Sean McDonough (born May 13, 1962) is an American sportscaster, currently employed by ESPN and the WEEIBoston Red Sox Radio Network. McDonough has play-by-play experience for all four major professional sports leagues in the United States and Canada (NFL, NBA, MLB, and NHL).[1]
It was in Syracuse where McDonough began his broadcasting career in 1982 as the play-by-play announcer for the Syracuse Chiefs of the International League. McDonough was also an Ivy League football announcer for PBS. He was a sideline reporter from 1984 to 1985 and a play-by-play announcer from 1986 to 1987.
Boston Red Sox and Boston Bruins
Four years after graduating from Syracuse, he began broadcasting Boston Red Soxgames on WSBK-TV (Channel 38) in Boston with former Red Sox catcher Bob Montgomery and later former Red Sox second baseman Jerry Remy.[7][8] While not calling Red Sox games, he also hosted select Boston Bruins games on WSBK-TV[9] with the most notable game being the last game at the old Boston Garden (a pre-season game against their rival Montreal in 1995).[10][11]
McDonough continued announcing broadcast Red Sox games through the 2004 season, moving over the years to various local stations, including WFXT (Channel 25), WABU (Channel 68), and WLVI (Channel 56). In 1996, he was teamed with Jerry Remy. He worked with Remy for nine seasons, ultimately only Friday night games, before being replaced in 2005 by NESN announcer Don Orsillo. McDonough attributed his firing to his salary and disputed talk that his "candor" was to blame.[12]
He turned down an offer to become the New York Mets play-by-play man on television in 2005 before the Red Sox notified him that they would not pick up his option for 2005.[12]
In 2019, McDonough returned to Red Sox broadcasts as a part-time play-by-play announcer on the team's radio network, announcing 30-32 games that season and becoming a permanent part-time announcer alongside Joe Castiglione, Will Flemming, and Lou Merloni in 2020.[13]
In December 1999, CBS Sports President Sean McManus informed McDonough that his contract would not be renewed.[15] Once Dick Enberg, late of NBC was available, McDonough became the odd man out.[16]
Major League Baseball on CBS
Outside of New England, he is probably best remembered for his time as CBS's lead baseball announcer, a role in which he was teamed with Tim McCarver. In 1992 at the age of 30, he became the youngest man to announce the national broadcast (and all nine innings of all of the games played) of the World Series. Coincidentally, that particular record would be broken four years later by Fox's 27-year-old Joe Buck, the son of the man McDonough replaced on CBS, Jack Buck.
Line-drive and a base-hit! Justice has scored the tying run, Bream to the plate...and he is SAFE! Safe at the plate! The Braves go to the World Series![17] The unlikeliest of heroes wins the National League Championship Series for the Atlanta Braves. Francisco Cabrera, who had only ten at-bats in the major leagues during the regular season, singled through the left side, scoring Sid Bream from second base with the winning run. Bream, who's had five knee operations in his lifetime, just beat the tag from his ex-mate Mike LaValliere and Atlanta pulls out Game 7 with three runs in the bottom of the ninth inning. This place is bedlam. There will be no second nightmare for Bobby Cox. Final score in Game 7 of the National League Championship Series: the Braves 3 and the Pirates 2.
He also called the final play of the subsequent 1992 World Series, in which the Toronto Blue Jays became the first non-American based team to win the Major League Baseball's world championship:
Nixon bunts! Timlin on it! Throws to first . . . For the first time in history, the world championship banner will fly north of the border! The Toronto Blue Jays are baseball's best in 1992!
Now Warren Morris...hits a deep drive down the right-field line, that ball is...GONE! LSU wins the College World Series on a home run by Morris!
NCAA Basketball on CBS
McDonough's other major endeavor at CBS was his coverage of the NCAA tournament with then-partner (and fellow Irish-American) Bill Raftery. McDonough and Raftery covered a number of regional finals in the 1990s before McDonough's run at CBS came to an end. The pair developed a terrific on-air rapport, thereby enabling them to spice up their broadcasts. Before the 1999 South Regional Final between Ohio State and St. John's from Knoxville, Tennessee, McDonough and Raftery donned fishing gear as they previewed the game from a boat on the Tennessee River, which was just outside the arena.
Spreading the court for El-Amin. Ten seconds remaining. El-Amin, off to Voskuhl. He was pushed, the shot wouldn't drop...Hamilton, no! Another tip, no! Hamilton, at the buzzer, yes! Yes! Connecticut wins!
McDonough called NCAA basketball play-by-play on March 12, 2009, on ESPN between UConn and Syracusewhich went into 6 overtimes, becoming the longest game in Big East history, clocking 3 hours and 46 minutes. The final score was 127–117 in favor of Syracuse. Also on the broadcast was color commentary from Bill Raftery and Jay Bilas.
Lined to left, Crawford playing shallow dives...cannot make the catch! Reimold comes to the plate! He scores! And the Baltimore Orioles stun the Boston Red Sox!
College football, the NFL, and the NHL
McDonough was also behind the mic for the fumbled punt in the final seconds of the Michigan State-Michigan football game on October 17, 2015, that resulted in the game-winning touchdown for the Spartans.[19]
Whoa, he (Michigan punter Blake O'Neill) has trouble with the snap…and the ball is free! It's picked up by Michigan State's Jalen Watts-Jackson…and he scores! On the last play of the game! Unbelievable! (pauses while the team celebrates) Michigan State is still the big boy on the block in the state of Michigan. A shocking ending to this rivalry game.
McDonough was named the lead play-by-play announcer for Monday Night Football (succeeding Mike Tirico, who departed for NBC Sports) beginning in the 2016 season.[20][21] In March 2018, ESPN announced that McDonough would be leaving Monday Night Football and would return to announcing college football games.[22]
On June 29, 2021, ESPN formally confirmed[23] that he would be its lead play-by-play voice for their forthcoming NHL coverage beginning in the 2021–22 season, when the league returned to ESPN and ABC, after 16 years at NBC. He was reportedly interested in an NHL role ever since ESPN reacquired the rights to the NHL in March, and ESPN reportedly considered him and Steve Levy for the #1 play-by-play announcer role before eventually choosing him.[24] He teams with up with former NHL center Ray Ferraro, and Emily Kaplan, who provides reports throughout the game, on the lead team.[25] Previously, he teamed up with Brian Engblom on ESPN2 NHL broadcasts from 1993 to 2004.[26] Initially, ESPN had McDonough and Ferraro together in the booth before the network decided to place Ferraro at ice-level.
On May 4, 2024, he called his first ever Game 7 involving his Bruins team against the Toronto Maple Leafs and he received a lot of praise for predicting the circumstance in which the overtime goal is scored.[27][28]
