Costas reflects on illustrious career as he retires from MLB play-by-play

On Oct. 4, 1980, the Tigers beat the Yankees, 7-6, at Yankee Stadium. When Tigers reliever Aurelio López struck out the Yankees’ Roger Holt to end the game, it wasn’t just Game No. 161 of the season in the books for Detroit and New York.

It was also the first MLB broadcast in the books for Bob Costas, who on that day began a 44-year play-by-play career that led to the Baseball Hall of Fame and a place in the game’s history as one of its most prominent voices.

Costas, 72, is one of the most distinguished sportscasters in recent memory. He has won 29 Emmy Awards, called the World Series three times (1995, ’97 and ’99) and the NBA Finals three times (1998-2000). He also hosted coverage of the Super Bowl seven times and the Olympics 12 times, as well as golf’s U.S. Open, boxing and NASCAR.

From 2009 to the present, Costas has been a regular contributor to MLB Network. On Monday, he sat down with Tom Verducci on MLB Tonight to discuss why he decided that this would be his final year in the booth.

“I knew for more than a year that this would be the end of it,” Costas said. “… I felt that I couldn’t consistently reach my past standard. It might have been individual games or stretches within games or moments in games that it was just the same as it was in the 1990s or the early 21st century, but I couldn’t string enough of them together.

“I have too much regard for the game and the craft and for whatever my own standard has been to hit beneath my lifetime batting average.”

Costas has said on many occasions that baseball has always been his first love in sports. He was either behind the mic in the booth for play-by-play or an on-field reporter for some of the greatest moments in the game’s lore. From the “Sandberg Game” in 1984 to the walk-off single that brought a fitting close to Derek Jeter’s Hall of Fame career in 2014, Costas brought all of it to the world with his vivid description and signature gravitas.

In 1982, Costas was an on-field reporter for the World Series between the Brewers and Cardinals. He continued in that role and was a key member of the broadcast team during some of the most memorable Fall Classic moments, including Game 6 of the 1986 World Series between the Mets and Red Sox and Game 1 of the 1988 World Series, when he interviewed Dodgers slugger Kirk Gibson after Gibson hit one of the most famous home runs in baseball history to beat legendary closer Dennis Eckersley and the Athletics.

In 1995, Costas called his first World Series in the booth alongside Hall of Fame second baseman Joe Morgan and longtime Brewers play-by-play broadcaster and baseball treasure Bob Uecker. The Braves defeated Cleveland in six games, with Costas’ memorable words capping the victory upon the final out -- “The Team of the ’90s has its world championship.”

Two years later, Costas was the play-by-play announcer for the World Series when the Marlins defeated Cleveland on a walk-off single by Edgar Renteria in Game 7. And in 1999, he was behind the mic for the Yankees’ sweep of the Braves for their third title in four years.

“A pop into shallow left,” Costas said in anticipation of the final out in Game 4. “The New York Yankees, world champions, team of the decade, most successful franchise of the century.”

After hearing the call again 25 years later, and hearing Verducci say, “Boy, that’s hitting all the right notes,” Costas alluded in jest to what many a broadcaster has surely felt from time to time. It also underscored just how dedicated Costas has been to his craft.

“That’s a good closing caption, yes,” Costas said. “But sometimes being a perfectionist will cost me sleep. That wasn’t ‘shallow left,’ it was ‘medium left.’ It still bothers me.”

In 2009, Costas joined MLB Network at its inception. Given his supreme love of baseball, it was a natural fit.

“I’ll tell you how I felt about it.” Costas said. “I was willing to leave HBO Sports, which was the gold standard, in its own way, of that kind of sports coverage. … It would only be baseball that would get me to walk away from HBO.”

Costas has called MLB Network Showcase telecasts since the network launched in 2009. He has also contributed to multiple shows and series, such as MLB Now, Studio 42 with Bob Costas, MLB’s 20 Greatest Games, The Sounds of Baseball and Costas at the Movies.

In 2018, Costas was named the Hall of Fame's Ford C. Frick Award winner for excellence in baseball broadcasting, joining legends he considered heroes and mentors, such as Vin Scully and Jack Buck.

While he will continue to contribute to MLB Network coverage, it won’t be as a play-by-play broadcaster, something Costas said he’ll miss even though he knew it was time to leave the booth.

"I felt a little catch in my throat," he said when thinking back to his final call from when the Yankees won Game 4 of the 2024 American League Division Series against the Guardians. "But I knew that I was wrapping it up."

Costas may not call an MLB game again, but his legacy of bringing us our national pastime in a passionate, comprehensive and eloquent manner all his own was established long ago.

“I just knew that there was something about the game -- a kind of romance, mythology, but beyond that, generational connections that those moments deserved something more than just the bare-bone facts," Costas said. "And I think that for a long time, I could do that. And then toward the end, I felt that I couldn't do that quite as well.

" ... Words matter. Not just functional words, but words that have a little touch of elegance to them. That’s what you strive for.”