Longtime baseball play-by-play commentator John Sanders has died.
Sanders grew up in Kansas, getting his start at WIBW-TV in Topeka. He then moved to KMBC-TV in Kansas City. At KMBC, Sanders worked Kansas City Chiefs preseason telecasts from 1970-75.
In 1978, Sanders moved to KDKA-TV as the weekend sports anchor. He eventually became the station’s sports director.
While at KDKA, Sanders joined the Pittsburgh Pirates broadcast team alongside Lanny Frattare in 1981. Sanders worked Pirates games until 1989.
Sanders’s longest play-by-play stint came with the Cleveland Indians from 1991-2006. It was there that his home run call became famous: “To the warning track… to the wall…. It’s gone!”
Cleveland did not renew Sanders’s contract following the 2006 season. That would be the last time Sanders called MLB games, though he continued to work Big East college basketball broadcasts afterward.
Tributes to Sanders poured in on social media, including from the Cleveland Guardians, Cleveland radio host Anthony Lima, and former basketball broadcast partner Chris Shovlin.
John Sanders was 83.
About Manny Soloway
Manny Soloway is a Iowa based writer focusing on TV ratings. He is also the founder of the TV Media Blog substack.