Hometown kid went from Brito to the Canes to the Marlins. A new chapter begins soon
Longtime University of Miami baseball fans might remember him as the hard-hitting Brito graduate who amassed 56 RBI with a .328 batting average, 21 doubles and seven home runs as a Hurricanes freshman in 2003.
Marlins fans know him as the hometown kid who became the team’s only All-Star in 2011 and now serves as a team ambassador.
And soon, Atlantic Coast Conference baseball fans will know him as an ACC Network analyst for the 2020 season.
The ACC Network will announce Thursday that Gaby Sanchez, 36, has been hired as one of four analysts for the ESPN-affiliated network.
Miami baseball (4-0), ranked No. 1 in the nation, plays its first game on ACC Network on Feb. 26 at 3 p.m. against South Florida. Sanchez’s first ACC assignment covering his former team will be March 6, when Pitt comes to Mark Light Field at 3 p.m.
Sanchez, who mostly played third base for the Canes, will cover various teams in the ACC, but his obvious favorite is close to his heart.
“Miami is trending in the right direction,’’ Sanchez told the Miami Herald of the No. 1 Hurricanes (4-0), who face the No. 2 Florida Gators (4-0) this weekend in a three-game series at Mark Light Field. “They seem to be very strong starting pitching wise, bullpen wise. Of course they did lose their starting shortstop [Freddy Zamora, with a knee injury], but [Coach] Gino DiMare does a great job with recruiting and getting the right players in.
“Let’s strap it on against a Florida team that we’ve had struggles against for a while.”
Sanchez, who also does pregame and postgame analysis for Fox Sports, is married to former Herald staffer Judy Erwin. They live in Pinecrest and have three daughters: Sky, 7; Autumn, 6; and Ivy, 5.
Sanchez played for the Hurricanes in 2003 and 2004 and was chosen by the Marlins in the fourth round of the 2005 MLB Draft. He was traded to Pittsburgh in July 2012 and also played a season in Japan. He retired after spending spring training with the Seattle Mariners in 2016.
Sanchez, who will join Doug Mientkiewicz, Javier Lopez and Adam Greenberg as analysts, will do color commentating on site as well as studio coverage at the ESPN headquarters in Bristol, Connecticut.
Here’s a link to this season’s ACCN baseball coverage.
“It’s great because I get to do this in a really exciting conference,’’ Sanchez said. “This year having eight teams in the Top 25, it’s going to be really fun to watch these games because they’re all meaningful.’’
This story was originally published February 20, 2020 at 11:53 AM.
