John Sanders is an American

sports broadcaster In sports broadcasting, a sports commentator (also known as sports announcer or sportscaster) provides a real-time commentary of a game or event, usually during a live broadcast, traditionally delivered in the historical present tense. Radio was ...

, with over 25 years' experience commentating

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (A ...

games. He spent 16 years as a television announcer for the

Cleveland Indians The Cleveland Guardians are an American professional baseball team based in Cleveland. The Guardians compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) American League Central, Central division. Since , they have ...

. Previously, he was on both television and radio broadcasts for the

Pittsburgh Pirates The Pittsburgh Pirates are an American professional baseball team based in Pittsburgh. The Pirates compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) Central division. Founded as part of the American Associati ...

. He currently broadcasts Big East

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly ...

and

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

games.

Career

Sanders, a Kansas native, worked at WIBW-TV in

Topeka, Kansas Topeka ( ; Kansa: ; iow, Dópikˀe, script=Latn or ) is the capital city of the U.S. state of Kansas and the seat of Shawnee County. It is along the Kansas River in the central part of Shawnee County, in northeast Kansas, in the Central U ...

. He then moved to

KMBC-TV KMBC-TV (channel 9) is a television station in Kansas City, Missouri, United States, affiliated with American Broadcasting Company, ABC. It is owned by Hearst Television alongside The CW, CW affiliate KCWE (channel 29). Both stations share stud ...

Kansas City, Missouri Kansas City (abbreviated KC or KCMO) is the largest city in Missouri by population and area. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the city had a population of 508,090 in 2020, making it the List of United States cities by populat ...

, where he spent 12 years.Win Fannin
John Sanders Joins Frattare on KDKA
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, October 16, 1980(accessed March 2, 2010) While at KMBC, he did play-by-play for preseason telecasts of the

Kansas City Chiefs The Kansas City Chiefs are a professional American football team based in Kansas City, Missouri. The Chiefs compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) West division. The t ...

. In 1978, he moved to

KDKA-TV KDKA-TV (channel 2) is a television station in Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States, airing programming from the CBS network. It is owned-and-operated station, owned and operated by the network's CBS News and Stations division a ...

Pittsburgh Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Wester ...

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

, as weekend sports anchor. He later became sports director, appearing on the station's 6 and 11 o'clock newscasts. Then, in October 1980, KDKA announced that he would join Pirates broadcast legend

Lanny Frattare Lanny Lawrence Frattare (born March 23, 1948) is an American former sportscaster. For 33 years he was a play-by-play announcer for Major League Baseball's Pittsburgh Pirates, the longest such tenure in the team's history. In 2008, he was nominat ...

for televised games during the 1981 season. He continued on the Pirates' broadcast team for nine seasons. In 1991, Sanders moved to Cleveland to do television play-by-play for the

FSN Ohio Bally Sports Ohio is an American regional sports network owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group and is operated as an affiliate of Bally Sports. The channel broadcasts regional coverage of sports events in the state of Ohio, with a focus on professio ...

. Following the 2006 season, the team declined to renew his contract.Press Release
Cleveland Indians, October 16, 2006 (accessed March 2, 2010)

Personal life

Sanders and his wife, Cherie, have two daughters, Gabrielle and Hilary.

References

College football announcers National Football League announcers College basketball announcers in the United States Living people Year of birth missing (living people) Major League Baseball broadcasters Cleveland Indians announcers Pittsburgh Pirates announcers Pittsburgh Steelers announcers American radio sports announcers Major Indoor Soccer League (1978–1992) commentators {{US-radio-bio-stub