Roy Firestone | |
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 Firestone in July 2009 | |
| Born | December 8, 1953 |
| Occupation(s) | Sportscaster Journalist |
Roy Firestone (born December 8, 1953) is an American sports commentator and journalist. Firestone is a graduate of Miami Beach High School and the University of Miami.
Firestone began his career as a sports anchor and reporter in Miami, working briefly at WTVJ, before moving to Los Angeles as a sports anchor for KNXT/KCBS-TV from 1977 to 1985. He was also the host of HDNet's Face to Face with Roy Firestone and AOL's Time Out with Roy Firestone.
He appeared on the Late Show with David Letterman , Larry King Live , Super Dave Osborne and Nightline . He has also performed for numerous corporate clients including Anheuser Busch, Chevron, Nike, Whirlpool and Toyota. Firestone currently appears as a guest regularly on Good Day L.A. which airs on KTTV in Los Angeles covering local and national sports.
Firestone also provided the voice of the classic cartoon character Egghead in the 1988 Warner Bros. compilation film Daffy Duck's Quackbusters , and appeared in the 1996 movie Jerry Maguire. He starred in a Married... with Children episode and presented the Al Bundy Sport Spectacular. [1] Firestone also made an appearance as himself in a 1997 episode of Everybody Loves Raymond, the "Bart Star" episode of The Simpsons and The White League, episode of In Living Color.
From 1980 to 1994, he was the host of ESPN's interview program SportsLook, later renamed Up Close . [2] He also served as a color commentator for the network's first season of Sunday Night Football telecasts in 1987. In 2016, clips from the 1992 episode where he interviewed O. J. Simpson were used in O.J.: Made in America , specifically the portion that had Firestone state, "Not to dredge it up again, but more or less, talk about how things can get distorted to such a point that you are portrayed as a bad guy. New Year's Eve, you had too much to drink ...", which referred to Simpson pleading no contest to spousal abuse of his wife Nicole Brown Simpson in 1989. In response to online criticism, Firestone made a statement about the interview by stating that he felt dirty in his interview in context to what would occur with Simpson and his wife two years after the interview while noting the general attitude toward Simpson and domestic violence were different in 1992 than it was in 2016. [3]
Firestone is a lifelong fan of the Baltimore Orioles and served as a spring training batboy for the team as a teenager. [4] He spoke on Saturday, September 29, 2012, at Oriole Park at Camden Yards during the unveiling of Brooks Robinson's statue at the ballpark. [5]
Frank Robinson was an American professional baseball outfielder and manager in Major League Baseball (MLB) who played for five teams over 21 seasons: the Cincinnati Reds (1956–1965), Baltimore Orioles (1966–1971), Los Angeles Dodgers (1972), California Angels (1973–1974), and Cleveland Indians (1974–1976). In 1975, Robinson became the first Black manager in big-league history, as the player-manager of the Indians.
Brooks Calbert Robinson Jr. was an American baseball player who played his entire 23 seasons in Major League Baseball as third baseman for the Baltimore Orioles from 1955 to 1977. Nicknamed "Mr. Hoover" and "the Human Vacuum Cleaner", he is generally considered to have been the greatest defensive third baseman in major league history. An 18-time All-Star, he won 16 consecutive Gold Glove Awards, the most by a position player, and tied with Jim Kaat for the second-most of all time, behind Greg Maddux. His 2,870 career games at third base not only exceeded the closest player by nearly 700 games when he retired, but also remain the most games by any player in major league history at a single position. His 23 seasons spent with a single team set a major league record since matched only by Carl Yastrzemski.
James Alvin Palmer is an American former professional baseball pitcher who played 19 years in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Baltimore Orioles. Palmer was the winningest MLB pitcher in the 1970s, totaling 186 wins. He also won at least 20 games in eight different seasons and won three Cy Young Awards and four Gold Gloves during the decade. His 268 Orioles victories are the most in team history. A six-time American League (AL) All-Star, he was also one of the rare pitchers who never allowed a grand slam in any major league contest.
Stephen Robert Blass is an American former professional baseball player and television sports color commentator. He played his entire career in Major League Baseball as a right-handed pitcher for the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1964 and from 1966 through 1974. Blass was one of the National League's top pitchers between 1968 and 1972, helping the Pirates win four National League Eastern Division titles in five years between 1970 and 1974. He played a key role in the Pirates victory over the Baltimore Orioles in the 1971 World Series when he recorded two complete game victories. He remains the last National League pitcher to throw a complete game in Game Seven of a World Series. After his playing career ended, Blass had a 34-year career as a television sports commentator for Pittsburgh Pirates games.
The 1970 World Series was the championship series of Major League Baseball's (MLB) 1970 season. The 67th edition of the World Series, it was a best-of-seven playoff between the American League champion Baltimore Orioles and the National League champion Cincinnati Reds (102–60). The Orioles won, four games to one.
The 1969 World Series was the championship series of Major League Baseball's (MLB) 1969 season. The 66th edition of the World Series, it was a best-of-seven playoff between the American League (AL) champion Baltimore Orioles and the National League (NL) champion New York Mets. The Mets won the series, four games to one, to accomplish one of the greatest upsets in Series history, as that particular Orioles team was considered to be one of the finest ever. The World Series win earned the team the sobriquet "The Miracle Mets". This was the first World Series of MLB's divisional era.
ESPN Sunday Night Football was the ESPN cable network's weekly television broadcasts of Sunday evening National Football League (NFL) games. The first ESPN Sunday night broadcast occurred on November 8, 1987, while the last one aired on January 1, 2006.
Mid-Atlantic Sports Network (MASN) is an American regional sports network owned as a joint venture between two Major League Baseball franchises, the Baltimore Orioles and the Washington Nationals. Headquartered in Baltimore, Maryland, the channel broadcasts regional coverage of sports events in the Washington, D.C., and Baltimore metropolitan areas.
Gary Francis Thorne is an American sportscaster. He was the lead play-by-play announcer for Baltimore Orioles games on MASN from 2007 to 2020. He has also worked for ESPN and ABC, including National Hockey League, Major League Baseball, college football, and the Frozen Four hockey tournament. He also works for World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), where he is the narrator for the WrestleMania Rewind program on its WWE Network streaming video service.
Rex Allen Hudler is an American former Major League Baseball utility player and color commentator for the Kansas City Royals. He played a total of 14 seasons after being a first round draft pick of the New York Yankees in 1978.
James Shores Simpson was an American sportscaster, known for his smooth delivery as a play-by-play man and his versatility in covering many different sports. In 1997, he won the Sports Lifetime Achievement Award, and in 2000 he was inducted into the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association Hall of Fame.
Ronald Alan Swoboda is an American former professional baseball player and television sports color commentator. He played in Major League Baseball as an outfielder from 1965 through 1973, most notably as a member of the New York Mets team that became known as the Miracle Mets when they rose from being perennial losers to defeat the favored Baltimore Orioles in the 1969 World Series for one of the most improbable upsets in World Series history. Swoboda executed one of the most impressive defensive plays of the series in the ninth inning of Game 4 to help preserve a Mets victory. He also played for the Montreal Expos and the New York Yankees.
The NBC television network's in-studio pre-game coverage for their National Football League game telecasts has been presented under various titles and formats throughout NBC's NFL coverage history.
John Lee Lowenstein is an American former professional baseball outfielder and designated hitter who played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Cleveland Indians, Texas Rangers, and Baltimore Orioles.
Up Close is an American sports interview show that aired on ESPN+ in 2021 and had aired on ESPN from 1981–2001.
Orenthal James Simpson, also known by his nickname "the Juice", was an American professional football player, actor, and media personality who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 11 seasons, primarily with the Buffalo Bills. Simpson is regarded as one of the greatest running backs of all time, but his success was overshadowed by his criminal trial and controversial acquittal for the murders of his former wife Nicole Brown and her friend Ron Goldman in 1994.
Manuel Arturo Machado is an American professional baseball third baseman and shortstop for the San Diego Padres of Major League Baseball (MLB). Very highly recruited from an early age, he was raised in Miami, where he attended Brito High School and was drafted by the Baltimore Orioles with the third overall pick in the 2010 MLB draft. He bats and throws right-handed. He has played for the Dominican Republic national baseball team.
Henry Edward Goldberg was an American sports radio and television personality based in Miami, Florida. He was the radio color commentator for the Miami Dolphins from 1978 to 1992. He also worked at WIOD and WTVJ, before joining ESPN in 1993, shortly after ESPN2 and ESPN Radio were established. He specialized in providing handicapping analysis for National Football League (NFL) games and horse racing.
O.J.: Made in America is a 2016 American documentary, produced and directed by Ezra Edelman for ESPN Films and their 30 for 30 series. It was released as a five-part miniseries and in theatrical format. O.J.: Made in America premiered at the Sundance Film Festival on January 22, 2016, and was theatrically released in New York City and Los Angeles in May 2016 by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures. It debuted on ABC on June 11, 2016, and aired on ESPN.
NBC made history in the 1980s with an announcerless telecast, which was a one-shot experiment credited to Don Ohlmeyer, between the Jets and Dolphins in Miami on December 20, 1980), as well as a single-announcer telecast, coverage of the Canadian Football League during the 1982 players' strike, and even the first female play-by-play football announcer, Gayle Sierens.
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