Ted Robinson (sportscaster)

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Ted Robinson (born on July 19, 1957 in Queens) is one of the United States' most recognizable sportscasters. Presently, Robinson can be heard and seen as the lead announcer of NBC's coverage of the French Open and The Championships, Wimbledon, a position that he took over in 2000 after Dick Enberg left for CBS. Robinson also worked as a radio and TV announcer for the San Francisco Giants for 9 seasons, as the TV play-by-play announcer of the Minnesota Twins for 6 seasons, and as a TV and radio announcer for the New York Mets for 4 seasons. He is rumored to have lost the Mets job after the 2005 season because of his tennis and Olympic duties, which forced him to miss up to a month of the baseball season. Following the 2006 season, he was rumored to be a finalist for play-by-play positions with both the Milwaukee Brewers and Seattle Mariners, but other candidates landed those positions.[1]

For the past 19 years, Robinson has also been the main broadcaster for the USA Network's coverage of Grand Slam tennis, calling both the French Open and the U.S. Open, although the USA Network ended its French Open run in the early 2000s. The coverage is virtually identical to NBC's, as both are part of NBC Universal. The only one of the four tennis Grand Slams Robinson has not yet called is the Australian Open, mainly because ESPN2 is the American broadcaster for that tournament and Robinson has never worked for ESPN.

In his 19 years at USA, Robinson has also called boxing, college basketball, the PGA TOUR, and the World Football League. His play-by-play resume is extensive, especially when it comes to Major League Baseball. In addition to his work with the Mets, Twins, and Giants, Robinson worked for The Baseball Network as an announcer for two years, worked four years on NBC Sports' Major League Baseball's Game of the Week, and was the play-by-play voice for CBS Radio's Baseball Game of the Week.

Aside from baseball and tennis, Robinson has called many other sports, including college basketball for CBS TV and radio (he remains a play-by-play man for the radio coverage today), swimming for NBC, and Westwood One/CBS Radio Sports' broadcast of the NFL. Robinson also announced TV games for the Oakland Athletics and the NBA's Golden State Warriors. He is the radio play-by-play announcer for Stanford football and some men's basketball games.

Robinson has been a play-by-play man for the last five Olympic Games (three Winter Olympics and two Summer Olympics). His two Summer Olympic assignments were baseball at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, where the U.S. baseball team upset Cuba for the gold medal, and diving and canoeing at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, both for NBC. His two Winter Olympics assignments were short track speed skating, freestyle skiing, and the giant slalom snowboarding event at the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano for CBS, and short track again at both the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, and the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, this time for NBC.

Robinson's voice is featured in the movie A Few Good Men as he announces a baseball game being watched by Tom Cruise's character.

Robinson attended University of Notre Dame, where he worked at the college radio station with current Notre Dame Football Head Coach Charlie Weis. As of 2006, Robinson's son Pat is a student at Notre Dame and his daughter Annie is a 2005 graduate of the university.

[edit] External links

• Robinson's bio from USA's 2006 US Open site
• "At Bat," Robinson's baseball blog on NBCSports.com