Carpenter reveals this will be final season as Nats' lead announcer

The 2025 season will be Bob Carpenter’s final season as the Nationals’ lead play-by-play television announcer.

Carpenter revealed at the start of today’s broadcast of the Nats’ exhibition finale against the Orioles he plans to step down at the end of the season, his 20th with MASN.

“I've got a new deal working for next year as a full-time husband, dad and grandpa,” he said. “My objective is to, all season long, thank you Nats fans for the way you've been to my wife, Debbie, and I and our family over these 19 years previously. Let's make No. 20 a lot of fun.”

Though Carpenter made the official announcement today, it wasn’t a sudden decision.

“This has been on my mind for quite a while,” he said in an interview last week. “And I’ve got to tell you, it’s the most difficult decision I’ve ever had to make. Because I feel like I still have my fastball. I don’t feel like I’ve lost it yet. But I’ve seen some guys who stayed too long, and I don’t want to be one of those guys.”

Carpenter, who recently turned 72, was hired by the Nationals in 2006, the club’s second year in town, after Mel Proctor handled play-by-play duties during the inaugural season. He was already a well known figure in the industry, having called Major League Baseball games since 1984, most notably for the Cardinals and ESPN.

Little could the St. Louis native have known he’d end up spending two decades in the booth in D.C., making this the longest broadcasting stint of his storied career, one that finally allowed him the opportunity to connect with one team’s fan base for 162 nights a year.

“I was getting my dose of baseball, just not at the local level,” he said. “That’s what excited me about the opportunity in D.C. And here we are almost 20 years later, and I’m just as excited about working for this team and having the relationship with these fans as I was back in ’06.”

Carpenter began his professional broadcasting career in 1976 as the radio voice of the Triple-A Tulsa Oilers. He first began calling MLB games in 1984 in St. Louis, then spent the next decade with the Rangers, Mets and Twins before returning to the Cardinals in 1995.

Throughout that time he also worked a variety of roles for ESPN, from nationally televised MLB games to college football and basketball to soccer. He called matches during the 1994 World Cup, including several played at RFK Stadium.

A longtime resident of Tulsa, Okla., Carpenter was the voice of Oklahoma Sooners basketball for 15 years. He was inducted into the Oklahoma Broadcasters Association Hall of Fame in 2017. He’s a three-time Emmy Award winner, twice in St. Louis (1996, 1997) and once in Washington (2008). He was also named co-D.C. Sportscaster of the Year in 2014 by the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association.

Carpenter has worked a somewhat-reduced schedule the last few seasons, with Dan Kolko taking his place alongside analyst Kevin Frandsen. He’ll continue with that arrangement this year before stepping down as the lead play-by-play announcer, though he hopes to continue having a to-be-determined relationship with the organization in 2026 and beyond.

“It’s my hope that I can stay involved with the ballclub and with the telecast to a certain extent in the future. How that will look, nobody knows at this point.”

Whatever the arrangement becomes in the future, Carpenter steps away with no regrets, not to mention two decades of memories from a job he never imagined he’d hold so long in a town he never imagined he’d develop such a connection with.

“The way the fans have treated me, and the way they’ve wrapped their arms around me, has just been so gratifying,” he said. “I’ve done a few things. I’ve done the World Cup. I’ve done the NCAA basketball tournament. I’ve done a lot of baseball and football around the country. But I can really say that these 20 years in D.C. have totally been the highlight of my career.”