Thursday afternoon, the Texas Rangers announced TV broadcaster C.J. Nitkowski recently tested positive for COVID-19, which led to simulcasting their radio broadcast for that night’s game in Houston against the Astros.
Since 2017, Nitkowski has worked as a TV analyst for the Rangers on FOX Sports Southwest. Although the Rangers are in the middle of a road trip, broadcasters haven’t been traveling with the team and instead call the games from inside their home stadium. As a precautionary measure, the network and the Rangers chose not to allow any member of the broadcast with recent TV booth access to work Thursday night’s game, including television play-by-play voice Dave Raymond.
Instead, FOX Sports Southwest utilized a simulcast of 105.3 The Fan’s radio broadcast which features Eric Nadel, Matt Hicks, and Jared Sandler on the call. The 59-year old Hicks also tested positive for COVID-19 near the start of the season.
The Rangers anticipate being able to use their TV announcers and production crew for Friday night’s game at the Los Angeles Angels, but Nitkowski won’t be allowed back until he receives consecutive negative COVID-19 tests.
In the shortened 2020 season, Major League Baseball has so far needed to postpone 43 games because of COVID-19. Plans were recently announced to create a bubble for most of the Major League Baseball postseason, which includes the World Series taking place inside the Texas Rangers new stadium.
Brandon Contes is a former reporter for BSM, now working for Awful Announcing. You can find him on Twitter @BrandonContes or reach him by email at Brandon.Contes@gmail.com.
