Before saying 'See! You! Later!', broadcaster Carpenter reflects before final game

WASHINGTON -- With a distinguished 42-year broadcasting career, 20 seasons as the voice of the Nationals television broadcasts and countless iconic “See! You! Later!” home run calls, Bob Carpenter was celebrated with a retirement ceremony on Saturday at Nationals Park.

The Nats commemorated Carpenter’s special day with three “See! You! Later!” moments in a 6-5 win over the White Sox.

The Nationals also adorned the facade under the broadcast booth with Carpenter’s name. He is the first member of the media to have a display of this kind at the ballpark.

The man who has filled the airwaves for over four decades reflected on his career -- in his own words -- at a special press conference.

Making the decision to retire: “I really thought ‘23 was going to be the last time because that was kind of some symmetry for me: that would have been 40 years in the big leagues at the age of 70. Well, I've ended up going two years beyond that, and because of that, I'm really glad that I made it to 20 with the Nats. As I looked at it, that kind of became an important number. …

“We're getting ready for another [wedding] anniversary in November. I told [my wife Debbie] about five years ago, ‘I think I'll know when it's time.’ I don't know if I believed that, and there is no way she believed me when I said that. She said, ‘You're never going to give this up,’ because she knows how much I love it. But other things come into play: Two grandsons now, they're almost five and almost three [years old]. My daughter and her husband moved back home from the Great Northwest. Now they're 15 minutes away, not seven hours away. When I look at my wife now and I see her face, I absolutely know that I'm doing the right thing.”

Favorite “See! You! Later!” call: “It probably would have been Kurt Suzuki's homer against Edwin Diaz and the Mets. I think we’d given up five runs in the top of the ninth in that game. So all was lost, and we're fighting for a Wild Card spot. And then they go out and do that, and Kurt hits that homer.

“My sister [Mary] was visiting from St. Louis, and she happened to be behind me in the booth taping that on her phone. She said, ‘I've never seen my brother go to that octave or that level before.’ It was just a really fun moment.

“Then as soon as I made the call and said, ‘The Nats have won it with seven runs in the ninth inning,’ I just shut up and started working on my scorebook to total out the game. Because I believe in not stepping on the moment at the ballpark when we can bring our fans into the ballpark with a moment like that, and I think that’s what we did.”

A treasure trove of signature scorebooks: “There are 39 scorebooks in the [broadcast] booth right now. 2020, there was only one because we played 60 games. So instead of 40, there's 39 of them. I think at some point, they'll get shipped to Tulsa.

“The Hall of Fame emailed me a couple of weeks ago and asked for my last scorebook. I said to them, ‘Have you seen our record and seen these statistics?’ And they said, ‘Yeah, we want your last scorebook to be on file here.’ They're not doing a ‘Bob display’ or anything, but the fact that they want my scorebook is pretty cool. So I'm sure I'll total a few things out, maybe sign that last game, and send it to them whenever they want it.

“They have some copies of mine from the Scherzer and Zimmermann no-hitters, and I think from the Max 20-strikeout game. I didn't want to give them the originals at that time, which they asked for, but I did give them full color copies of those. I think down the road, those are the ones I'll have to make a decision about what to do with those. If the Nats … do a display or have a Nats Hall of Fame or something and they would like to display those, I would certainly be willing to at least loan them and we'll see where it goes from there.

“But I don't know where I'm going to put them in my house. That's a big bookshelf up in that booth that has 39 scorebooks in it.”

Special connection with “Mr. National” Ryan Zimmerman: “I think about Ryan a lot because he spent his whole career here. His first full season was my first season in ‘06. I used to kid him and say, ‘When you retire, I'm out of here, too.’ So I outlasted him by three years; I think he surprised all of us by going earlier than we expected. But when I'm sitting around a year or two from now -- maybe watching a ball game from this ballpark or wherever -- he first thing that's going to pop into my mind will be that I got to see Ryan Zimmerman's entire career. And then he came up and joined us in the broadcast booth, which has really been so much fun for Franny [Kevin Frandsen] and Dan [Kolko] and I to have.”