Jon Miller Popular Books

Jon Miller Biography & Facts

Jon Miller (born October 11, 1951) is an American sportscaster, known primarily for his broadcasts of Major League Baseball. Since 1997, he has been employed as a play-by-play announcer for the San Francisco Giants. He was also a baseball announcer for ESPN from 1990 to 2010. Miller received the Ford C. Frick Award from the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 2010. Early life Jon Miller was born on Hamilton Air Force Base in Novato, California, and grew up in Hayward, listening to Giants announcers Russ Hodges and Lon Simmons on the radio. He attended his first baseball game in 1962, a 19–8 Giants' victory over the Los Angeles Dodgers at Candlestick Park. As a teenager, Miller played Strat-O-Matic and recorded his own play-by-play into a tape recorder, adding his own crowd noise, vendors, and commercials. Career Early broadcasting work After graduating from Hayward High School in 1969, Miller took broadcasting classes at the College of San Mateo. He began his broadcasting career at the college's FM radio station (KCSM-FM) and UHF/PBS TV station (KCSM-TV), which reached much of the Bay Area. His first baseball broadcasts were from CSM games. At age 20, Miller joined KFTY-TV in Santa Rosa to work as their sports director. During this period, he would sit in the press box at Candlestick Park and record play-by-play of an entire game on his tape recorder. Miller submitted one of these tapes to broadcaster Monte Moore, who helped Miller get his first baseball play-by play job in 1974, calling that year's World Series champion Oakland Athletics. Miller was dismissed by the Athletics following the 1974 season. For a brief period in the 1970s, Miller broadcast for the California Golden Seals of the National Hockey League. He also spent the early part of his career announcing San Francisco Dons and Pacific Tigers men's college basketball (1976–1980), the Golden State Warriors (part-time, 1979–1982) and Washington Bullets (part-time, 1984–1985) of the NBA, and the original San Jose Earthquakes of the North American Soccer League. Jon Miller's first network exposure came in 1976, when he was selected by CBS-TV to broadcast the NASL Championship Game. From 1974 to 1976, Miller did play-by-play for the Washington Diplomats of the NASL. He also announced the Soccer Game of the Week for nationally syndicated TVS from 1977 to 1978. Miller was hired by the Texas Rangers shortly before the 1978 season to replace the ill Dick Risenhoover after the Rangers were unable to lure Fred White from Kansas City. After two seasons with Texas (1978–79), he was hired by the Boston Red Sox (1980–82). "The lure of doing baseball in Boston was too much to pass up," Miller recalled. Baltimore Orioles Following the Baltimore Orioles' 1982 season, their longtime announcer Chuck Thompson moved from the WFBR radio booth to do television broadcasts full-time, and WFBR president Harry Shriver brought in Miller to handle the radio play-by-play duties with veteran broadcaster Tom Marr. In his first year in Baltimore, Miller called the Orioles' World Series championship run, including the last out of Game 5: The cheering you hear is from Oriole fans. Everybody else is in muted silence. The pitch! Line drive! Ripken catches it at shortstop! And the Orioles are champions of the world! He eventually signed a contract directly with the Orioles and, while the broadcast rights eventually moved to rival station WBAL, Miller remained their primary announcer through 1996. At the end of that season, Orioles owner Peter Angelos, displeased with Miller's often candid commentary on the Orioles play, declined to renew his contract, citing a desire for a broadcaster who would "bleed more orange and black." Miller returned to the Bay Area and joined his hometown Giants. San Francisco Giants Since 1997, Miller has been the primary play-by-play voice of the San Francisco Giants (replacing Hank Greenwald), calling games on KNBR radio as well as KTVU (1997–2007) and KNTV (2008–2021) television. In February 2007, he signed a six-year extension to remain the voice of the Giants through the 2012 season. On July 16, 2010, the Giants organization, including fellow broadcaster Dave Flemming, honored Miller at AT&T Park in a pregame ceremony about one week before Miller received the Ford C. Frick Award. Before the game started, Miller threw out the ceremonial first pitch. On September 4, 2010, Miller called his first game for CSN Bay Area as a substitute for Dave Flemming, who was broadcasting a Stanford football game on the radio. On May 27, 2003, during a game between the Giants and Arizona Diamondbacks, Miller called a play involving two defensive errors by the Diamondbacks and at least three separate baserunning mistakes by Giants outfielder Rubén Rivera. When Rivera was finally thrown out at home plate trying to score what would have been the winning run, Miller declared, That was the worst base running in the history of the game! The phrase was repeated numerous times on sports radio and highlight shows such as SportsCenter, and quickly became one of the most famous calls of Miller's long career. He did a similar call on the radio during Game 3 of the 2004 World Series, when Jeff Suppan made a baserunning mistake. On April 7, 2016, Miller accidentally called a grand slam by Hunter Pence for Buster Posey, but corrected himself mid-sentence: Swing and there's a high drive, deep into left-center field, it's on its way... adios pelota! A grand slam for Buster Posey...'s good friend, Hunter Pence. Both Pence and Posey later referenced the call on their social media accounts, and Miller himself used the phrase intentionally a week later when Pence hit another home run. Barry Bonds home run #756 On August 7, 2007, Miller made the call of Barry Bonds' record-breaking 756th home run on KNBR: Three and two to Bonds. Everybody standing here at 24 Willie Mays Plaza. An armada of nautical craft gathered in McCovey Cove beyond the right field wall. Bonds one home run away from history. (crack of the bat) and he swings, and there's a long one into right center field, way back there, it's gone! A home run! Into the center field bleachers to the left of the 421 foot marker. An extraordinary shot to the deepest part of the yard! And Barry Bonds with 756 home runs, he has hit more home runs than anyone who has ever played the game! 2014 World Series clincher On October 29, 2014, Miller made the radio call on KNBR of the final out of the 2014 World Series, the Giants' third title in five years. His call also mentions the pitching performance of Madison Bumgarner through the playoffs. Miller's call went like this: Madison Bumgarner trying to wrap up this World Series for the Giants. He's ready. He throws, swing and a POP-UP! [Pablo] Sandoval down the line in foul ground, he's got plenty of room, and he's got it! And the Giants have won; they have won the World Series for the third time in five years. And Madison Bumgar.... Discover the Jon Miller popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Jon Miller books.