Nationals Talent
Bob Carpenter, Play-by-Play
Bob Carpenter enters his 3rd season with MASN and the Nationals after 10 years in the TV booth of the St. Louis Cardinals and more than 20 in the major leagues. The St. Louis native debuted in 1984 with Cardinals baseball on the Sportstime Cable Network, then returned in '95 on KPLR-TV and KMOX Radio. He has been nominated for four St. Louis/Mid-America Emmys, winning twice (1996 and '97). His signature home run call "See ... you ... later!" got local and national recognition during Mark McGwire's record-setting home run chase in '98. Carpenter also appeared on TV in the '80s and '90s with Texas, New York (NL) and Minnesota. One of sports broadcasting's busiest announcers, Bob worked MLB, college basketball and college football during 18 season of play-by-play with ESPN from 1988-2005. He has broadcast baseball playoffs, Triple-A All-Star Games, NCAA and NIT Basketball Tournaments and College Football bowl games. His studio work included College Gameday and College Football Scoreboard shows. During his tenure with ESPN, Carpenter was paired with former major leaguers Buck Martinez, Joe Morgan, Jim Palmer, Ray Knight, Jerry Reuss, Frank Viola and many others. On the basketball side, he worked with Dick Vitale, Bill Raftery, Larry Conley, Jim Valvano among others. Carpenter announced the 2005 NCAA Basketball Final Four in his hometown of St. Louis for NCAA International TV. Prior to ESPN, Bob handled a variety of sports for USA Network, including college hasketball and football, PGA Golf (including The Masters) and professional tennis (including the U.S. Open). Bob has announced numerous soccer events at RFK Stadium, starting as the TV voice of Team America in 1983. He also worked several matches during the 1994 World Cup. Carpenter began his broadcasting career in 1976 as baseball play-by-play announcer with the Tulsa Oilers, then St. Louis' Triple-A affiliate. Carpenter earned a Radio-TV-Film degree with honors from the University of Missouri-Kansas City in 1975. Bob and Debbie, his wife of 28 years, have 2 daughters, Katie and Allison.
Don Sutton, Color Analyst
Don Sutton returns for a second season covering the Nationals on MASN after a 23-year Hall-of-Fame playing career (1966-88) and 18 seasons in the broadcast booth as a sports announcer for Atlanta Braves telecasts on Turner Sports. The 62-year-old got his first taste of broadcasting in 1987, when he provided pre- and post-game analysis for NBC's coverage of the National League Championship Series featuring St. Louis and San Francisco. He joined Turner Sports in 1989, one year following his last big league season. Sutton, who was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1998, has also served as a course reporter on TBS's professional golf coverage, working the Hawaiian Open, PGA Championship and PGA Grand Slam of Golf, as well as TNT's coverage of the Sarazen World Open Championship. Sutton's pitching career was highlighted by four All-Star appearances (1972-73, 1975 and 1977) and a combined 324 wins with the Los Angeles Dodgers, Houston Astros, Milwaukee Brewers and California Angels. He also pitched in four World Series, going a combined 2-3 with a 5.26 ERA with the Dodgers (1974 and 1977-78) and Milwaukee (1982). Sutton spent the first 15 seasons of his career with the Dodgers before joining the Astros as a free agent in 1981. The righthander was traded to Milwaukee in August 1982, and pitched three seasons there before being traded to Oakland in December 1984. Traded to California in September 1985, Sutton pitched for two-plus seasons in an Angels uniform before re-signing with the Dodgers in January 1988. Sutton ranks seventh on baseball's all-time strikeouts list with 3,574 (San Diego's Greg Maddux is the active player closest to Sutton, ranking 11th with 3,273 strikeouts). Sutton earned Sporting News NL Rookie of the Year honors in 1966 and was named MVP of the 1977 All-Star Game. Sutton makes his off-season home in Rancho Mirage, CA with his wife, Mary, and daughter Jackie (10). He also has two adult children: Daron (baseball broadcaster, currently television voice of the Arizona Diamondbacks) and Staci.
Johnny Holliday, Host of Nats Xtra
One of the finest play-by-play announcers in the country, Johnny Holliday comes to MASN after 28 years as the "Voice of the Terrapins." In addition to calling the action for the Maryland football and basketball teams, Holliday hosts the Ralph Friedgen and Gary Williams television shows. As the Terps' director of broadcasting, he also handles a myriad of speaking duties within the athletics department, ranging from banquets to golf outings.
His long list of credits includes ABC's coverage of the 2000 and 1996 Summer Olympics and the Winter and Summer Olympics in 1984, 1988 and 1994. In addition, he has covered championship boxing, The Masters, and the Liberty and Aloha bowls.
Holliday's announcing career allows him to lay claim as Washington's most versatile broadcaster, and among the best nationally. Whether it be in radio, where he was named America's No. 1 disc jockey during his rock 'n roll deejay days, to his public address duties with the Cleveland Browns, Oakland Raiders, and Golden State Warriors, to his work in Washington television for the Senators and Bullets, Holliday makes a complicated business look easy.
A native of Miami, Fla., Holliday began his broadcasting career in Perry, Ga., and through the years has worked in four of the nation's prime radio markets: Cleveland, New York, San Francisco and Washington. Washingtonian magazine honored him as a Washingtonian of the Year for his many civic activities. His basketball and softball teams, the Radio Wonders, have raised more than $1 million for charity. In October 2003, he was inducted into the Radio-Television Broadcasters Hall of Fame.
Byron Kerr, Co-Host of Nats Xtra
Kerr serves as a fill-in anchor for Nats Xtra and is the Host of the Nationals Insider and several post game shows on Washington Post Radio. He is currently the award-winning mid-day sports anchor for WTOP Radio in Washington, D.C. and recently finished his third season as the Voice of George Washington University men's basketball.
Kerr called George Mason University basketball from 1995-2005 and was the voice of the WNBA Washington Mystics for six seasons. Kerr has called games for the NBA Washington Wizards, college football and basketball games nationally on Westwood One and MLS Soccer for D.C. United. Kerr was the play-by-play voice for Westwood One's national radio coverage of the 2005 Kansas City and 2006 Albuquerque NCAA Women's Tournament Regional Finals.
Kerr has appeared on WJLA ABC 7 Washington, D.C. (Mystics Preseason Special), NBA TV, Home Team Sports (Comcast SportsNet), Sunshine Network and NewsChannel 8. He is an avid volunteer for Big Brothers/Big Sisters and the Special Olympics of Virginia.
Kerr is a graduate of the University of Virginia.
Ray Knight, Co-Host of Nats Xtra
Two-time MLB All-Star Ray Knight serves as the co-host of Nats Xtra, MASN's pre- and post- game show.
Few baseball players garner as much respect as Ray Knight. In the twilight of his playing years, Knight mustered one of his best seasons to triumphantly lead the New York Mets to a World Series Championship. It was the team's first title in 17 years. His play earned him the Most Valuable Player honor for the 1986 World Series and he was named the National League Comeback Player of the Year by The Sporting News.
The Albany, Georgia native played professional baseball for 17 years; 13 of those were spent in the Major Leagues as an infielder with the Cincinnati Reds, the Houston Astros, the New York Mets, the Baltimore Orioles and the Detroit Tigers. Knight retired from baseball in 1989 and moved on to become an ESPN broadcaster. In 1993, he returned to the Major Leagues to work as a coach for Cincinnati. He ascended to manager of the Reds in October 1995 and maintained the position until July 1997.
Knight is married to professional golfer Nancy Lopez.
Debbi Taylor, Nationals Sideline Reporter
Debbi Taylor comes to MASN from Sun Sports/FSN, where she was a sideline reporter for the Orlando-based Regional Sports Network. She was also a sports anchor and reporter for the Fox and CBS affiliates in Orlando where she covered the Daytona 500 and Super Bowl
Debbi got her start in sports broadcasting from spending 6 years at the New England Sports Network (NESN) in Boston, where she hosted the morning show, as well as doing feature interviews and reporting for the Red Sox pre and post-game shows.
Debbi has won two local Emmys and a national Emmy for her trip to Cuba and "The Friendship Games." She was honored by Red Sox legend Ted Williams by being one of only two women included in the broadcast wing of the "Hitters Hall of Fame" (the other was longtime Red Sox owner Jean Yawkey).
Taylor is a native of Nashua, NH and grew up attending baseball games at Fenway Park with her four siblings.
Phil Wood, Co-Host of Nats Xtra
Phil Wood began his broadcast career in 1973 as a news writer and editor at all-news WTOP-AM in his hometown of Washington, D.C. He learned the radio news business as the Watergate scandal unfolded, and continued to work behind the scenes until joining the staff at WRC-AM, also in Washington, in 1977. There he wrote news, but also was given numerous on-air assignments, including filling in as host for various news/talk programs, including a nightly sports show. That experience drew the attention of his former station, and he returned to WTOP in 1979 to host an evening sports call-in show wrapped around the play-by-play broadcasts of the Washington Bullets, Washington Capitals and Baltimore Orioles.
Phil took his talents to Baltimore's WCBM-AM in 1982, where he hosted the Baltimore Colts pre- and post-game shows, as well as a nightly sports talk program. That first year he also handled broadcast chores for the Baltimore Skipjacks, the minor league affiliate of the Pittsburgh Penguins. His hockey work that year earned him the American Hockey League's James H. Ellery Award for broadcast excellence. In Baltimore he also received significant television airtime as a panelist on "Face Off," a weekly program on WJZ-TV.
In 1992 Phil returned to Washington as an original host on SportsTalk 980, the city's first all-sports station. He stayed with 980 through 2001 when he returned to Baltimore to host a Saturday morning radio show on ESPN Radio 1300, and a Baltimore Ravens pre-game show. The Saturday program was later simulcast on the Mid Atlantic Sports Network, a regional cable TV sports channel.
In 2007 Phil added a nationally syndicated weekly baseball show to his plate. "Talkin' Baseball" is heard nationally via Radio America. He also returned to SportsTalk 980 in Washington to host "Baseball Round-up," a year-round Saturday morning show on and about major league baseball. TV-wise, he's a regular panelist on "Washington Post Live," a one hour nightly television program broadcast on Comcast SportsNet throughout the Mid-Atlantic region.
Phil's current writing credits include a weekly column in the Washington Examiner. He was a contributing editor for The Rand McNally Baseball Atlas (1992), and to numerous other books on baseball including Sports Collecting for Dummies, Baseball Uniforms of the 20th Century, and The Official New York Yankees' Haters Handbook. His own book, Nationals on Parade, was published by Orange Frazer Press in 2005.
In 1987 Phil was honored by the National Sportscasters & Sportswriters Association as Maryland Sportscaster of the year. He was named Baltimore Magazine's "Best of Baltimore" for radio sports in 1990, and has received numerous other regional broadcast awards. He received an Emmy nomination for "D.C. Baseball: You Gotta Have Heart," a documentary he wrote and narrated for public television station WETA in Northern Virginia in 1995.
Phil is a 1972 graduate of Austin Peay State University in Clarksville, TN, and still occasionally plays bass and sings in "Big Picture," a band he started in college in 1969. He and his wife and two daughters reside in Reisterstown, Maryland.
