On Friday, MLB.com’s Adam McCalvy reported some news about the Milwaukee Brewers broadcast booth in 2022.
Specifically, McCalvy reported that play by play broadcaster Brian Anderson will only call 50 Milwaukee games next season on Bally Sports Wisconsin, with Jeff Levering taking over the bulk of the broadcasts. Additionally, Matt Lepay is leaving the organization after eight seasons due to his expanding work with the Wisconsin Badgers.
On a more positive note, Bob Uecker’s role is expected to remain unchanged next season.
Lepay, who tweeted his thanks to the organization, confirmed he’d be doing more with the Badgers going forward. McCalvy also reported that the team wanted to bring Lepay back, but couldn’t make it work.
As for Anderson, it doesn’t appear that his role with Turner will completely take him away from the Brewers. Per McCalvy, Anderson signed a multi-year extension with the team in September.
Alright, so what *is* Anderson’s expanding role with Turner? The company has yet to announce its plans for its 2022 MLB broadcasts (which makes sense, given that the 2021 MLB season ended three days ago), but it’s the company’s first year of a new seven-year rights deal, and Turner’s weekly game is moving from Sunday afternoon to Tuesday evening. Anderson will presumably be the voice of that broadcast, which would make it impossible for him to continue to work a full schedule with the Brewers. Additionally, Anderson has been one of Turner’s main NBA voices, and will presumably continue on in a just as prominent role following Marv Albert’s retirement. That’ll take him out of an even more significant chunk of Brewers broadcasts in the first half of the season.
This is the crappy part about having an awesome local broadcaster: more often than not, a national network is eventually going to come in and try to poach them. Anderson’s a great broadcaster, and as such, his role at Turner has only been growing since he joined the company. With the company’s new MLB deal starting next spring, getting Anderson on more games seems like a sensible move for them. Unfortunately for Brewers fans, that means he’ll be on fewer of their broadcasts going forward.