Last October marked the final call for a remarkable 42-year career of calling Major League Baseball play-by-play for Bob Costas. The legendary broadcaster spent the final three years of his career calling games for TBS while also splitting his time with MLB Network, which he has been a part of since its inception in 2009.
Recently, Costas joined the Sports Media Watch Podcast with Jon Lewis and delved into the backstory of how he arrived at the decision to retire from play-by-play following the 2024 MLB postseason. In a wide-ranging interview, he reflected on his journey and the factors that led to his choice.
“The TBS portion of my career is a tiny chip in a much larger mosaic,” explained Costas. “We all want to end on a grace note. This is not the end of my broadcasting career, but it most definitely was going to be the end of my play-by-play career, by my own design. Even had I been asked back and the baseball network [MLB Network] had wanted me to do more games, which they do, I said, No. This is going to be the end, and it didn’t quite turn out the way I wanted to.”
Costas went on to discuss how he felt his final performances did not meet the high standard he set for himself when calling baseball. He explained that, given his standing in the game, he didn’t want to disappoint those who looked up to him by delivering a performance that fell short of his own expectations.
“I didn’t want to let any of them down,” said Costas. “I didn’t want to fall too far beneath my own standard. So, you hope that you can end, as I’ve said, on a grace note. You don’t want the last note of a symphony, if that’s not too overwhelming, to be discordant.”
Furthermore, the 2018 Ford C. Frick Award winner from the National Baseball Hall of Fame shared insights into why he initially accepted the opportunity with Turner Sports when Jeff Zucker took over as chairman in 2019. According to Costas, Zucker convinced him to call only the divisional series rounds on TBS, which appealed to him because he didn’t want to take opportunities away from rising broadcasters in the field.
Following his work on the divisional series, Costas expanded his role with TBS in 2022, joining the network to provide play-by-play for its Tuesday night baseball coverage during the regular season. Additionally, he called the Cleveland Guardians’ postseason series against the New York Yankees. However, according to Costas, this was when things began to take a turn for the worse in his relationship with Turner Sports.
“Jeff [Zucker] got sideways with Time Warner, and he was gone,” Costas noted. “My mistake was after that one season, I should have said I’m only here because of Jeff’s [Zucker] invitation. I’ll leave now, but TBS wanted me to do a couple more years.”
Despite his initial reservations, Costas decided to stay with the network following Zucker’s departure from Turner Sports in December 2022. He continued calling games for the network over the next two seasons.
“I honestly thought if I thought that I couldn’t perform at least close to my past standard, I wouldn’t have done it,” explained Costas. “I realized that I was no longer at whatever my top level was, but I thought I could get close enough, and I prepared very hard, and I thought I made allowances for any diminution and sharpness or whatever. And it didn’t quite turn out that way, but that’s the reason that all of this happened as it did.”
Looking back on his illustrious career, Costas previously called games for NBC from 1982 to 1989 and again from 1994 to 2000. He was part of the broadcast team for the 1995 World Series and later served as the main play-by-play announcer for the Fall Classic in 1997 and 1999.
Beyond baseball, Costas is also widely recognized for his role as the prime-time host of NBC’s Olympics coverage from 1992 to 2016. Additionally, he has made appearances as a commentator on sports-related issues on CNN, further cementing his legacy as one of the most respected voices in sports broadcasting.
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Costas did a great job on his late night talk/interview show on NBC, “Later With Bob Costas.” Episodes are available on YouTube. Check some of them out.