulia, Jimmy Delach Jr. and Jeff Haggar. The game-by-game NFL announcer history can be viewed at the 506 Sports Archive by following the links to each season since 1946.

Chronology of Most Common NFL Commentators
Date listed is that of breaking tie with previous holder

• Dennis James by default on Sept. 19, 1946
• Bob Stanton — Dec. 1, 1946
• Arthur Daley — Oct. 17, 1948
• Red Grange — Dec. 11, 1949
• Jim Gibbons — Oct. 16, 1966
• Ray Scott — Nov. 29, 1970
• Curt Gowdy — Oct. 24, 1976
• Pat Summerall — Nov. 21, 1982
• Al Michaels — Oct. 26, 2023 (projected)

Al Michaels' NFL Team Broadcasts (through Oct. 19, 2023)

Commanders and Titans totals include games under previous team names.

• Cowboys — 96
• Eagles — 79
• Steelers — 77
• Packers — 72
• Broncos — 68
• 49ers — 67
• Giants — 67
• Patriots — 67
• Bears — 61
• Chiefs — 57
• Colts — 54
• Vikings — 51
• Redskins — 50
• Dolphins — 49
• Rams — 48
• Raiders — 47
• Seahawks — 43
• Saints — 40
• Titans — 36
• Jets — 35
• Bills — 33
• Chargers — 33
• Falcons — 31
• Ravens — 29
• Bengals — 26
• Lions — 25
• Buccaneers — 22
• Browns — 21
• Cardinals — 18
• Panthers — 16
• Jaguars — 15
• AFC (Pro Bowl) — 14
• NFC (Pro Bowl)  — 14
• Texans — 11
• Team Rice (Pro Bowl) — 1
• Team Sanders (Pro Bowl) — 1

Al Michaels' NFL Broadcast Partners (through Oct. 19, 2023)

• Cris Collinsworth — 263
• Michele Tafoya — 239
• Frank Gifford — 214
• Dan Dierdorf — 206
• John Madden — 128
• Andrea Kremer — 94
• Lynn Swann — 82
• Melissa Stark — 58
• Lesley Visser — 44
• Dan Fouts — 41
• Boomer Esiason — 39
• Dennis Miller — 38
• Eric Dickerson — 38
• Kaylee Hartung — 22
• Kirk Herbstreit — 21
• Lisa Guerrero — 18
• Sam Ryan — 14
• Mike Haffner — 8
• Heather Cox — 8
• Wayne Walker — 7
• Dave Kocourek — 5
• Kathryn Tappen — 4
• Sam DeLuca — 3
• Hank Stram — 3
• Johnny Morris — 2
• Fran Tarkenton — 2
• Tim Brant — 2
• Doug Flutie — 2
• Tim Van Galder — 1
• Johnny Unitas — 1
• Tony Dungy — 1
• Howard Cosell — 1
• Bob Griese — 1
• Russ Francis — 1
• Suzy Kolber — 1
• Alex Flanagan — 1
• Tiki Barber — 1

Twenty-One Announcer Milestones from the First Fortnight of May 2023

The late spring is a busy time of year in the world of announcer tracking — even though the NFL is out of season, baseball is picking up steam while the NBA and NHL still have multiple games most nights and all of them are televised in the playoffs.

Below are the announcer milestones we recorded from May 1-14, which includes Rogers' lead NHL crew showing up on four straight games worked from May 2-10.

Monday, May 1 - 76ers at Celtics game 1 (TNT, 7:30) - Energetic TNT play-by-play announcer Kevin Harlan calls his 1,350th national telecast between the NFL and NBA. He’s the third person to reach that total in the United States, trailing Dick Stockton and Marv Albert, and sixth including Canadian NHL duties (where Bob Cole, Chris Cuthbert and Pierre McGuire join the list). Reggie Miller and Allie LaForce round out the telecast.

Tuesday, May 2 - Panthers at Maple Leafs game 1 (CBC/SN, 7:00) - One Hockey Night in Canada stalwart ties another as Craig Simpson matches Danny Gallivan with 1,017 national NHL telecasts in Canada. That total is good for seventh in our records. Chris Cuthbert and Kyle Bukauskas round out the commentary team for this series.

Tuesday, May 2 - Kraken at Stars game 1 (ESPN, 9:30) - Rhode Island native Brian Boucher becomes the 11th person to call 400 American NHL national telecasts and the sixth person to reach that plateau as a color commentator. Joining him in the booth are Bob Wischusen, a New Jersey native, and Leah Hextall from Brandon, Manitoba.

Wednesday, May 3 - Blue Jays at Red Sox (MLBN, 7:00) - Jon Morosi, who has become MLB Network’s default insider over the last couple of years, calls his 126th national MLB telecast as the field reporter to tie Gary Miller for sixth in our records. Matt Vasgersian and Tom Verducci helm the booth.

Thursday, May 4 - Panthers at Maple Leafs game 2 (CBC/SN, 7:00) - One Hockey Night in Canada stalwart slides past another as Craig Simpson passes Danny Gallivan with 1,018 national NHL telecasts in Canada. That total is good for seventh in our records. Chris Cuthbert and Kyle Bukauskas round out the commentary team for this series.

Friday, May 5 - Celtics at 76ers game 3 (ESPN, 7:30) - The list of NBA commentators with 300 repetitions as a color commentator grows to 10 when Doris Burke hits that mark. Mark Jones and Cassidy Hubbarth, who are each also top-10 members in their main flavors of commentary, handle play-by-play and courtside reporting.

Saturday, May 6 - Knicks at Heat game 3 (ABC, 3:30) - While Dave Pasch is perhaps best known at this point for being the guy who talks when Bill Walton doesn’t during college basketball season, he also has more national NBA play-by-play to his credit than all but five people (to say nothing of being the radio voice of the Arizona Cardinals). The Syracuse graduate calls his 400th NBA game alongside Hubie Brown and Malika Andrews.

Saturday, May 6 - Red Sox at Phillies (Fox regional, 7:00) - Lead MLB on Fox analyst John Smoltz calls his 494th national telecast as an analyst, breaking a tie with Dan Dierdorf for 18th on record among the four major U.S. pro sports while creating a tie with Steve Jones for 17th. (Incidentally, Smoltz is a native of metropolitan Detroit who attended high school in Lansing, Michigan, and was offered a scholarship at Michigan State before being drafted by the Tigers, while Dierdorf played collegiately at Michigan. While I’m doing this, Dierdorf and Jones played simultaneously in St. Louis in 1974-75, but back to work.) Adam Amin, who went to Valparaiso University, and Ken Rosenthal, a Pennsylvania alum, flank Smoltz on this game.

Saturday, May 6 - Warriors at Lakers game 3 (ABC, 8:30) - Half of the lead ESPN NBA television booth, affectionately known as “The Band” on the 506 Sports Discord server, shows up in this list on the same game. Play-by-play announcer Mike Breen, who used to handle two sports for NBC, calls his 1,059th national play-by-play telecast in our five main lists, tying Mike Emrick for 10th. (Like Breen, Emrick was most known for his work on one sport, hockey, but also has national credits in football and baseball.) Mark Jackson, who like Breen hails from New York, calls his 700th national NBA telecast, making him the seventh person to reach that mark and the fourth to do so as a color analyst. As analysts go, Jackson ranks ninth in the four major U.S. pro sports and 15th including Canadian NHL work. Lisa Salters and Jeff Van Gundy round out the telecast. (And for completeness, Emrick is from LaFontaine, Indiana.)

Sunday, May 7 - Orioles at Braves (NBC/Peacock, 11:30 a.m.) - NBC’s annual simulcast of Peacock’s MLB Sunday Leadoff package brings Matt Vasgersian a milestone in spot duty. Vasgersian’s 363rd national MLB telecast matches Thom Brennaman, also a former Fox MLB commentator, for eleventh in our play-by-play records. Andruw Jones and Ben McDonald join Vasgersian as team-centric analysts while Ahmed Fareed hosts the telecast and reports.

Sunday, May 7 - Maple Leafs at Panthers game 3 (TBS, 6:30) - Former NHL netminder Darren Pang matches longtime partner Dave Strader with his 717th American national commentary appearance. Strader and Pang worked together 196 times, from 1996-2004 with ESPN and 2011-13 with NBC, before Strader died of cancer in 2017. Here, Pang works alongside Brendan Burke for the 63rd time and Alyson Lozoff for the third.

Sunday, May 7 - Maple Leafs at Panthers game 3 (CBC/SN, 6:30) - One Hockey Night in Canada stalwart from Ontario ties another from Alberta as Craig Simpson ties Dick Irvin with his 1,039th NHL color commentary credit between the U.S. and Canada. (Simpson called 20 U.S. telecasts for ESPN and Fox from 1997-2000 in addition to his Canadian work while Irvin has a single U.S.-only credit, Capitals-Canadiens in 1978 on the syndicated NHL Network.) Chris Cuthbert and Kyle Bukauskas round out the commentary team for this series.

Wednesday, May 10 - Red Sox at Braves (MLBN, 7:00) - MLB Network field reporter Jon Morosi completes the pass he started a week earlier, passing Gary Miller for sixth on the MLB sideline reporter list with his 127th such game. Verducci again handles color with Bob Costas on play-by-play this week.

Wednesday, May 10 - Maple Leafs at Panthers game 4 (CBC/SN, 7:00) - One Hockey Night in Canada stalwart moves past another as Craig Simpson passes Dick Irvin with his 1,040th NHL color commentary credit between the U.S. and Canada. Chris Cuthbert and Kyle Bukauskas round out the commentary team for this series, which went to a fifth game on Friday, May 12, but had no milestones in Canada that night.

Friday, May 12 - Panthers at Maple Leafs game 5 (TNT, 7:00) - Former NHL netminder Darren Pang, an Ontario native, passes longtime partner Dave Strader with his 718th American national commentary appearance. (See notes about this pairing in the May 7 entry.) Brendan Burke and Kathryn Tappen do the rest of the talking as the Panthers reach the Eastern Conference final.

Friday, May 12 - Oilers at Golden Knights game 5 (CBC-SN-SN1, 10:00) - Edmonton-based rinkside reporter Gene Principe calls his 237th national NHL telecast in Canada, matching Cassie Campbell-Pascall for 11th in our records. Harnarayan Singh and Louie DeBrusk staff the booth for a game with some unusual comings and goings – due to the Maple Leafs game earlier that evening running long, this contest started on Sportsnet One and West, with CBC and the rest of Sportsnet joining at 16:11 elapsed in the first period. At the end of the period, Sportsnet One broke away for Maple Leafs postgame coverage before rejoining at 7:36 elapsed in the second.

Friday, May 12 - Warriors at Lakers game 6 (ESPN, 10:00) - Mike Breen finishes his pass of Mike Emrick for the 10th-most play-by-play credits among our five main lists with game number 1,060. His color commentator, Jeff Van Gundy, works his 850th national NBA telecast, good for fourth overall and second by an analyst. Van Gundy is sixth among color commentators in the four major U.S. pro sports and 10th counting Canadian NHL analysts. Mark Jackson, whom we discussed earlier, and Lisa Salters, whom we are on pace to discuss next week, round out the crew.

Saturday, May 13 - Padres at Dodgers (Fox regional, 7:00) - A week after tying Steve Jones on the four-sport color commentary listings, John Smoltz assumes 17th place all by himself with his 495th game. Joe Davis leads the main Fox crew this week with Rosenthal on the field.

Sunday, May 14 - Golden Knights at Oilers (CBC-SN, 10:00) - Edmonton-based rinkside reporter Gene Principe moves into 11th in our records of national NHL rinkside reporters in Canada with his 238th game, sliding past Cassie Campbell-Pascall. (This game started at an unusually late hour for the lone game on a Sunday since U.S. rightsholder ESPN had to air Sunday Night Baseball. Since the SNB game, which airs north of the border via TSN simulcast, ran long, portions of this game may have aired on TSN as well when ESPN cut in.) Harnarayan Singh and Louie DeBrusk staff the booth.