Sean McDonough | |
|---|---|
 McDonough in 2025 | |
| Born | (1962-05-13)May 13, 1962 (age 63) Boston, Massachusetts, U.S. |
| Alma mater | Syracuse University |
| Occupation | Sportscaster |
| Employers | |
Sean McDonough (born May 13, 1962)[1] is an Americansportscaster, currently employed byESPN and theWEEIBoston Red Sox Radio Network. McDonough has play-by-play experience for all four major professional sports leagues in the United States and Canada (NFL,NBA,MLB, andNHL).[2]
McDonough was born inBoston, Massachusetts,[1] the son ofBoston Globe sportswriterWill McDonough. He graduated from theS. I. Newhouse School of Public Communications ofSyracuse University in 1984 with a degree inbroadcast journalism.[3][4] At Syracuse, he joined theWAER-FM sports department and provided play-by-play calls forSyracuse Chiefs baseball games.[5][6] During college, he worked forSyracuse football coachDick MacPherson.[7]
McDonough was an intern at the short-livedEnterprise Radio Network in 1981.
It was inSyracuse where McDonough began his broadcasting career in 1982 as the play-by-play announcer for theSyracuse Chiefs of theInternational League. McDonough was also anIvy League football announcer forPBS. He was a sideline reporter from 1984 to 1985 and a play-by-play announcer from 1986 to 1987.
Four years after graduating from Syracuse, he began broadcastingBoston Red Soxgames onWSBK-TV (Channel 38) in Boston with former Red Sox catcherBob Montgomery and later former Red Sox second basemanJerry Remy.[8][9] While not calling Red Sox games, he also hosted selectBoston Bruins games onWSBK-TV[10] with the most notable game being the last game at the oldBoston Garden (a pre-season game against their rivalMontreal in 1995).[11][12]
McDonough continued announcing broadcast Red Sox games through the2004 season, moving over the years to various local stations, includingWFXT (Channel 25),WABU (Channel 68), andWLVI (Channel 56). In1996, he was teamed with Jerry Remy. He worked with Remy for nine seasons, ultimately only Friday night games, before being replaced in2005 byNESN announcerDon Orsillo. McDonough attributed his firing to his salary and disputed talk that his "candor" was to blame.[13]
He turned down an offer to become theNew York Mets play-by-play man on television in2005 before the Red Sox notified him that they would not pick up his option for 2005.[13]
In2019, McDonough returned to Red Sox broadcasts as a part-time play-by-play announcer on the team'sradio network, announcing 30-32 games that season and becoming a permanent part-time announcer alongsideJoe Castiglione,Will Flemming, andLou Merloni in2020.[14]
He began work forCBS Sports in 1990, where he broadcastcollege basketball (including 10NCAA tournaments),college football (including the prestigiousOrange Bowl game), theCollege World Series, theNFL,US Open tennis, threeWinter Olympics (bobsled andluge in1992 and1994 andice hockey in1998), andgolf[15] (including fourMasters andPGA Championships).
In December 1999, CBS Sports PresidentSean McManus informed McDonough that his contract would not be renewed.[16] OnceDick Enberg, late ofNBC was available, McDonough became the odd man out.[17]
Outside ofNew England, he is probably best remembered for his time asCBS's lead baseball announcer, a role in which he was teamed withTim McCarver. In1992 at the age of 30, he became the youngest man to announce the national broadcast (and all nine innings of all of the games played) of theWorld Series. Coincidentally, that particular record would be brokenfour years later byFox's 27-year-oldJoe Buck, the son of the man McDonough replaced onCBS,Jack Buck.
Perhaps McDonough's most famous call is his emotional description of theAtlanta Braves'Francisco Cabrera (who had only 10 at-bats at the major league level that season) getting a dramatic, game-winning base hit inGame 7 of the1992 National League Championship Series against thePittsburgh Pirates:
Line-drive and a base-hit!Justice has scored the tying run,Bream to the plate...and he isSAFE! Safe at the plate! TheBraves go to theWorld Series![18]
He also called the final play of the subsequent 1992 World Series, in which theToronto Blue Jays became the first non-American based team to win the Major League Baseball's world championship:
Nixon bunts!Timlin on it! Throws to first . . . For the first time in history, the world championship banner will flynorth of the border! The Toronto Blue Jays are baseball's best in1992!
Ayear later, McDonough calledJoe Carter's dramatic1993 World Series ending home run offMitch Williams of thePhiladelphia Phillies:
Well-hit down the left-field line! Way back and GONE! Joe Carter with a three-run homer! The winners and stillworld champions, theToronto Blue Jays!
Three years later, while calling the College World Series for CBS alongsideSteve Garvey, McDonough called another series-clinching home run. This time, it wasWarren Morris, who hit atwo out, 9th inningwalk-off home run that won the1996 College World Series[19] for theLouisiana State UniversityFighting Tigers againstMiami.
NowWarren Morris...hits a deep drive down the right-field line, that ball is...GONE!LSU wins theCollege World Series on a home run by Morris!
McDonough's other major endeavor at CBS was hiscoverage 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 them to spice up their broadcasts. Before the1999 South Regional Final betweenOhio State andSt. John's fromKnoxville, Tennessee, McDonough and Raftery donned fishing gear as they previewed the game from a boat on theTennessee River, which was just outside thearena.
In 1998, McDonough—with Raftery at his side—called one of the great buzzer-beaters in NCAA Tournament history, asConnecticut defeatedWashington in theEast Regional semifinals on a last-second shot byRichard Hamilton.
Spreading the court forEl-Amin. Ten seconds remaining. El-Amin, off toVoskuhl. He was pushed, the shot wouldn't drop...Hamilton, no! Another tip, no! Hamilton, at the buzzer,yes! Yes! Connecticut wins!
Since 2000, McDonough has announcedbaseball,college basketball,college football,golf,NBA,NHL, andNCAA hockey forESPN/ABC. Specifically, McDonough announced manyBig East college football and basketball events. He has also contributed to ESPN's coverage of theU.S. Open andBritish Open golf tournaments, and called the2010 NCAA Division I Men's Lacrosse Championship Final Four alongsideQuint Kessenich.
McDonough called NCAA basketball play-by-play on March 12, 2009, on ESPN betweenUConn andSyracusewhich went into 6 overtimes, becoming the longest game in Big East history, clocking 3 hours and 46 minutes. The final score was 127–117 in favor of Syracuse. Also on the broadcast was color commentary fromBill Raftery andJay Bilas.
On September 28,2011, McDonough called the nationally televised game in which theBaltimore Orioles came back to defeat theBoston Red Sox 4–3 after Boston closerJonathan Papelbon came within one strike of closing the game. McDonough called Baltimore'sRobert Andino's walk-off single, which occurred only three minutes beforeEvan Longoria's walk-off home run against theNew York Yankees inSt. Petersburg gave theTampa Bay Rays, who trailed the Red Sox by nine games on September 3, theAmerican LeagueWild Card, as follows:
Lined to left,Crawford playing shallow dives...cannot make the catch!Reimold comes to the plate! He scores! And the Baltimore Orioles stun the Boston Red Sox!
McDonough was also behind the mic for the fumbled punt in the final seconds of theMichigan State-Michigan football game on October 17, 2015, that resulted in the game-winning touchdown for the Spartans.[20]
Whoa, he (Michigan punter Blake O'Neill) has trouble with the snap…and the ball is free! It's picked up byMichigan State's Jalen Watts-Jackson…and he scores! On the last play of the game! Unbelievable! (pauses while the team celebrates) Michigan State is still the big boy on the block in the state of Michigan. A shocking ending to this rivalry game.
Starting in2013, McDonough started play-by-play work for theNFL on ESPN Radio. Others includedRyan Ruocco,Marc Kestecher, andBill Rosinski, who previously did NFL games forNFL on Westwood One as theAtlanta Falcons and theCarolina Panthers.
McDonough was named the lead play-by-play announcer forMonday Night Football (succeedingMike Tirico, who departed forNBC Sports) beginning in the2016 season.[21][22] In March 2018, ESPN announced that McDonough would be leavingMonday Night Football and would return to announcing college football games.[23]
On June 29, 2021, ESPN formally confirmed[24] that he would be its lead play-by-play voice for their forthcomingNHL coverage beginning in the2021–22 season, when the league returned to ESPN and ABC, after 16 years atNBC. He was reportedly interested in an NHL role ever since ESPN reacquired the rights to the NHL in March, and ESPN reportedly considered him andSteve Levy for the #1 play-by-play announcer role before eventually choosing him.[25] He teams with up with former NHL centerRay Ferraro, andEmily Kaplan, who provides reports throughout the game, on the lead team.[26] Previously, he teamed up withBrian Engblom on ESPN2 NHL broadcasts from 1993 to 2004.[27] Initially, ESPN had McDonough and Ferraro together in the booth before the network decided to place Ferraro at ice-level.
On May 4, 2024, he called Game 7 of the Eastern Conference First Round series between theBoston Bruins and theToronto Maple Leafs and he received praise for predicting the circumstance in which the overtime goal was scored immediately before it happened.[28][29]
McDonough: At this juncture, Ray, anytime you have the opportunity, send it towards the net. So often, these overtime games end on a strange bounce or rebound.
Ferraro: Send it to the net and get people to the net.
McDonough:Lindholm right wing corner.Pastrnak is there.HE SCORES! David Pastrnak wins it for Boston!
McDonough acted in the 1992 filmMr. Baseball.
In 2012, McDonough had surgery forsuperior canal dehiscence syndrome which kept him from working for several months.[15]
In 2014, McDonough was named to theWAER Hall of Fame along withBill Roth, Syracuse University's noncommercial radio station, where he began his sports broadcasting career as a student.[6]S. I. Newhouse School of Public Communications also honored McDonough in July 2016 with the 4th annualMarty Glickman Award.[30][31] In May 2007, he received an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters fromSouthern Vermont College.[32]
In 2025, McDonough received the National Sports Media Association’s National Sportscaster of the Year Award.[33]
| Year | Title | Role | Network |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1988–2004 | Boston Red Sox | Play-by-play | |
| 1990–1999 | College Basketball on CBS | Play-by-Play (secondary) | CBS |
| 1991–1993 | NFL on CBS | ||
| 1992–1993 | MLB on CBS | Play-by-play (lead) | |
| 1993–1994 1999–2000 2002–2004 | NHL on ESPN/NHL on ABC | Play-by-play (secondary) | ESPN/ABC |
| 2021–present | Play-by-play (lead) | ||
| 1995–1999 | College World Series | Play-by-play | CBS |
| 1996–1999 | College Football on CBS | Play-by-play (lead) | |
| 2000–present | ESPN College Basketball (ABC) | Play-by-play (secondary) | ESPN/ABC |
| 2004–2015 2018–present | ESPN College Football (ABC) | ||
| 2011–2012 | MLB on ESPN (Monday Night Baseball) | Play-by-play | ESPN |
| 2016–2017 | NFL on ESPN (Monday Night Football) | Play-by-play (lead) |
Born in Boston on May 13, 1962...
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