George Grande

George Grande, a 41-year veteran of the broadcasting business, has been the television play-by-play voice of the Cincinnati Reds since 1993. He and partner Chris Welsh are working together for the 17th consecutive season. They are the longest-running TV duo in Reds history. A native of New Haven, Conn., Grande has covered Major League Baseball since 1965. Since 1980 he has hosted the National Baseball Hall of Fame induction ceremonies in Cooperstown, N.Y. Grande also anchored the first-ever ESPN "SportsCenter" telecast on Sept. 7, 1979, and spent 10 seasons with the all-sports network anchoring that award-winning show and covering the World Series, NBA Finals, Stanley Cup Finals, Super Bowl, NCAA men's basketball tournament, College World Series and major college football games. From 1989-90, he broadcasted Yankees games on WPIX, and, from 1991-92, he broadcasted Cardinals baseball games before he joined the Reds TV team in 1993. In 1967, Grande began his broadcasting career as the sports director and news director of the University of Southern California radio station, KUSC-FM, followed by radio stints at KNX in Los Angeles; WERI in Westerly, R.I.; and WNHC in New Haven. He completed his radio broadcast career by handling the Boston Red Sox' pre and postgame shows on WMEX. Grande also anchored local TV sports telecasts at WTNH in New Haven and at WCBS in New York. He started broadcasting baseball games in 1971 for the West Haven (Conn.) Yankees in the Eastern League. Grande graduated in 1969 from USC, where he played baseball for four seasons and was a member of the 1968 College World Series championship team. While at USC, he played with 14 future Major Leaguers, including Hall of Famer Tom Seaver and slugger Dave Kingman.