A familiar voice - in a familiar stadium - returns to call UM-FIU game on Saturday
When Rich Waltz was unceremoniously dumped by Fox Sports Florida after 13 years of distinguished work as the TV voice of the Miami Marlins, he hoped he would return to Marlins Park as a broadcaster one day.
That day comes Saturday, but for an assignment nobody could have anticipated at the time.
For the first time since his parting with the Marlins and Fox two years ago this week, Waltz returns to Marlins Park this weekend for, of all things, college football: the Miami Hurricanes’ game against FIU, which he will call for CBS Sports Network alongside former Georgia quarterback Aaron Murray.
“I’m really excited to see a lot of friends, people I worked with, people I worked for,” Waltz said. “I’m sure a lot of memories will come back.”
Waltz was never given a reason why he was dropped by Fox and the Marlins on Nov. 22, 2017, nor was he told whether Fox Sports or the Marlins made the decision, though it’s important to note that the Marlins said they had nothing to do with the decision.
“All they said was they were moving in a different direction,” he said. “When I got the call, the first thing that went through my mind wasn’t about money or my career. The first thing that hits you hardest is you don’t get to work with your friends anymore. That’s a sudden shock. That’s the biggest punch in the gut.
“When it happens, you are angry and disappointed and confused for about a day. The next day you wake up and there is nothing you can do to change it. I am proud of the work I’ve done. I am proud of my time there. There is nothing I would have done differently. I am proud of the awards and my work in the community and the relationships I built with everybody. It’s wasted energy to think about it or dwell on it.”
The decisions to dump Tommy Hutton after 2015 and Waltz after 2017 remain the biggest mistakes Fox has ever made on Marlins broadcasts. The team’s current TV announcers, Paul Severino and Todd Hollandsworth, are competent pros, but Waltz and Hutton had unique chemistry and could keep viewers listening in lopsided games because of their humor and storytelling skills - a highly valued quality for local baseball announcers.
Waltz won three Florida Suncoast Emmy awards for his play-by-play with the Marlins.
After the Marlins dismissed him, Waltz moved back to Seattle so that he, his wife and children could be closer to his ailing father-in-law. His youngest son attends the University of Washington, and Waltz has been back to South Florida only twice in the past two years, to pack up his belongings and visit friends.
He calls about 15 college football games and 30 college basketball games a year, primarily for CBS Sports Net. He also has announced about 35 MLB games since he left the Marlins, primarily on MLB Network and MLB Network’s YouTube package, and filled in on a few San Francisco Giants games in 2018.
Waltz - who recalls calling a couple of UM football games at the Orange Bowl for ESPN between 1997 and 2002 - would love to be a local MLB announcer again, but only one MLB TV play-by-play job has come open the past two years, and the Detroit Tigers wanted someone with local ties for that job.
“I absolutely miss it,” he said. “The CBS Sports people and the MLB Network people have been terrific to me. They reached out right away when I was let go and assured they would have work for me. It’s a weird spot because I don’t want anyone else to lose their job because I know how painful it can be. But you want the opportunity” to call a single team’s games again.
Waltz wishes the Marlins well: “I hope the team is successful. South Florida deserves that.”
Waltz remains close with Hutton, who returned to the Marlins and Fox two years ago primarily for a studio job; they talk or text twice a week, and Hutton will be hanging out in the broadcast booth with Waltz on Saturday.
Just like old times.
Too bad they won’t be there when the Marlins open at home March 26 against the Phillies.
THIS AND THAT
▪ It’s weird to see the annual FSU-UF game relegated to SEC Network, but that’s the case on Nov. 30, with a 7:30 p.m. start for Seminoles-Gators.
Among other games at SEC venues that day, CBS took Alabama-Auburn at 3:30 p.m., while ESPN took LSU-Texas A&M at 7 p.m. and ESPN grabbed Clemson-South Carolina at noon.
▪ ESPN will air USF-UCF at 8 p.m. Friday, Nov. 29.
▪ As part of widespread Entercom cuts, four familiar voices are no longer heard much, or at all, on local radio: Brian “The Beast” London (released from 790 The Ticket last week) and three who were let go in August: Curtis Stevenson, Alex Donno and Josh Friedman.
Donno does UM and Panthers work for Entercom station WQAM-560, but Friedman and Stephenson haven’t been back on 790 The Ticket since.
Stevenson said he’s now at Mullinax Ford in North Palm Beach as a sales consultant, which he enjoys. He hoped to be involved in Dolphins and Canes radio coverage, but never heard back from the station and has moved on.
“Tell everyone to come buy a car from me,” he said.
Former UM center Brett Romberg and part-time WQAM/The Ticket host Greg Likens also moved on; Likens is now working in another industry.
▪ On average, somewhere between 9 and 12 percent of Miami-Fort Lauderdale homes with TV sets have been watching the Dolphins this season, including an 11.2 for Dolphins-Bills on Sunday on CBS-4. In past years, games typically drew between 13 and 17 percent of homes locally.
Here’s my Monday six-pack of Hurricanes nuggets.
Here’s a Monday Dolphins notebook.
This story was originally published November 18, 2019 at 6:25 PM.
