While the Los Angeles Dodgers have already played their first two games of the 2024 MLB regular season, the team’s Opening Day stateside will commence with a 4:10 p.m. ET first pitch against the St. Louis Cardinals on Thursday.
As the team unofficially embarks on another season, it’ll have to do so without Charley Steiner, who has been the Dodgers’ radio play-by-play voice for nearly two decades. This will be the first Opening Day that Steiner has missed since 1976, but it’s for good reason.
“Over the winter, I landed on the injured list with three compound fractures in my back. (I don’t recommend it.) With the start of the baseball season upon us, the Dodgers are ready to go, but I’m not,” Steiner said in a statement released by the team on X Wednesday. “This will be the first opening day that I’ve missed since 1976 when I wore a younger man’s clothes. I look forward to returning to the mic later this season. In the meantime, go Dodgers!”
As reported by SB Nation’s True Blue LA, Tim Neverett and Rick Monday handled radio duties for the Dodgers’ initial two regular season games in South Korea (remotely broadcasted) and the Freeway Series exhibition contests. And they’ll be on the radio call for the Dodgers’ home opener on Thursday.
Three compound fractures don’t sound like fun. We certainly wish Steiner a speedy recovery and hope he’ll be back on the call sooner rather than later, but there doesn’t appear to be a timetable for his return.
[Los Angeles Dodgers on X, True Blue LA]
About Sam Neumann
Since the beginning of 2023, Sam has been a staff writer for Awful Announcing and The Comeback. A 2021 graduate of Temple University, Sam is a Charlotte native, who currently calls Greenville, South Carolina his home. He also has a love/hate relationship with the New York Mets and Jets.