Victor Manuel Rojas (born February 3, 1968) is an American baseball executive and former broadcaster. He currently serves as the president and general manager of the

Frisco RoughRiders The Frisco RoughRiders (often shortened to 'Riders) are a Minor League Baseball team of the Texas League and the Double-A affiliate of the Texas Rangers. They are located in Frisco, Texas, and are named for the 1st U.S. Volunteer Cavalry Regime ...

. Rojas is best known for his time with the

Los Angeles Angels The Los Angeles Angels are an American professional baseball team based in the Los Angeles metropolitan area. The Angels compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) West division. Since 1966, the team h ...

as their play-by-play broadcaster from 2010–2020.Victor Rojas Official Bio on Los Angeles Angels Site
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Playing career

Rojas is the son of former major-league player and manager

Cookie Rojas Octavio Víctor "Cookie" Rojas Rivas (born March 6, 1939), is a Cuban former professional baseball second baseman / outfielder, coach, and manager, who played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Cincinnati Reds, Philadelphia Phillies, St. Lo ...

. Born in

Miami, Florida Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a East Coast of the United States, coastal metropolis and the County seat, county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade C ...

and raised in

Overland Park, Kansas Overland Park ( ) is the second-most populous city in the U.S. state of Kansas. Located in Johnson County, Kansas, it is one of four principal cities in the Kansas City metropolitan area and the most populous suburb of Kansas City, Missouri. As ...

, Rojas graduated from

Blue Valley High School Blue Valley High School is a 9-12 public high school in Overland Park, Kansas, United States that was established in 1969. It is operated by Blue Valley USD 229. Academics In 1988, and again in 2012, Blue Valley High School was selected as a B ...

and later attended and played college baseball as a pitcher at Piedmont College (1988) Demorest, Georgia. Rojas played

college baseball College baseball is baseball that is played on the intercollegiate level at institutions of higher education. In comparison to football and basketball, college competition in the United States plays a smaller role in developing professional p ...

as a

pitcher In baseball, the pitcher is the player who throws ("pitches") the baseball from the pitcher's mound toward the catcher to begin each play, with the goal of retiring a batter, who attempts to either make contact with the pitched ball or draw ...

and

catcher Catcher is a position in baseball and softball. When a batter takes their turn to hit, the catcher crouches behind home plate, in front of the ( home) umpire, and receives the ball from the pitcher. In addition to this primary duty, the ca ...

at the

College of the Desert College of the Desert (COD) is a public community college in Palm Desert, California. COD enrolls about 12,500 students, of which around one third attend college full-time. It serves the Coachella Valley of Riverside County. The college is fede ...

Palm Desert, California Palm Desert is a city in Riverside County, California, United States, in the Coachella Valley, approximately east of Palm Springs, northeast of San Diego and east of Los Angeles. The population was 48,445 at the 2010 census. The city has bee ...

, and Lewis-Clark State College in Lewiston, Idaho. He pitched in the California Angels minor league system in the early 1990s.

Coaching career

He was a member of the

Florida Marlins The Miami Marlins are an American professional baseball team based in Miami. The Marlins compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) East division. The club's home ballpark is LoanDepot Park. The fran ...

baseball staff in 1993 serving as the bullpen catcher during the inaugural season. He was the pitching coach for the Rio Grande Valley White Wings of the independent

Texas–Louisiana League The Central Baseball League, formerly the Texas–Louisiana League, was a independent baseball league whose member teams were not affiliated with any Major League Baseball (MLB) franchises. In 1991, potential owners, Dallas businessman Byron P ...

in 1994.

Broadcasting career

Early jobs

Rojas was a radio and television announcer for the

Newark Bears The Newark Bears were an American minor league professional baseball team based in Newark, New Jersey. They were a member of the Atlantic League of Professional Baseball and, later, the Canadian American Association of Professional Baseball. T ...

of the

independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s * Independ ...

Atlantic League for two years, and also served as the franchise's general manager. He worked as a broadcaster for

MLB Radio MLB Network Radio (formerly MLB Home Plate) is an American sports talk radio station on Sirius XM Radio that features Major League Baseball related talk shows, as well as archives and live reports about MLB and such. MLB Home Plate launched in Fe ...

in 2002 and 2003 on the

All-Star Game An all-star game is an exhibition game that purports to showcase the best players (the "stars") of a sports league. The exhibition is between two teams organized solely for the event, usually representing the league's teams based on region or d ...

and the

Arizona Fall League The Arizona Fall League (AFL) is an off-season sports league owned and operated by Major League Baseball (MLB) which operates during the autumn in Arizona, United States, at six different baseball complexes. Arizona Fall League rosters are fille ...

. He moved up to the radio booth for the

Arizona Diamondbacks The Arizona Diamondbacks (colloquially known as the D-backs) are an American professional baseball team based in Phoenix. The Diamondbacks compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) West division. The ...

in 2003.

Texas Rangers

He joined the Rangers in 2004, replacing

Vince Cotroneo Vince Cotroneo is a radio play-by-play announcer for the Oakland Athletics. He signed a two-year contract with the A's on January 13, 2006 to fill a void in the broadcast booth left by the sudden death of longtime lead announcer Bill King. Numbe ...

(now with the Oakland Athletics). Rojas worked with lead announcer

Eric Nadel Eric Nadel (born May 16, 1951) is a sports announcer on radio broadcasts for the Texas Rangers baseball organization. In 2014, he was honored with the Ford C. Frick Award for broadcasting excellence by the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Muse ...

on all regular-season games and a number of spring training games. He did

play-by-play 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 ...

for two pairs of the middle innings (3–4 and 6–7) and provided

color commentary A color commentator or expert commentator is a sports commentator who assists the main (play-by-play) commentator, typically by filling in when play is not in progress. The phrase "colour commentator" is primarily used in Canadian English and the ...

for Nadel during the other innings. He has worked multiple Rangers games on television as a fill-in announcer for regular play-by-play man

Josh Lewin Josh Lewin is an American sportscaster who works as a play-by-play announcer for the UCLA Bruins football and basketball teams. Early life and career Lewin is originally from Rochester, New York, but lived outside of Boston for several years ...

or color commentator

Tom Grieve Thomas Alan Grieve (born March 4, 1948) is an American former professional baseball player. He played in Major League Baseball from 1970 to 1979 for the Washington Senators / Texas Rangers, New York Mets and St. Louis Cardinals. He was nicknam ...

, and he has also appeared 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 ...

MLB Network

Rojas was the first personality to appear on camera when

MLB Network The MLB Network is an American television sports channel dedicated to baseball. It is primarily owned by Major League Baseball, with Warner Bros. Discovery through its sports unit, Comcast's NBC Sports Group, Charter Communications, and Cox C ...

launched on January 1, 2009, serving as the first host on '' Hot Stove'' (the Network's off-season studio show). Along with ''Hot Stove'', he appeared on ''

MLB Tonight ''MLB Tonight'' is the signature program that airs on MLB Network and is simulcast on MLB Network Radio. The show offers complete coverage of all Major League Baseball games from 6pm ET – 1am ET during the regular season, and gives news from al ...

'', the network's signature nightly studio program. Rojas also called play-by-play for some of MLB Network's ''

Thursday Night Baseball ''Thursday Night Baseball'' is the de facto branding used for live game telecasts of Major League Baseball on Thursday nights. History ''USA Network Thursday Night Baseball'' (1979–1983) From 1979 to 1983, the USA Network broadcast Major Lea ...

'' telecasts.

Los Angeles Angels

On March 3, 2010, Rojas was named the

Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim The Los Angeles Angels are an American professional baseball team based in the Los Angeles metropolitan area. The Angels compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) West division. Since 1966, the team h ...

's TV play-by-play announcer for

Fox Sports West Bally Sports West is an American regional sports network owned by Diamond Sports Group, a joint venture between Sinclair Broadcast Group and Entertainment Studios, and operated as part of Bally Sports, along with its sister network Bally Spor ...

, succeeding

Rory Markas Rory Markas (December 20, 1955 – January 4, 2010) was an American sportscaster best known as the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim's play-by-play broadcaster for eight seasons and as the radio voice of the University of Southern California men's ba ...

who died in January and TV play-by-play announcer

Steve Physioc Steve Physioc () is a retired American sportscaster who has called play-by-play for various baseball, basketball, and football teams. He retired while working with the Kansas City Royals, who he had worked with since February of 2012. Early life ...

and former Major League Baseball player and game analyst

Rex Hudler Rex Allen Hudler (born September 2, 1960) is an American former Major League Baseball utility player and color commentator for the Kansas City Royals. He played a total of 14 seasons after being a first round draft pick of the New York Yankees i ...

, whose contracts expired after the 2009 season. He is partnered with color commentator

Mark Gubicza Mark Steven Gubicza (; born August 14, 1962), nicknamed "Gubie," is an American former professional baseball pitcher and sportscaster. Gubicza played for 14 major league seasons with the Kansas City Royals (1984–96) and Anaheim Angels (1997) ...

on the broadcasts. Rojas was hired by TBS to handle play-by-play duties for the

2011 NLDS Eleven or 11 may refer to: *11 (number), the natural number following 10 and preceding 12 * one of the years 11 BC, AD 11, 1911, 2011, or any year ending in 11 Literature * ''Eleven'' (novel), a 2006 novel by British author David Llewellyn *''E ...

featuring the

and the Milwaukee Brewers. In 2019, Rojas and Gubicza won a

Los Angeles Emmy Award The Los Angeles Emmy Awards are presented by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (ATAS) in recognition of excellence in the local programming of the Greater Los Angeles area. They are the only regional Emmys presented directly by the ATAS; ...

for their broadcast of Albert Pujols' 3000th hit. In November 2020, Rojas revealed that he had interviewed with the Los Angeles Angels for their vacant general manager position. The job eventually went to former

Atlanta Braves The Atlanta Braves are an American professional baseball team based in the Atlanta metropolitan area. The Braves compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) East division. The Braves were founded in Bos ...

assistant general manager

Perry Minasian Perry Minasian (born April 1980) is an American baseball executive. He is the general manager of the Los Angeles Angels of Major League Baseball. He previously served as a scout and assistant general manager in the Toronto Blue Jays and Atlanta B ...

. On January 9, 2021, Rojas announced via Twitter that he would be stepping away from broadcasting to focus on his family and apparel company.

Matt Vasgersian Matt Vasgersian ( '; born 1967) is an American sportscaster and television host. Vasgersian is a play-by-play announcer for the Los Angeles Angels, as well as a studio host for MLB Network and FOX Sports. In the past, he has served as an an ...

would take Rojas' Spot.

Play calls

* "Oppo taco": Opposite field

home run In baseball, a home run (abbreviated HR) is scored when the ball is hit in such a way that the batter is able to circle the bases and reach home plate safely in one play without any errors being committed by the defensive team. A home run i ...

* "Three-run jimmy jack": Three-run home run * "Big fly": A home run * "Light that baby up!": The call at the final out of an Angels win, referring to the halo on the 230-foot tall A outside of

Angel Stadium Angel Stadium of Anaheim is a baseball stadium located in Anaheim, California. Since its opening in 1966, it has served as the home ballpark of the Los Angeles Angels of Major League Baseball (MLB), and was also the home stadium to the Los An ...

that lights up when the Angels win. * "Drive home safely!": When the Angels have a walk-off win. *"Grand salami time!": When the Angels hit a

grand slam Grand Slam most often refers to: * Grand Slam (tennis), one player or pair winning all four major annual tournaments, or the tournaments themselves Grand Slam or Grand slam may also refer to: Games and sports * Grand slam, winning category te ...

. *”Big fly, Ohtani-san!”: Home run call for Japanese player

Shohei Ohtani , nicknamed "Shotime", is a Japanese professional baseball pitcher, designated hitter and outfielder for the Los Angeles Angels of Major League Baseball (MLB). He previously played for the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters of Nippon Professional ...

, making use of the

Japanese honorific The Japanese language makes use of a system of honorific speech, called , which includes honorific suffixes and prefixes when referring to others in a conversation. Suffixes are often gender-specific at the end of names, while prefixes are att ...

"''san''"

Executive career

On January 11, 2021, it was announced that Rojas had been hired by Texas Rangers Double-A affiliate

as their president and general manager.

Personal life

Rojas and his wife, Kim have three children. He and his family started a baseball apparel business in 2019 calle
Big Fly Gear
His father Cookie was an MLB player for 15 seasons and a manager for two. He is also in broadcasting, currently doing Spanish color commentary for the Miami Marlins. His brother

Mike Mike may refer to: Animals * Mike (cat), cat and guardian of the British Museum * Mike the Headless Chicken, chicken that lived for 18 months after his head had been cut off * Mike (chimpanzee), a chimpanzee featured in several books and docume ...

was the manager for the

Northwest Arkansas Naturals The Northwest Arkansas Naturals are a Minor League Baseball team based in Springdale, Arkansas. The team is a member of the Texas League, and serves as the Double-A affiliate of the Kansas City Royals. The Naturals play at Arvest Ballpark, whic ...

, the Double-A affiliate to the Kansas City Royals and is currently coaching in Mexico. Rojas and his family currently reside in

Trophy Club, Texas Trophy Club is a suburb of the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. When established in the 1970s, it was one of the earliest premier planned communities in Texas, built around the only golf course designed by Ben Hogan. It is located west of DFW Airpor ...

References

External links

Victor Rojas
Los Angeles Angels Official Bio {{DEFAULTSORT:Rojas, Victor 1968 births Living people American people of Cuban descent American television sports announcers Arizona Diamondbacks announcers Lewis–Clark State Warriors baseball players Los Angeles Angels announcers Major League Baseball broadcasters Minor League Baseball broadcasters Minor league baseball players MLB Network personalities People from Miami People from Overland Park, Kansas Texas Rangers (baseball) announcers