Dodgers renew contracts for 2013 with broadcasters Monday, Steiner, Valenzuela, Yñiguez, Collins, Lyons
LOS ANGELES – The Los Angeles Dodgers have signed contract renewals for the 2013 season with broadcasters Eric Collins, Steve Lyons, Rick Monday, Charley Steiner, Fernando Valenzuela and Pepe Yñiguez, the team announced. The team previously announced Hall of Fame broadcasters Vin Scully and Jaime Jarrín also would return for the 2013 season.
Collins and Lyons call all road games outside California and Arizona on PRIME TICKET and KCAL 9. Monday and Steiner call all Dodger games on AM 570 Fox Sports LA. Valenzuela is the color commentator on all home games and select road games on Univision America KTNQ 1020 AM Los Angeles and Yñiguez calls all Dodger games for the club’s Spanish-language broadcast.
“We are delighted to have our outstanding broadcast team back with us for what promises to be an exciting 2013 season,” said Dodger President and CEO Stan Kasten.
Collins has been a part of the Dodger broadcast team for four seasons. In 2009, he received the Harry Caray Broadcaster of the Year Award from the Pitch & Hit Club of Chicago. In addition to his work on Dodger telecasts he serves as the lead play-by-play football announcer and one of two main basketball announcers for the Big Ten Network. He previously worked seven years at ESPN/ABC on college football and basketball.
Lyons has worked as a member of the Dodger broadcast team for eight seasons after spending 11 seasons as a part of Fox Sports’ coverage of Major League Baseball, where he earned three national Emmy Awards. In a nine-year Major League playing career, Lyons was a member of the 1986 American League champion Boston Red Sox and 1992 National League champion Atlanta Braves.
The 2013 season will be Monday‘s 20th as a Dodger broadcaster and his 28th overall in the organization. Monday played eight seasons with the Dodgers, including the 1981 World Championship team. He was a two-time All-Star in a Major League career with Oakland, the Chicago Cubs and the Dodgers in which he posted a 264 lifetime average with 241 home runs, 775 RBI while appearing in five League Championship Series and three World Series. He received numerous patriotism and humanitarian awards for rescuing the American flag from burning by two protesters on April 25, 1976 at Dodger Stadium while playing for the Cubs. He has been nominated twice for Emmy Awards, winning in 2001.
Steiner has served eight years as a Dodger broadcaster. The four-time Emmy Award-winner also broadcast New York Yankees games for three years. Prior to that, he spent 14 years at ESPN, where his duties included anchoring SportsCenter and handling Major League Baseball play-by-play. When he called the Dodgers’ historic two-game series in Beijing in 2008, it marked the sixth country in which he has called baseball games.
The 2013 season will mark Yñiguez’s 16th season as a Dodger Spanish-language broadcaster. He calls play-by-play for all games. In 2010 and 2011, Yñiguez also called select Dodger games in Spanish for PRIME TICKET. He called every World Series from 1997-2005 for Fox Sports International, the 1997 All-Star Game and several Caribbean Series.
Valenzuela will enter his 11th season in 2013 as the color commentator for the Dodgers’ Spanish-language radio broadcast keeping “Fernandomania” alive and well in Los Angeles. Valenzuela offers insight from a 17-year big league career alongside Hall of Famer Jarrín and Yñiguez. Valenzuela is a two-time recipient of the Foreign Language Broadcaster of the Year award from the Southern California Sports Broadcasters Association.