MASN's Thorne to teach play-by-play class at Arizona State's Cronkite School

MASN's Gary Thorne is about to begin training the next generation of baseball play-by-play announcers.

Thorne, who is in his 13th year of calling Orioles games on MASN, will this week begin teaching a play-by-play course as a visiting professor at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University.

The one-of-a-kind course runs from today through July 20 and will be open to a select group of sports journalism majors at the Cronkite School.

"Gary Thorne is the quintessential play-by-play announcer," said Cronkite School dean Christopher Callahan. "His outstanding work covering the Orioles for MASN as well as his work on national baseball and hockey broadcasts make him the ideal professional to teach this unique experience for our students."

Some of the students in the remote course will be in Massachusetts announcing games for the Cape Cod Baseball League, the premier summer league for star college baseball players, while other students will be engaging in the course from internships around the country.

Teaching isn't entirely new to Thorne, who has previously taught at the University of Maine and the University of Maine Law School.

"Our students are tremendously fortunate to be able to learn from one of the best," Callahan said.

The teaching assignment will not affect Thorne's schedule with the Orioles.

The Cronkite School is one of the nation's premier professional journalism programs and home to Arizona PBS. Sports journalism students have the opportunity to cover the Cactus League and other major league sports events, and issues from news bureaus in Phoenix and Los Angeles, and benefit from professional partnerships with the Pac-12 Networks, FOX Sports, ESPN, MLB.com and others.