Eduardo Ortega, the Spanish-language voice of the Padres, will be calling Padres games for his 37th season in 2023, his 43rd year in the broadcasting business. Ortega does play-by-play for both Spanish radio (XEMO) and Spanish television (FOX Deportes) broadcasts.
One of the most highly regarded Spanish-language sports broadcasters in the business, Ortega has broadcast postseason baseball since 1993 for various outlets, including CBS Hispanic Radio Network, Cadena Caracol, LBC Radio Network and ESPN Deportes radio.
He has called 20 MLB All-Star Games, 25 World Series and 10 no-hitters including Joe Musgrove’s first no-hitter in club history. Other milestones Ortega has called include Tony Gwynn's and Ricky Henderson's 3,000th hits, Randy Johnson's 4,000th strikeout, Mark McGwire's 500th homerun, Barry Bonds' 700th and 755th home runs, Max Scherzer's 3,000th strikeout, Trevor Hoffman's breaking of the all-time saves record, Hoffman's 500th career save, Greg Maddux's 350th victory, all three cycles in Padres history and four of San Diego's five division titles.
Ortega has handled the play-by-play worldwide telecasts of 17 Caribbean Series for different radio and television outlets, including Sky TV in 2023 for what was the largest in the event's history with 8 participating countries. He also was the lead Spanish play-by-play voice for the World Baseball Classic in 2006, 2009, 2013 and 2017. He has broadcast official Padres games from 50 different venues and 73 total different venues when including Spring Training and other exhibition games.
In addition to his time with the Padres, Ortega served one season (1991) as the voice of the San Francisco Giants, four years as play-by-play announcer for the Tijuana Potros of the Mexican-Pacific Winter League, two seasons broadcasting for Tijuana’s team in the northern Sonora Double-A Summer League, and one year as the voice of the Cotton Growers of Torreon, in the Mexican Summer League. Since 2005, he has been the radio voice of the Mexicali Aguilas in the Liga Mexicana del Pacífico and starting in 2015, on the national cable television network Megacable. Ortega celebrated his 23rd anniversary broadcasting on television and radio for the Liga Mexicana del Pacifico after the SKY Sports networked debuted winter ball broadcasts throughout eight Latin American countries in 2020.
In 2015, Ortega was inducted into the Hispanic Heritage Baseball Museum Hall of Fame. Prior to that, in 2012, he was inducted into the Tijuana Sports Hall of Fame. He also was honored in 2004 by the Tijuana sports media with a Career Achievement Award, and the Mexican Federation of Sportscasters celebrated his 25th anniversary in broadcasting and his multiple contributions to the industry.
In addition, Ortega was named Sportscaster of the Year by the Sportswriters Association of Tijuana in 1997, Sports Ambassador of Tijuana by the city's mayor in 1998, the Broadcasting Award by ACDN (National Sports Writers of Nicaragua) in 2012 and more recently, the 2017 Abelardo Raidi Career Achievement Award, named after the pioneer and founder of AIPS American, a worldwide sports media organization.
Ortega is a Tijuana native and a long-time San Diego resident.