Andrew Marchand of The Athletic reported on October 31 that sports broadcast legend Bob Costas is retiring from Major League Baseball play-by-play duties.
According to MLB.com writer Brent Maguire, Costas will discuss the news and his play-by-play career on Monday’s MLB Tonight at 6 p.m. ET on MLB Network on November 4.
Costas has been with MLB Network since the channel launched before the start of the 2009 regular season.
Costas has contributed to multiple shows and series with MLB Network, such as MLB Now, Studio 42 with Bob Costas, MLB’s 20 Greatest Games, The Sounds of Baseball, and Costas at the Movies.
Costas called his final broadcast game in Game 4 of the 2024 American League Division Series between the New York Yankees and Kansas City Royals at Kaufmann Stadium.
Costas received 28 Emmy Awards for his broadcasting career and worked at 12 Olympic Games from 1988 until 2016 with NBC Sports.
Costas has also covered the National Football League, the National Baseball Association, horse racing, golf, boxing, and NASCAR during his career.
Costas attended the S.I Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University before he dropped out of the program in 1974 and got his first radio experience as a freshman at WAER.
He began his professional broadcasting career at WSYR-TV, now WSTM-TV, and WSYR-FM radio in Syracuse. He called minor league hockey for the Eastern Hockey League franchise, the Syracuse Blazers, in 1973.
Costas joined KMOX radio in St. Louis after he left school in 1974 and covered games in the American Basketball Association.
Costas did not call his first MLB game until the 1982 regular season when he was with NBC Sports and teamed up with former MLB player Sal Bando to do the play-by-play for NBC’s Game of the Week, which was aired every Saturday.
Costas did play-by-play with Tony Kubek on NBC Sports from 1983 to 89 and with Joe Morgan and Bob Uecker from 1994 to 2000.
He last called the World Series in 1998 with Morgan and Uecker and worked two Fall Classic’s prior in 1995 during Games 2-3 and 1997.
Costas was a field reporter for the World Series with NBC in 1988, 1986, 1984, and 1982.
Costas also gave the trophy presentation at the World Series in all the years he was a field reporter for NBC.
Costas had been with TBS for their postseason coverage since the 2021 season before the end of the 2024 ALDS and announcing his retirement from MLB play-by-play broadcasting.
Bob Costas’s Career Timeline:
1974–1976: Spirits of St. Louis Play-by-play, KMOX radio
1976–1981: Missouri Tigers men’s basketball Play-by-play, KMOX radio
1976–1979: NFL on CBS Play-by-play
1979–1980: Chicago Bulls Play-by-play, WGN-TV
1980–2018: NBC Sports Play-by-play & studio host
1980–1983: NFL on NBC Play-by-play
1983–1989: MLB on NBC #2 play-by-play
1984–1992, 2006–2016: NFL on NBC Studio Host
1988–1994: “Later” Talk Show Host on NBC
1990–1997, 2002: NBA on NBC Studio Host
1992–2016: Summer Olympics Primetime Host
1993: Notre Dame Football on NBC Alternate play-by-play
1994–2000: MLB on NBC Lead play-by-play
1997–2000: NBA on NBC Lead play-by-play
2001–2018: Thoroughbred Racing on NBC Lead host
2001–2009: On the Record with Bob Costas and Costas Now Host
2002–2014: Winter Olympics Primetime Host
2002–2008: Inside the NFL Host
2003–2014: U.S. Open host, NBC Sports
2008–2012: NHL Winter Classic Host
2009–present: MLB Network Studio 42 with Bob Costas Host (2009–2014), Thursday Night Baseball Play-by-play
2016: NBC/NFL Network Host, Thursday Night Football
2017-2024: MLB Network play-by-play, MLB Postseason
2020-Uncertain: CNN Sports contributor
2021-2024: TBS baseball studio host, 2021 NLCS
Bob Costas Awards and Honors:
29-time Emmy Award winner (the only person in television history to have won Emmys for sports, news and entertainment)
Eight-time NSMA National Sportscaster of the Year
Four-time American Sportscasters Association Sportscaster of the Year
Star on the St. Louis Walk of Fame.[119]
1999 Curt Gowdy Media Award – Basketball Hall of Fame
2000 TV Guide Award for Favorite Sportscaster.[120]
2001 George Arents Award from Syracuse University (Excellence in Sports Broadcasting)
2004 Dick Schaap Award for Outstanding Journalism
NSMA Hall of Fame inductee (class of 2012).
2012 Walter Cronkite Award for Excellence in Journalism.[121]
2013 S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications Marty Glickman Award for Leadership in Sports Media.
2015 WAER Hall of Fame inductee
2017 Ford C. Frick Award – National Baseball Hall of Fame
2018 Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame inductee
2019 Suffolk Sports Hall of Fame inductee
