John Sanders is an American

sports broadcaster In sports broadcasting, a sports commentator (also known as a sports announcer or sportscaster) provides a real-time live commentary of a game or event, traditionally delivered in the present tense. There are two main types of sports broadcast ...

, with over 25 years' experience commentating

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball league composed of 30 teams, divided equally between the National League (baseball), National League (NL) and the American League (AL), with 29 in the United States and 1 in Canada. MLB i ...

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 , the team ...

. 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 (baseball), National League (NL) National League Central, Central ...

. He also called

Big East The Big East Conference (stylized as BIG EAST) is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference that competes in National Collegiate Athletic Association, NCAA NCAA Division I, Division I in 10 men's sports and 12 women's sports. H ...

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

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 (appro ...

games through the mid-2010s.

Career

Sanders, a Kansas native, worked at

WIBW-TV WIBW-TV (channel 13) is a television station in Topeka, Kansas, United States, affiliated with CBS and MyNetworkTV. Owned by Gray Media, the station maintains studios on Commerce Place (next to the interchange of Interstate 70 in Kansas, I-70, I ...

Topeka, Kansas Topeka ( ) is the capital city of the U.S. state of Kansas and the county seat of Shawnee County. It is along the Kansas River in the central part of Shawnee County, in northeastern Kansas, in the Central United States. As of the 2020 cen ...

. He then moved to

KMBC-TV KMBC-TV (channel 9) is a television station in Kansas City, Missouri, United States, affiliated with ABC. It is owned by Hearst Television alongside CW affiliate KCWE (channel 29). The two stations share studios on Winchester Avenue in the ...

Kansas City, Missouri Kansas City, Missouri, abbreviated KC or KCMO, is the largest city in the U.S. state of Missouri by List of cities in Missouri, population and area. The city lies within Jackson County, Missouri, Jackson, Clay County, Missouri, Clay, and Pl ...

, 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 In an organized sports league, a typical season is the portion of one year in which regulated games of the sport are in session: for example, in Major League Baseball the season lasts approximately from the last week of March to the last week of S ...

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 of the American Football Conference (AFC) West division. Established in 1959 ...

. In 1978, he moved to

KDKA-TV KDKA-TV (channel 2), branded CBS Pittsburgh, is a television station in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. It is owned and operated by the CBS television network through its CBS News and Stations division alongside WPKD-TV (channel 19), a ...

Pittsburgh Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, United States, and its county seat. It is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, second-most populous city in Pennsylvania (after Philadelphia) and the List of Un ...

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania, officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a U.S. state, state spanning the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern United States, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes region, Great Lakes regions o ...

, 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 semi-retired 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 ...

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

on FSN Ohio. 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 NFL 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