Dan Shulman
| Dan Shulman | |
|---|---|
| Born | Daniel Shulman (1967-02-09) February 9, 1967 Toronto, Ontario, Canada |
| Sports commentary career | |
| Genre(s) | Play-by-play, reporter |
| Sports | Major League Baseball (MLB) College basketball |
Daniel "Dan" Shulman (born February 9, 1967) is a Canadian sportscaster with the American network ESPN as well as Canadian network Sportsnet.
Shulman serves as a play-by-play announcer for ESPN's men's college basketball coverage (with Jay Bilas), select regular season Major League Baseball games, and post-season MLB coverage on ESPN Radio. He also calls select Toronto Blue Jays telecasts on Sportsnet.
Previously, Shulman served as the play-by-play announcer for ESPN's Sunday Night Baseball (with Aaron Boone and Jessica Mendoza), a position he resigned from at the conclusion of the 2017 season.[1]
Contents
1 Education
2 Broadcasting career
2.1 Early career
2.2 TSN
2.3 ESPN
2.4 Sportsnet
3 Personal life
4 External links
5 References
Education
Born in Toronto, Ontario, Shulman graduated from the University of Western Ontario in actuarial science but moved into a career in sports broadcasting.
Broadcasting career
Early career
Shulman began his broadcasting career at the University of Western Ontario, becoming a main voice of university football and basketball for the Western Mustangs on CHRW radio in London, Ontario, and later at radio station CKBB in Barrie, where he volunteered for the local community television station. With the help of Erick Anderson (sports producer), he did the play-by-play for the local junior B hockey team. During the early 1990s, he was hired by the Fan 1430 (a sports radio station in Toronto now known as Sportsnet Radio The Fan 590) as the host of Prime Time Sports. He worked for CTV in its coverage of the 1994 Winter Olympics from Lillehammer, Norway, covering hockey, and the 1994 World Championships of Basketball.
TSN
In 1995, he became the play-by-play voice on TSN for their broadcasts of Toronto Blue Jays baseball games alongside former Blue Jays catcher Buck Martinez. Shulman remained with the network for seven years, during which time he also worked as the network's secondary play-by-play voice for NHL hockey and lead announcer for NBA basketball. He also covered CHL games and backed up host Dave Hodge on TSN Inside Sports. Until 2007, Shulman continued to work with Buck Martinez for TSN during the World Series, filing daily reports. In 2011, he returned to TSN as an analyst and contributor.
ESPN
Shulman began working part-time for ESPN while still employed by TSN. In 2001, he moved to ESPN full-time to cover sporting events like baseball, college basketball, and occasionally hockey. ESPN signed Shulman to a five-year contract extension in 2007 and assigned him to call NBA games for the network. Shulman remains the network's lead announcer for NCAA basketball.
On July 27, 2007, Shulman called Barry Bonds's 754th home run for ESPN.
From 2002 to 2007, he served as the lead play-by-play announcer for ESPN Radio's MLB coverage, teaming with Dave Campbell to call the network's Sunday Night Baseball broadcasts as well as the All-Star Game, Home Run Derby, and select postseason games. In 2008, Gary Thorne succeeded Shulman as the lead Sunday Night Baseball voice; however, Shulman once again teamed with Campbell to call that year's All-Star and postseason events and continued to fill in on occasional regular season broadcasts. Shulman also teamed with Orel Hershiser to call Monday Night Baseball for ESPN television from 2008 to 2010 and with Hubie Brown to call ESPN NBA coverage from 2007 to 2012.
On March 14, 2010, Duke's Kyle Singler saved a loose ball along the sideline, in turn leaped over the ESPN announcer's table, and crashed into Shulman, who was sitting courtside, broadcasting with Dick Vitale during the first half of play at the ACC Conference Men's Basketball Championship game versus Georgia Tech. No serious injuries were reported.
On December 1, 2010, Shulman, Hershiser, and Bobby Valentine were named as ESPN's new Sunday Night Baseball crew for the 2011 MLB season. During the Sunday Night Baseball telecast between the New York Mets and Philadelphia Phillies on May 1, 2011, Shulman announced live to the ESPN audience that Osama bin Laden had died, a moment that has been compared to Howard Cosell's report of John Lennon's assassination on Monday Night Football in 1980. Shulman told USA Today that he had learned of bin Laden's death from Valentine, who himself received the news via text. "I talked to the producer in the truck and asked if they knew what was going on. Or maybe they asked me," said Shulman. "I couldn't just say something on-air because of a text, I needed corroboration. It all happened in about 30 seconds."[2]
Shulman also teamed with Orel Hershiser and Bobby Valentine for the ESPN Radio broadcast of the 2011 World Series won in 7 games by the St. Louis Cardinals over the Texas Rangers.
That same year, he teamed with Dick Vitale for the broadcast of the Indiana–Kentucky rivalry on December 10, 2011. His call for the game winning three-pointer by Christian Watford was “Jones... Watford for the win… YES! YES!” with Vitale screaming “Unbelievable!” shortly after.
Shulman was named 2011 National Sportscaster of the Year by the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association, the first Canadian-born announcer to be so honoured.[citation needed]
On July 3, 2017, Shulman announced in a Sports Illustrated interview that he would step down from Sunday Night Baseball at the conclusion of the 2017 season, seeking to adjust his role at ESPN so he could spend more time with his family in Toronto. He will still participate in ESPN Radio coverage of the MLB postseason, and ESPN's college basketball coverage.[3]
Sportsnet
In addition to his continued work with ESPN, on November 19, 2015, Shulman announced he would be joining the Sportsnet broadcast team for upwards of 30 Toronto Blue Jays games during the 2016 and 2017 seasons.[4] In March 2018 it was announced that he would be joining the Sportsnet Radio network for select Blue Jays games, in addition to calling up to 50 games on Sportsnet television.[5]
Personal life
Shulman is Jewish and has participated in the Maccabiah Games.[6] Shulman had three sons with his wife, Sarah;[7] the couple has since divorced. In July 2017, he announced that he was ending his Sunday Night Baseball duties in part due to his remarriage.[8]
External links
- ESPN bio
- TSN bio
Dan Shulman on Twitter
| Preceded by Jon Miller | World Series national radio play-by-play announcer 2011– | Succeeded by Present |
| Preceded by Jon Miller | Sunday Night Baseball play-by-play announcer 2011–2017 | Succeeded by Matt Vasgersian |
References
^ "Sunday Night Baseball will lose Dan Shulman after 2017". SI.com. Retrieved 2017-11-05.
^ Hiestand, Michael (May 2, 2011). "ESPN's Dan Shulman: Announcing Osama bin Laden's death on live TV sports". USA Today. Retrieved May 2, 2011.
^ "Dan Shulman leaving ESPN 'Sunday Night Baseball' broadcast, staying at network". USA Today. Retrieved 2017-07-04.
^ "Dan Shulman to join Blue Jays broadcast team on Sportsnet". Sportsnet.ca. Retrieved 16 April 2016.
^ "The Sounds of Summer: Ben Wagner & Dan Shulman Join Sportsnet's Blue Jays Radio Broadcast Team". Rogers.com. March 27, 2018.
^ "Jewish Canadian Athletes Hall of Fame".
^ "ESPN Anchor Hopes to Knock It Out of the Park | Broadcasting & Cable". www.broadcastingcable.com. Retrieved 2017-11-10.
^ "ESPNer's marriage leads to 'Sunday Night Baseball' shakeup". New York Post. 2017-07-04. Retrieved 2017-11-10.
