Ryan P. Ruocco (; born November 18, 1986) is an American television and radio sportscaster. He serves as a play-by-play announcer for the NBA and WNBA on

ESPN ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). Th ...

, the

New York Yankees The New York Yankees are an American professional baseball team based in the New York City borough of the Bronx. The Yankees compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) East division. They are one of ...

and

Brooklyn Nets The Brooklyn Nets are an American professional basketball team based in the New York City borough of Brooklyn. The Nets compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Atlantic Division of the Eastern Conference. The ...

YES Network The Yankee Entertainment and Sports Network (YES) is an American pay television regional sports network owned by Yankee Global Enterprises (the largest shareholder with 26%), Sinclair Broadcast Group and Entertainment Studios (which owns 20%), ...

, and boxing for

DAZN DAZN ( "da zone") is a global sports entertainment platform. Different to traditional linear and satellite broadcasting, DAZN is an over-the-top (OTT) streaming service meaning that it is delivered directly to viewers via the internet. The ...

. He hosts the podcast ''R2C2'' with former Yankees all-star pitcher

CC Sabathia Carsten Charles Sabathia Jr. (born July 21, 1980) is an American former professional baseball pitcher who played 19 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB), primarily with the New York Yankees. He also played for the Cleveland Indians and Milwauk ...

on The Ringer's podcast network. He previously hosted the Stephen A. Smith & Ryan Ruocco Show on ESPN Radio 98.7 FM.

Biography

Ruocco is the secondary play-by-play television announcer for the

and

. He joined the Nets broadcast team in 2011. He also does select college basketball games for YES and was the host of ''This Week in Football'' for the

that focused on the New York Giants and Jets. His analysts were

Howard Cross Howard Edward Cross Jr. (born August 8, 1967) is a former professional American football player and current broadcaster. He spent 13 seasons as a tight end for the New York Giants in the National Football League (NFL), and was a member of two Su ...

, Gary Myers, and

Ross Tucker Ross Finch Tucker (born March 2, 1979) is a former American football offensive lineman and current sports broadcaster. Tucker was an All-Ivy League offensive lineman at Princeton University, then played seven seasons in the National Football L ...

. He joined the network in 2007 as the

statistician. Ruocco saw his first action as a lead play-by-play man for the YES Network when he called a series between the

and Houston Astros in June 2015. During the 2019 baseball season, Ruocco stepped up as the main voice of the

on the

. In addition to Ruocco’s regular slate of Yankees broadcasts, he took over for YES Network’s play-by-play broadcaster Michael Kay as he underwent vocal cord surgery. Ruocco also filled in for the legendary radio sportscaster John Sterling on

WFAN WFAN (660 AM) is a commercial radio station licensed to New York, New York, carrying a sports radio format known as "Sports Radio 66 AM and 101.9 FM" or "The Fan". Owned by Audacy, Inc., the station serves the New York metropolitan area while ...

, who took off his first radio broadcast after working 5,060 straight Yankees games since 1989. Ruocco also works for

and ESPN New York 98.7 FM. He has appeared as a contributor on ''

The Michael Kay Show ''The Michael Kay Show'' is a sports radio talk show airing on the New York City radio station WEPN-FM 98.7 ESPN New York. It is hosted by New York Yankees television play-by-play broadcaster Michael Kay, New York Rangers pre and post-game radio ...

'' and as a substitute host on various ESPN Radio shows. He was a fill-in host prior to 2008 for ESPN Radio and anchored ''

ESPN Radio SportsCenter ''ESPN Radio SportsCenter'' is a news recap segment on ESPN Radio that airs during talk programming and sometimes live games coverage, usually by separate anchors. There are two updates an hour, at the top of the hour and 30 minutes past. Back ...

'' and was a correspondent for the

NFL Network NFL Network (occasionally abbreviated on-air as NFLN) is an American sports-oriented pay television network owned by the National Football League (NFL) and is part of NFL Media, which also includes NFL.com, NFL Films, NFL Mobile, NFL Now and NF ...

. He also called college football and basketball games for ESPN Radio and also does play-by-play duties for '' The NFL on ESPN Radio'' beginning in 2013 with three other play-by-play men

Marc Kestecher Marc David Kestecher (born March 22, 1968) is a play-by-play announcer radio sports and news anchor. Early life and education He was raised in Guilderland, New York and graduated from Syracuse University's S. I. Newhouse School of Public Commun ...

Sean McDonough Sean McDonough (born May 13, 1962) is an American sportscaster, currently employed by ESPN and WEEI Red Sox Radio Network. Early life The son of ''Boston Globe'' sportswriter Will McDonough, McDonough graduated from the S. I. Newhouse Sch ...

, and

Bill Rosinski Bill Rosinski is an American sportscaster and talk show host, operating primarily out of Charlotte, North Carolina. Rosinski currently works for ESPN Radio as its lead college football and college basketball commentator, as well as for ISP Sports ...

. Ruocco also does the television play-by-play broadcast for

NBA on ESPN The ''NBA on ESPN'' is the branding used for the presentation of National Basketball Association (NBA) games on the ESPN family of networks. The ESPN cable network first televised NBA games from 1982 until 1984, and has been airing games curren ...

games as well as WNBA on ESPN. Ruocco is the lead play-by-play broadcaster for the WNBA. In 2020, Ruocco was the first play-by-play announcer to use the correct pronouns for New York Liberty star

Layshia Clarendon Layshia Renee Clarendon (born May 2, 1991) is an American professional basketball player who is currently a free agent. Clarendon is the first openly non-binary WNBA player, and the first active WNBA player to complete a top surgery. Career C ...

, who identifies as non-binary, when describing Clarendon’s baskets and rebounds, compelling a progressive and inclusive shift for gender norms in sports. Ruocco co-hosts the podcast R2C2 alongside former New York Yankees all-star pitcher

on The Ringer's podcast network, which is a part of

Spotify Spotify (; ) is a proprietary Swedish audio streaming and media services provider founded on 23 April 2006 by Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon. It is one of the largest music streaming service providers, with over 456 million monthly active us ...

. Sabathia and Ruocco welcome athlete and celebrity guests for wide-ranging conversations. As a student at Fordham University, he called Rams football and basketball on

WFUV WFUV (90.7 FM) is a non–commercial radio station licensed to New York, New York. The station is owned by Fordham University, with studios on its Bronx campus and its antenna atop nearby Montefiore Medical Center. WFUV first went on the air i ...

. In 2019, Ruocco came in seventh on American news blog The Big Lead’s “40 Under 40: Sports Media Talents”, alongside CBS’s

Tony Romo Antonio Ramiro Romo (born April 21, 1980) is an American sportscaster and former American football quarterback who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 14 seasons with the Dallas Cowboys. He played college football at Eastern Illino ...

and Fox Sports’s

Joe Davis Joseph Davis (15 April 190110 July 1978) was an English professional snooker and English billiards player. He was the dominant figure in snooker from the 1920s to the 1950s, and has been credited with inventing aspects of the way the game is ...

The Big Lead ''The Big Lead'' is an American news blog. The website mainly covers sports news, although it also touches on a varying degree of other news topics ranging from politics to pop culture. Launched on February 24, 2006, it was co-founded by former ...

states: “What a resume Ryan Ruocco is going to have when all is said and done. Ruocco has now added DAZN boxing to his arsenal and is far from being done. He captures big moments like

Mike Breen Michael Breen (born May 22, 1961) is an American play-by-play sports commentator for '' NBA on ABC'' and is the lead announcer for New York Knicks games on the MSG Network. Breen also calls NBA games for ESPN and was formerly a play-by-play anno ...

and should be in the running to one day replacing him in calling the NBA Finals. That goes along with being the presumed future voice of the New York Yankees.”

Personal

Ruocco is a native of

Fishkill, New York Fishkill is a village (New York), village within the Fishkill (town), New York, town of Fishkill in Dutchess County, New York, Dutchess County, New York (state), New York, United States. The village is in the eastern part of the town of Fishkill o ...

. He is a graduate of

Hackley School Hackley School is a private college preparatory school located in Tarrytown, New York, and is a member of the Ivy Preparatory School League. Founded in 1899 by a wealthy philanthropist, Frances Hackley, Hackley was intended to be a Unitarian al ...

Tarrytown, New York Tarrytown is a village in the town of Greenburgh in Westchester County, New York. It is located on the eastern bank of the Hudson River, approximately north of Midtown Manhattan in New York City, and is served by a stop on the Metro-North ...

and Fordham University. Ruocco became engaged to private equity executive Andrea Ferzoco in January 2019. They were married in a private ceremony in November 2020, and Andrea gave birth to a daughter named Everly in September 2021.

Awards

*Marty Glickman Award 2008 *Fish for Breakfast Nominee 2014 *New York Emmy Award, Best Live Sports Series (Brooklyn Nets) 2014 *New York Emmy Award, Sport Event/Game - Live/Unedited (New York Yankees) 2017 *New York Emmy Award Nominee 2017, Talent: Sports Play-by-Play *New York Emmy Award Nominee 2018, Talent: Sports Play-by-Play *New York Emmy Award Nominee 2019, Talent: Sports Play-by-Play *New York Emmy Award, Best Live Sports Series (Brooklyn Nets) 2019 *New York Emmy Award Nominee 2021, Talent: Sports Play-by-Pla

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ruocco, Ryan 1986 births Living people American people of Italian descent American radio sports announcers American talk radio hosts American television sports announcers Brooklyn Nets announcers College basketball announcers in the United States College football announcers Fordham University alumni Fordham Rams football announcers Major League Baseball broadcasters National Basketball Association broadcasters National Football League announcers New York Yankees announcers People from Fishkill, New York Women's National Basketball Association announcers YES Network American podcasters Hackley School alumni WFUV people