In the sports broadcasting industry, if you say “I saw Boog today”, nobody looks at you funny. They know immediately who you are talking about. 

Jon “Boog” Sciambi is one of the more recognizable people in the world of play-by-play. He currently serves as the voice of the Chicago Cubs on the Marquee Sports Network. Sciambi is also the voice of Sunday Night Baseball on ESPN Radio. He’ll add World Series duties on ESPN Radio this fall. 

Sciambi grew up in Philadelphia as a huge Phillies fan. Strange that he got a job with the Cubs, because it was a Cubs/Phillies game in 1976 that he got his first exposure to the Friendly Confines of Wrigley Field. When Sciambi was six years old, he was visiting his grandparents and got to watch the game on TV. 

The Cubs took a 12-1 lead after three innings. He wasn’t leaving and in fact predicted the Phillies would come back and win it. He was right, thanks to his favorite player Mike Schmidt hitting four home runs in the game for an 18-16 extra inning win. 

As is the case with some of us that get into baseball broadcasting, our first choice would be to play the sport. Sciambi went to Boston College with that intent, but that dream ended when he was cut from the team as a freshman. He started bar tending and dabbling in radio, with a weekly talk show with two of his good friends, who we’ll talk more about in a bit. 

ROAD TO MARQUEE/CUBS

On January 4, 2021, Marquee Sports Network named Sciambi as the play-by-play announcer for its Cubs telecasts. 

“When you look at the signature franchises in baseball, you’re talking about the Yankees, the Dodgers, the Red Sox, and the Cubs,” Sciambi said at the time in a Marquee Sports Network release. “Chicago has always been one of the special places to go broadcast the game. Baseball matters there.” It was quite a road in getting there. 

Sciambi got his first real taste of broadcasting at BC’s 1000-watt FM radio station. He would host a weekly talk show with fellow classmates, Joe Tessitore and Bob Wischusen, both of whom have their success stories in the industry.

In 1996, Sciambi, worked for the Boise Hawks, an Angels’ farm club in a short-season A league. One day, he decided to ask broadcaster Dave O’Brien to review his play-by-play. 

“A few days after I gave him the tape, he stares at me for a second, holds up the tape and says ‘When you gave me this tape, I thought it would stink. It didn’t.’” Sciambi told the Sports Broadcast Journal in 2019. 

Sciambi’s first break in Major League Baseball was getting into the play-by-play chair for the then Florida Marlins from 1997-2004. While in Miami, he hosted talk shows in the city on 790 The Ticket and WQAM. He left the former in 2008 to focus on his new main job, with the Atlanta Braves. 

Boog joined the Braves broadcast team on SportSouth and FSN South in 2007. He was paired with Joe Simpson. Late in the 2009 season Sciambi announced he was leaving the Braves to join ESPN’s Major League Baseball and college basketball coverage full-time. Sciambi is the network as the play-by-play voice for MLB on ESPN Radio, while continuing the same role for college basketball and MLB on ESPN, which he had done since 2005. 

At ESPN, Sciambi served as one of the play-by-play voices of Wednesday Night Baseball telecasts for the network beginning with the 2014 season. Sciambi had contributed to ESPN Radio’s World Series coverage as the on-site studio host since 2007 and provided post-game, on-field interviews for SportsCenter. Additionally, he had done play-by-play for both the College and Little League World Series and in 2020, served as a play-by-play commentator for ESPN’s KBO League coverage. It was announced last season, that Sciambi would take over the broadcasts of the World Series on ESPN Radio, starting with this year’s Fall Classic. 

Sciambi was also tabbed to replace Matt Vasgersian as the play-by-play voice of MLB: The Show video game series, starting with MLB The Show 22. He’s paired with Chris Singleton who used to be part of the Chicago White Sox’s broadcast. 

Sciambi said that he recorded over 200 hours of audio to get in all the player names, types of plays, and other sorts of commentary that might typically be in a game broadcast.

PLAY-BY-PLAY

While Sciambi excels at every sport he does, I think his voice best lends itself to baseball. He’s smooth and polished, but not to the extreme that it sounds forced in any way. Sciambi’s style is all his own. That’s a compliment. 

There are many voices out there today that sound the same, like machines, very ‘announcer-y’. Fake effected voices are a dime a dozen, but ones like Sciambi’s are in a class of their own. He doesn’t try to sound like anyone else. In fact, I’ve had multiple conversations with him over the years and the way he talks off air is the way he talks on air. 

Sciambi has a booming voice that he controls very well. He’s very conversational in between the action, but rises to the occasion when the play warrants excitement, enthusiasm or disappointment. Then there’s his sense of humor. I love the fact that Sciambi isn’t afraid to poke a little fun at himself. Self-deprecation goes a long way with a viewer, especially if a mistake gets made. Everyone is human, so own it right?

I like how Sciambi is able to simplify some of the more complicated details of the new stats and numbers in the game of baseball. He is able to explain them in terms that even those who don’t follow closely can understand. For example, on a Tuesday night broadcast from Cincinnati, Boog was talking about the importance of Exit Velocity. He started by saying something to the effect of “I know this frustrates some people to hear about how hard a ball is hit. But, last year in the Major Leagues, if you hit the ball 95 miles an hour or above you hit .488, that’s why exit velocity matters.” His broadcast isn’t riddled with analytics, but there’s enough there to keep the interested parties happy without driving those that aren’t away. 

I’m a big fan of Sciambi’s work. I’ve known him for a while and he’s as good a person as he is a broadcaster. 

DID YOU KNOW?

Sciambi is passionate about raising awareness for and supporting people who live with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, or ALS. His friend, Tim Sheehy, died of ALS in 2007. Sciambi is on the board of directors of Project Main St., which works to improve the quality of life for those affected by the disease. The organization, which has raised over $1 million, hosts an annual Tim Sheehy Gala and Softball Classic support their mission.  

Remember that I told you, Sciambi’s favorite Phillies player growing up was Mike Schmidt? How about this? The night that the Cubs announced Sciambi had taken the job as their broadcaster, he got a call from an unfamiliar number, and low and behold, it was Schmidt himself. 

Sciambi’s nickname, “Boog,” was given to him owing to his physical resemblance to former major league player Boog Powell. 

Basketball and Doris Burke have been synonymous for many years. At the age of 7, she started to play the game that would eventually get her to the top of her profession. Along the way she’s recorded many firsts for women in this field which I’ll detail later. Burke has also become an inspiration to other women already in broadcasting and those thinking about a career in media. Pretty impressive. 

Burke was raised in Manasquan, New Jersey. She was the youngest of eight children, and started playing basketball in the second grade. She starred at Providence, where she was the team’s point guard all four of her years there and made an impact immediately. 

During her freshman year, Doris Burke led the Big East in assists. She was a second-team All-Big East player once and twice made the all-tourney team of the Big East Women’s basketball tournament. Burke held seven records upon graduation, including finishing her career as the school and conference’s all-time assists leader, a record that has since been broken. She served as an assistant coach for her alma mater for two years from 1988-90.

From there it was time to embark on a Hall of Fame career.

ROAD TO ESPN/ABC

Burke began her broadcasting career in 1990 as an analyst for women’s games for Providence on radio. That same year, she began working in the same role on Big East Women’s games on television, and in 1996 she began working Big East men’s games. 

Doris Burke has been working for ESPN covering basketball in different roles since 1991. It has also allowed her to do other things along the way that were unchartered for women in the business. In 2000, Burke became the first woman to be a commentator for a New York Knicks game on radio and on television; she is also the first woman to be a commentator for a Big East men’s game, and the first woman to be the primary commentator on a men’s college basketball conference package.  In 2017, Burke became a regular NBA game analyst for ESPN, becoming the first woman at the national level to be assigned a full regular-season role. 

If that wasn’t enough, from 2009 to 2019 she served as the sideline reporter for the NBA Finals on ABC. I mentioned it was a Hall of Fame career and it was officially deemed as such in 2018. Burke was selected to enter the Basketball Hall of Fame as the Curt Gowdy Media Award winner.

AS AN ANALYST

“Doris Burke has an ease about her. A quiet confidence if you will.” Relying on her past experiences in the game as a player and coach, the information she brings her audience is relatable. Some analysts struggle to bring home a point in a way that a casual fan will understand. Burke has no trouble with this. Her ability to spell it out, concisely and conversationally sets her apart from most analysts, male or female. 

Burke attacks her job, knowing that some will question her authority when it comes to commentary on the NBA. She doesn’t mind steering into the skid.

“I am mindful of the fact that I have not played or coached in the NBA,” Burke said to Sportscasting.com last year. “It doesn’t mean that I can’t do a very competent job. I think I try to do that every single night, and I’m never afraid to ask questions.” 

It’s all about the information to Burke, and has nothing to do with the fact she’s a woman covering the NBA.

“If you enhance a viewer’s experience, it doesn’t matter what your gender is,” she said. “As long as you are competent and put in the work … you’re going to be accepted.”

Doris Burke learned the ropes so to speak from several women that came before her. In an NBA.com piece from January of last year, she outlined how much she enjoyed watching former ESPN SportsCenter anchor Gayle Gardner. Early on in her career at ESPN, Burke got to work with Robin Roberts on WNBA and women’s college basketball broadcasts along with Ann Meyers Drysdale and Nancy Lieberman. Roberts was Burke’s inspiration as she started her career path. She admired the professionalism that each displayed. 

“Working alongside Robin Roberts … the one thing I would tell you is the most powerful means to change or impact somebody is by your actions,” Burke said. “She was the epitome of professionalism and competency and garnered the respect of the people around her because of the work habits she had. Watching Robin early on let me know that the basis for everything is the work you put into something.”

While Roberts may have been influential to Burke, Burke has been a beacon for other woman that are getting opportunities in broadcasting.  When asked about their role model, YES Network analyst Sarah Kustok, 76ers play-by-play broadcaster Kate Scott and former WNBA player and current Miami Heat studio analyst Ruth Riley Hunter all mentioned Burke by name.

“Burke is the best example for anyone — male or female,” Hunter told NBA.com. “I love the way she describes the game. She adds so much to every broadcast, and when I was playing in the WNBA I was always really inspired by her work.”

Burke is popular amongst her colleagues at ESPN/ABC, thanks to a tireless work ethic an ability to adapt to whichever sport she may be calling that day. Count Jeff Van Gundy among her biggest fans.

“She’s the best, most-versatile analyst and commentator at ESPN,” Van Gundy said of Doris Burke in 2017 via Deadspin. “She does it all—great interviewer, commentator, studio analyst—everything. And she is an expert at it all—women’s and men’s college basketball, the NBA and the WNBA. She’s the LeBron James of sportscasters. There’s no better broadcaster out there right now.”

Burke is equally a big fan of Van Gundy and the top broadcast crew for ESPN/ABC’s NBA coverage. That includes Mike Breen and Mark Jackson as well. 

“We are talking about three of the best to ever do it. Mark, Jeff and Mike have held down the NBA Finals for over a decade with commentary that is the best of the best. Hubie Brown is a living legend. All of those men have been nothing but gracious and supportive of me,” Burke told the Athletic. 

Doris Burke is considered one of the best NBA analysts around.  Her bosses at ESPN made sure to re-sign her to a multi-year deal and promised she will be involved in “high profile” NBA games in both the regular season and playoffs. Burke will also call finals games on ESPN Radio and appear on the NBA Sunday Showcase program on ABC.

Good for her and good for fans of the NBA on ESPN/ABC.

DID YOU KNOW?

In 2010, she was featured as the new sideline reporter for 2K Sports ‘NBA 2K11’ video game. She has appeared in every version since, including the latest ‘NBA 2K23’.   

As a senior at Providence in 1987 she was the school’s Co-Female Athlete of the Year.  

Her basketball idols growing up were Kyle Macy, Kelly Tripucka and Tom Heinsohn.  

His style is unique, he sometimes looks disheveled, unshaven and scruffy. But Greg Olsen could probably care less, because he’s ascended to the top of his field at Fox. The former NFL Tight End, is spending his first season in the #1 booth with Kevin Burkhardt. While he may indeed look like Dexter’s older brother (Showtime’s drama about a serial killer), Olsen is killing it with his on-the-spot analysis. Sorry, had to go there. 

Growing up in New Jersey, he never really thought about the guys calling the games. On the Dave Pasch Podcast earlier this year, Olsen explained his perspective as a kid. 

“Until I started doing it, I don’t even really know if I ever paid attention to broadcasters,” he told Pasch. “You know, I knew who Monday Night Football announcers were as a kid. Dan Dierdorf and Frank Gifford and Al Michaels. You remember listening to games with John Madden. I remember them, I can’t say I ever tuned into a game wondering ‘Hey I wonder who is calling the game?’ It was always kind of secondary to me.”

That all changed when he started to get more serious about life after football. 

“It really wasn’t until later into my career and I’d been on that other side of the camera and sat in those booths and called it, where I would watch games and almost watch it more to hear what they were saying and more to see the replay sequence and more to see how the analyst used the telestrator and what points he made. And what I found interesting and what I found boring.”

NFL CAREER

Olsen was selected by the Chicago Bears with the 31st overall pick in the 2007 NFL Draft out of the University of Miami. He spent four seasons with the Bears before being traded to the Carolina Panthers in 2011. As a Bears’ fan, I still don’t understand that deal. 

Anyway, he remained with the Panthers through the conclusion of the 2019 season, and played a key role in the Panthers’ Super Bowl 50 berth against the Denver Broncos. Olsen became one of the best tight ends in NFL history. 

He was a three-time Pro Bowler and two-time second-team All-Pro selection. He ranks fifth all-time among tight ends with 742 receptions and 8,683 yards. From 2014 to 2016, he recorded 1,000 receiving yards each season. In the process Olsen became the first tight end in history to record three consecutive 1,000-yard receiving seasons. He left the Panthers as the franchise’s all-time leading tight end in receiving yards (6,463), receptions (524) and 100-yard receiving games (10). Olsen sits second among Panthers tight ends in receiving touchdowns at 39 and third in receiving yards and receptions.

From Carolina it was on to Seattle. In 2020, he signed a one-year deal with the Seahawks. It was not as productive a year as he’d become accustomed to. Olsen was released by the Seahawks in March of 2021. He announced his retirement from the NFL that same year. 

ROAD TO FOX

Olsen’s road to the number one booth actually started while still an active player. In 2017, while playing for the Panthers, Olsen became just the third player in FOX Sports’ history to serve as game analyst (Matt Hasselbeck and Marcus Allen were the first two). Olsen joined Kevin Burkhardt, Charles Davis and Pam Oliver to call a Week 11 game between the Vikings and Rams. 

He also jumped into the booth in 2019, his last season with the Panthers. He partnered with Kenny Albert and reporter Lindsay Czarniak for the Week 7 NFL matchup between the Arizona Cardinals and the New York Giants.

In early 2020, during the offseason before his final season with the Seahawks, Olsen also partnered with Burkhardt to call five XFL games for FOX Sports and served as an NFL studio analyst for the network’s coverage of Super Bowl LIV in Miami.

His full-time broadcasting career started in 2021. Olsen joined FOX last season as the network’s color analyst in the No. 2 booth, working next to Burkhardt. When Troy Aikman and Joe Buck left Fox for the Monday Night Football booth at ESPN, Olsen and Burkhardt were promoted to the top booth on Fox before this season. 

“We’re thrilled to have this team steward our industry leading and award-winning coverage as we embark on our 29th NFL season, highlighted by our 10th Super Bowl,” said Brad Zager, Fox Sports president of production/operations and executive producer. “Last season, Kevin and Greg showed viewers their undeniable chemistry and ability to call football at an elite level. We can’t wait for fans to see what they’re going to bring to ‘America’s Game of the Week,’ the NFL playoffs and Super Bowl LVII.”

The promotion may be short lived, because Fox has also committed itself to Tom Brady, if/when the quarterback decides to really retire from football. Olsen was well aware of the situation he was getting himself into. He decided that he couldn’t worry about what might come next year, this season was too important for his new found career. So much so, that, as Olsen has playfully tried to talk Brady out of television. 

During his first Fox production meeting with Brady, Olsen decided to ‘break the ice’ with some humor. Burkhardt was in the room as well and related the story to the Sports Illustrated Media podcast.   

“Tom, I gotta tell ya, this TV thing sucks,” he joked. Brady cracked up according to Burkhardt. 

Olsen admitted the story was true. Nobody is quite sure how things will go next year if Brady is available, but it’s good to see that Olsen is handling the ‘elephant in the room’ with class. 

AS AN ANALYST

Olsen reached out to many analysts that were already in the business before he got into television full time. One of the things I admire about him, is he’s hell bent on being himself and not trying to imitate others. It would be easy for someone in his position to say, “I’m going to sound like Tony Romo, because he’s having success.” Thankfully Olsen is his own man and brings his own style and flare to the broadcast.  

“I’ve been fortunate to have some good guidance and have some cool conversations. But as far as style, I don’t try to be anyone,” said Olsen to the Dave Pasch Podcast. “There’s not anyone where I say, oh, I want to sound like him. I just kind of talk like me and say things that I think are interesting and try to point out elements of the game that I find fun. It might not be for everyone. Some people might not like my style. They might not like the way I describe things. But I think it’s fun. I think it’s interesting. I think, our broadcast, you come away learning the game of football. I like that. I want that to be what people are tuning in for.”

The fact that he’s raw and not that far removed from his playing days works in his favor. Sometimes the more polished you try to sound, the worse it is. People aren’t tuning in to hear the analyst sound like he’s reading from a script. They want to hear, honest and in the moment thoughts from someone that played the game at a high level. He knows the game and most importantly, knows how to relate the things he’s seeing to his audience. You can also hear the enjoyment he’s getting, just talking about the game he loves. It’s like youthful exuberance shining through.  

“I think the game is so fun and so interesting and complex and the better we can do as analysts in portraying that, I think it’s fun for the viewer to come away and learn a few things throughout the course of the game.” Olsen said on the Pasch Podcast. 

He’s learning the television game as he goes along here. I’m sure it’s almost like being a rookie in the NFL again. Learning, progressing, evolving and succeeding. The process hasn’t taken him very long. Of course, it helps to have a talented play-by-play announcer sitting next to him, and the duo of Burkhardt and Olsen works, and works well. It would be a shame to lose a guy that’s coming into his own, like Olsen, for a guy like Brady. Nobody really knows what Brady will sound like, how analytical, or how entertaining he’ll be. Me personally, I’d be weary. It’s a big name yes, but that doesn’t always translate into someone being a good analyst. Brady has always been the ‘buttoned up’ sound bite, never really saying anything. Fox could be taking a gamble on replacing a sure thing with a less than sure thing. 

If I’m running the network, the “A” team at Fox becomes a three-man booth. Olsen has really gelled with Burkhardt and it would be nice, I’m sure, for Brady to have a fellow former player in the booth with him. 

DID YOU KNOW?

Olsen twice was named a finalist for the Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year Award. Inspired by the challenges facing his son, T.J., who was born with a severe congenital heart defect, Olsen and his wife, Kara, founded the HEARTest Yard Program to offer support and services to those facing similar circumstances.