Matt Vasgersian

Matthew Edward Vasgersian (born September 28, 1967) is an American sportscaster and television host. Vasgersian is a play-by-play announcer for ESPN's coverage of Major League Baseball, as well as a studio host for MLB Network. In the past, he has served as an announcer for Fox Sports' National Football League & Major League Baseball coverage, NBC Sports' coverage of the Olympic Games, and NBC Sports' coverage of the short lived XFL. He formerly called play-by-play for the Milwaukee Brewers and the San Diego Padres.

Early life

Vasgersian started his media career as a child actor, becoming a member of the Screen Actors Guild at age seven. He appeared in an episode of The Streets of San Francisco and the movie The Candidate starring Robert Redford, which was filmed mostly in Berkeley, California. Born in Oakland, California and raised in Moraga, California he is of Armenian descent. Vasgersian graduated from Campolindo High School in Moraga and the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. While a student at USC, he appeared on The New Dating Game, winning a trip to Telluride, Colorado. He also appeared as a contestant on Supermarket Sweep where Vasgersian and his partner won the Big Sweep but not the $5,000 grand prize.

Career

Initial baseball work

Vasgersian has worked in baseball since 1991, starting with a six-year stint in the Minor Leagues as a play-by-play announcer. He began his career as a sportscaster with the Chicago Cubs Rookie league affiliate in Huntington, West Virginia on radio station WKEE-AM 800 and was the voice of the High Desert Mavericks (San Diego Padres affiliate) on radio station KAPL. He moved up the minor league baseball ranks over the next several years, working for various clubs in a number of different organizations, including the Syracuse Chiefs in 1995, and ending with the AAA Tucson Toros in 1996.

Vasgersian was 29 years old when he became the play-by-play voice for the Milwaukee Brewers where he worked from 1997 through 2001. He later worked in the same role for the San Diego Padres from 2002 through 2008. Vasgersian was with the Padres for seven seasons when it was announced he would be joining MLB Network.

On November 1, 2008, during a broadcast of the San Diego CIF High School Football Game of the Week, Channel 4 announced that Vasgersian would not be returning as a Padres announcer for the 2009 season, having chosen to pursue other opportunities. Later that week, it was reported that Vasgersian had signed a deal with MLB Network to become the network's first studio host.

Fox Sports

Vasgersian joined Fox Sports in 2006. From 2006 through 2008, Vasgersian worked on Fox NFL telecasts, teaming with J.C. Pearson on the network's #6 broadcast team. In previous years, he had done select games for the network. Vasgersian's Fox football resume included calling BCS games for the network, working the Orange Bowl in 2007 and the Fiesta Bowl 2008 and 2009. Starting in 2007, he also worked on Fox MLB telecasts of the Game of the Week, teaming with a variety of analysts on the network's #3 broadcast crew. In 2012, he began hosting the MLB pregame show, though he still occasionally called games on a fill-in basis. In 2014, he was moved back to the broadcast booth, working with John Smoltz on one of the network's #2 broadcast teams (a role the pair splits with Thom Brennaman and Eric Karros). In this role, he and Smoltz worked on postseason telecasts during the Division Series. In 2015, Vasgersian and Smoltz called their first World Series for MLB International. In 2016, Smoltz became lead game analyst at Fox and Buck Martinez became Vasgersian's new partner for the international broadcast of the World Series.

MLB Network

Vasgersian has been a studio host at MLB Network since its debut on January 1, 2009, appearing regularly in-studio and on-site at the All-Star Game and World Series on MLB Tonight, the network's Emmy Award-winning live nightly studio show, as well as "Quick Pitch," "The Rundown," the offseason studio show "Hot Stove," MLB Network’s Spring Training series 30 Clubs in 30 Days, and MLB Network's first-ever game show Baseball IQ. Throughout the MLB regular season, Vasgersian calls play-by-play for MLB Network’s Thursday Night Baseball game package. He called Game 2 of the 2012 ALDS between the Detroit Tigers and the Oakland Athletics on October 7.

Vasgersian and Jim Kaat called Game 3 of the 2013 American League Division Series, also between the Detroit Tigers and the Oakland Athletics on October 7 as well. From 2012-2014, when he hosted Fox's MLB pregame, Vasgersian did not host programming on MLB Network during the All-Star Game and the postseason.

Vasgersian became a co-host, with Lauren Shehadi and Mark DeRosa, of MLB Network's show MLB Central, which debuted on April 6, 2015. Vasgersian was later replaced on that program by Robert Flores. Vasgersian also did commentary for MLB Network's coverage of the All-Star Game in 2015.

ESPN

On January 23, 2018, it was announced that Vasgersian would become the new play-by-play voice for Sunday Night Baseball beginning in the 2018 season, succeeding Dan Shulman (who then moved back to Sportsnet for Blue Jays games for the 2019 season), while continuing his role at MLB Network.

External links

• Biographical note on Matt Vasgersian
• MLB Network bio

Preceded by: Dan Shulman	Sunday Night Baseball play-by-play announcer 2018–present	Succeeded by: Incumbent
Preceded by: Gary Thorne	Lead MLB International play-by-play announcer 2015–present	Succeeded by: Incumbent