Team
One of baseball's best young broadcasters, Daron Sutton enters his third season with the Arizona Diamondbacks in 2009 as the club's primary play-by-play announcer on FOX Sports Arizona.
Sutton came to the D-backs in 2007 after five years in a similar capacity with the Milwaukee Brewers. During his tenure in Milwaukee, Sutton won a 2003 Emmy Award in the category of Outstanding Achievement for Individual Excellence on Camera from the Chicago/Midwest Chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. He was also nominated for regional Emmys in 1999 and 2004.
The son of Hall of Fame pitcher and current Washington Nationals broadcaster Don Sutton, Sutton spent two seasons as a radio play by play announcer for the Anaheim Angels, and also hosted the club's pre- and post-game radio shows. He also spent two seasons calling Atlanta Braves games on FSN South. While in Atlanta, Sutton handled Southeastern Conference telecasts of men's and women's basketball, swimming and diving, gymnastics, track and field and volleyball.
Sutton completed his first season as the play-by-play broadcaster for Arizona State's men basketball games on FOX Sports Arizona this past offseason while also broadcasting games for the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee men's basketball team, which he has called for the past four years.
Sutton pitched two seasons in the Angels and Braves organizations, and graduated from Auburn University- Montgomery in 1992 with a degree in communications.
Community involvement is a high priority with Sutton. He and his wife, Kristin, host the annual "Sutton Strokes for Little Folks" golf tournament in the Valley to benefit the Southwest Autism Research and Resource Center (SARRC). Sutton and broadcast partner Mark Grace also raised funds for the Arizona Diamondbacks Foundation with their "Redheads" section broadcast at every Wednesday home game during the 2008 season. He also can be found regularly speaking to local schools to promote reading and education.
Sutton and his wife are the proud parents of two daughters, Abbey and Lilly.
Name a memorable moment in the history of the Arizona Diamondbacks, and Greg Schulte has described it as it happened.
Schulte, whose voice will forever be linked with one of baseball's greatest moments as he delivered the call of Luis Gonzalez' ninth-inning single to win the Game 7 of the 2001 World Series, has been the link between D-backs fans and their team since the club first took the field in 1998. Like the D-backs themselves, Schulte embarks on his 12th season of calling Major League Baseball in 2009. His passion for the game of baseball comes through in every broadcast, and has earned Schulte praise from fans and fellow broadcasters alike.
A part of the Phoenix radio scene since 1979, Schulte joined the organization after spending 14 years at the Dbacks flagship radio station, KTAR. Over that time, Schulte was involved with nearly every major sports entity in the market. He served for 15 seasons with the Phoenix Suns, working with Al McCoy first as producer, and, for the last two seasons, as color commentator. He also served as an analyst for Arizona State football and men's basketball, and shared play-by-play duties for ASU baseball. In addition, Schulte was the original pre- and post-game host for Arizona Cardinals broadcasts from 1988-90. Prior to his arrival in Arizona, Schulte was sports director at WQUA in Moline, Ill., and also handled play-by-play duties for University of Iowa men's basketball.
Schulte is also active in the community, working extensively with the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. He and his wife, Nancy, have two children, Scott and Stephanie, and reside in Glendale.
Mark Grace enters his sixth season in the Arizona Diamondbacks broadcast booth as a color analyst, working alongside Daron Sutton on the team's telecasts on FOX Sports Arizona. For the third consecutive season, Grace will also serve as a color analyst for select FOX Saturday Baseball broadcasts. He has also has been a studio analyst on FOX's pregame shows at the World Series the past two years.
Grace's previous broadcasting experience was as an analyst for ESPN Radio during the 1999 and 2000 National League Division Series.
Grace made a smooth transition to the broadcast booth after retiring from a distinguished 16-year Major League playing career following the 2003 season with the D-backs. He ended his career with 2,445 hits, a .303 average, .383 on-base percentage, 511 doubles, 173 home runs and 1,146 RBI in 2,245 Major League games and never finished a season with more strikeouts than walks. He was a three-time All-Star and four-time winner of the Rawlings Gold Glove Award, anchoring first base for both the D-backs and Chicago Cubs. His 1,754 hits and 364 doubles during the 1990s decade were the most of any Major League player. Grace's 511 doubles and .990 career fielding percentage are better than any other first baseman in the National Baseball Hall of Fame.
After 13 seasons with the Cubs from 1988-2000, Grace joined the D-backs in 2001 and was an integral part of the club's World Championship team that year. His single to lead off the ninth inning of Game 7 ignited the rally that led to a 3-2 victory over the New York Yankees. He also went 6-for-16 in the 2001 National League Championship Series against Atlanta. Grace also volunteers his time in the community for noteworthy causes. He held the second annual "Mark Grace Super Bowl Classic" bowling tournament this past offseason to raise funds for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. Grace and Sutton also raised funds for the Arizona Diamondbacks Foundation with their "Redheads" section broadcast at every Wednesday home game during the 2008 season. He also was the grand marshal for the Fort McDowell Fiesta Bowl Parade prior to the 2008 Tostitos Fiesta Bowl between West Virginia and Oklahoma.
Grace is the father of two boys, Jackson and Preston, and resides in Paradise Valley.
Former knuckleball pitcher Tom Candiotti enters his fourth season as the D-backs radio color analyst, offering tremendous insight on the team's broadcasts on Sports 620 KTAR and on the D-backs radio network throughout Arizona. Candiotti also fills in as a color analyst on the D-backs' television broadcast when Mark Grace is on assignment with the FOX Saturday Baseball broadcasts.
Candiotti was originally drafted by the Kansas City Royals in 1980, but was later claimed in the Rule 5 Draft by the Milwaukee Brewers that year. He went on to compile a 151-164 record, including 10 or more wins in seven different seasons, and 3.73 ERA with 1,735 strikeouts in 451 games during a 16-year Major League career with the Brewers (1983-84), Cleveland Indians (1986-91, 1999), Toronto Blue Jays (1991), Los Angeles Dodgers (1992-97) and Oakland Athletics (1998-99). He posted a 72-65 record with the Indians during the 1980s, including his best season when he was 14-8 with a 3.28 ERA in 1988. Candiotti was traded to the Blue Jays mid-way through the 1991 season and went 6-7 with a 2.98 ERA during the pennant stretch while also making two starts in the American League Championship Series for the team. He signed with the Dodgers as a free agent prior to the 1992 season and compiled a 52-64 mark despite having a 3.57 ERA in six seasons in Los Angeles.
Following his playing career, Candiotti served as a Special Assistant to the General Manager with the Indians (2000-01), and established his broadcasting credentials as an analyst with ESPN, both during MLB game coverage and on the set of "Baseball Tonight," from 2001-05. While with ESPN, Candiotti also served as an analyst for the network's coverage of the Little League World Series and wrote a column for ESPN.com. He also was a color television analyst for the Blue Jays from 2002-05.
An accomplished bowler, Candiotti regularly participates in Professional Bowlers Association Tour events in Arizona. He was named to the Professional Bowling Hall of Fame's celebrity wing in 2007, joining former NFL running back Jerome Bettis as the only two inductees. Candiotti is the father of three boys, Brett, Casey and Clark, and resides in Paradise Valley.
Any baseball team would love to have a member of the broadcasters' wing of the National Baseball Hall of Fame available to pinch-hit, and the D-backs have got just that as Joe Garagiola returns for his 12th season as a color analyst on select team broadcasts on FOX Sports Arizona.
Garagiola signed with his hometown St. Louis Cardinals at age 16 and made his Major League debut at age 20 in 1946. A left-handed hitting catcher, he was 6-for-19 in five World Series games in 1946 as a rookie, including going 4-for-5 with three RBI in Game 4 against the Red Sox. Garagiola went on to bat .257 with 42 home runs and 255 RBI in 676 games during a nine-year Major League career with the Cardinals, Pittsburgh Pirates, Chicago Cubs and New York Giants.
Garagiola turned to broadcasting following his retirement as a player, calling Cardinals radio broadcasts on KMOX with Harry Caray and Jack Buck from 1955-62. In 1961, he started his nearly 30-year association with NBC and teamed with Bob Wolff, By Saam and George Kell on national baseball broadcast for the network during the 1960s. Garagiola called New York Yankees games with Red Barber from 1965-67 and alternated play-by-play duties with Curt Gowdy on NBC from 1974-76. He teamed with analyst Tony Kubek on NBC from 1976-82 before shifting to color commentary when Vin Scully joined the network in 1983. Garagiola and Scully were NBC's No. 1 baseball broadcast team from 1983-88, calling each Saturday's "Game of the Week," three All-Star Games, three National League Championship Series and three World Series. He later had a brief stint as a color analyst for the California Angels.
Besides calling baseball broadcasts, Garagiola was a panelist on NBC's "Today" from 1967-73 and again from 1990-92. He occasionally guest-hosted the "Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson" and hosted numerous game shows in the late 1960s and 1970s, including "He Said, She Said," "Joe Garagiola's Memory Game," "Sale of the Century," "To Tell the Truth" and "Strike It Rich." Garagiola also hosted the "Baseball World of Joe Garagiola" and the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show.
For his numerous contributions to baseball broadcasting, Garagiola was enshrined in Cooperstown as the Ford C. Frick Award recipient in 1991.
Garagiola has been extremely active in the community and was honored as the 1998 recipient of the Children's MVP Award presented by the Jim Eisenreich Foundation. He works tirelessly for the Baseball Assistance Team, and is very visible at major league spring training camps, educating players on the evils of spit tobacco. Garagiola was honored in 2001 by the Arizona Chamber of Commerce for his work in the community, which includes his efforts on behalf of the St. Peter's Indian Mission in the Gila River Indian Community. Nicknamed "Awesome Fox" by the staff of St. Peter's, the baseball field at St. Peter's School is named "Awesome Fox Field" in his honor. Garagiola is the author of several baseball books, including "Just Play Ball," with the forward written by his lifelong friend, Yogi Berra.
Garagiola and his wife, Audrey, reside in Scottsdale. His son, Joe Jr., was the D-backs' General Manager from 1995-2005 and is currently a Senior Vice President of Baseball Operations for Major League Baseball, while his other son, Steve, is a reporter and anchor for WDIV-TV in Detroit. His daughter, Gina, has worked as a reporter for KTVK-TV in Phoenix and is currently a freelance writer for numerous publications.
Jeff Munn enters his ninth season as a member of the Arizona Diamondbacks broadcast team, serving as the secondary radio play-by-play announcer and pre- and post-game show host on the team's broadcasts on Sports 620 KTAR and the D-backs radio network throughout Arizona.
In addition to his work with the D-backs, Munn has been the radio play-by-play voice for Arizona State women's basketball since 2004. He has also been heard as a fill-in play-by-play announcer on ASU men's basketball and baseball broadcasts and served as a play-by-play announcer for MLB Radio's coverage of the Arizona Fall League in 2006.
Munn began his broadcasting career as a senior at Carl Hayden High School and later announced games at Phoenix College in the late 1970s. He was the Phoenix Suns in-arena announcer for 12 seasons from 1991-2003 and has been the stadium announcer for the Tostitos Fiesta Bowl since 1991, including four college football national championship games. Munn has announced at several major sporting events, including the 1993 U.S. Figure Skating Championships, 1995 NBA All-Star Game, 2000 WNBA All-Star Game and 2001 World Series. In 1996, he was selected as one of four announcers for the basketball competition at the Summer Olympics in Atlanta and handled the announcing duties for the Men's gold medal game.
Munn majored in history at ASU and resides in Tempe with his wife of 17 years, Laurie, and their two children, Patrick and Hayley.
Matt Williams enters his fifth season as a member of the Arizona Diamondbacks broadcast team, serving as a color analyst on select broadcasts on FOX Sports Arizona and Sports 620 KTAR. He is a minority owner of the Dbacks and holds the title as Special Assistant to the President and CEO as well. Williams was the interim manager of the Double-A Mobile Bay Bears for the final two months of the 2007 season after manager Brett Butler suffered a stroke.
After the San Francisco Giants made him the third overall selection in the 1986 First-Year Player Draft out of UNLV, Williams became one of baseball's premiere third basemen during a 17-year Major League career with Giants, Cleveland Indians and D-backs from 1987-2003. Overall, he had a .268 batting average with 378 home runs, 1,218 RBI, 997 runs, 1,878 hits, 338 doubles and 35 triples in 1,866 career games. He appeared in five All-Star Games, won four Rawlings Gold Glove Awards and four Louisville Slugger Silver Slugger Awards as a third baseman. He played in three World Series with three different teams (Giants, 1989; Indians, 1997; D-backs, 2001), becoming the only player to hit at least one World Series home run for three different teams.
Williams was a fixture at third base for the Giants during most of the 1990s and finished in the Top 10 in league MVP voting on three occasions, including finishing second to Houston's Jeff Bagwell in 1994 after slugging 43 homers and 96 RBI during the strike-shortened season. He spent one season with the Indians in 1997 prior to becoming an original D-back after he was acquired in a post-Expansion Draft trade on Dec. 1, 1997.
Williams played an integral leadership role on D-backs teams from 1998-2003, including the 1999 season when he finished third in league MVP voting after batting .303 with 35 home runs and a team-record 142 RBI, which has since been tied by Luis Gonzalez in 2001. He still ranks among D-backs career batting leaders in home runs (99, third), RBI (381, third), hits (629, fourth), doubles (127, fourth), at-bats (2,265, fifth), runs (317, sixth), games (595, seventh) and walks (163, ninth).
Williams and his wife, Erika, reside in Paradise Valley with their four children. He has three daughters, Alysha, Rachael and Madison, as well as a son, Jacob. Williams and his wife, who previously was weekend anchor and reporter for KTVK-TV, were co-hosts of the weekend pre-game shows prior to D-backs telecasts on 3TV in 2007.
Miguel Quintana enters his 11th season in the Arizona Diamondbacks broadcast booth as a color analyst, working alongside Oscar Soria on the team's Spanish radio broadcasts on Radio Fiesta 1400 AM KSUN.
Quintana began his career as a 15-year-old sportswriter for El Sol in Agua Prieta, Sonora, Mexico. In 1981, he joined KIFN Radio (now KVVA) in Phoenix as a sports commentator, and later moved to KTVW (Channel 33), eventually becoming sports director. Quintana also worked in Los Angeles for KVEA-TV, before returning to Phoenix in 1995 to serve as play-by-play voice for the Arizona Sandsharks indoor soccer team.
Quintana's work in baseball has earned him notice from baseball officials, as he was selected to be one of the stadium announcers for the inaugural World Baseball Classic in 2006, announcing games at both Chase Field and Angel Stadium in Anaheim, Calif.
Quintana has been a baseball commentator for the Mexican Pacific League and has done play-by-play for the Arizona Rattlers. He and his wife, Karoly, have three boys, Miguel Jr., Khalid Omar and Kyle Christopher. Miguel also has three daughters, Lisette, Jasmine and Jennifer.
At the age of 38, Oscar Soria is one of the most respected baseball commentators in the Hispanic community as he enters his 10th full season as the play-by-play voice on Arizona Diamondbacks' Spanish broadcasts. He works alongside Miguel Quintana on the team's Spanish radio broadcasts on Radio Fiesta 1400 AM KSUN.
Soria is a veteran of 20 seasons as a broadcaster with the Mexican Pacific League's Hermosillo Naranjeros and also covers the D-backs by writing a daily column for El Imparcial, Hermosillo's daily newspaper. Since 2006, Soria has called Mexican Pacific League and Caribbean Series games for ESPN Deportes and also provided play-by-play for the inaugural World Baseball Classic in 2006 for the network.
Soria finished second in the general balloting for the Mexican Pacific League's "All Century Team" and was voted as the best television broadcaster. In 2005, he received the Carlos Vazquez Award as the best announcer in Sonora. Soria has also covered basketball, boxing, soccer, tennis and football for Telemax in Sonora.
Born in Tijuana, Mexico, Soria graduated from Universidad del Noroeste with a degree in accounting. He and his wife, Benny, have a daugther, Paula, and a son, Oscar Gilberto, and make their home in Phoenix.
Todd Walsh was hired on April 10, 2001, by FOX Sports Arizona to fill the role as its pre-game show host for the Arizona Diamondbacks and Phoenix Coyotes telecasts. He also serves as an in-game and post-game reporter during D-backs and Coyotes telecasts on the network and has also worked as a sideline reporter for the Phoenix Suns and University of Arizona football and basketball telecasts when his busy schedule allows.
Since coming on board with FOX Sports Arizona, his skill and talent have been noticed by many, including the Arizona Republic, which named him the top sports reporter in Phoenix in 2001 and 2002. A three-time Emmy Award winner in 2008, he won statues for work done in conjunction with not only his coverage of the D-backs, but the Coyotes as well.
In what was one of the top highlights of his career, D-backs pitcher Randy Johnson allowed him to become the first reporter to ever be invited inside his home to profile his baseball and rock and roll memorabilia collection. The visit was for the critically acclaimed "In My Own Words Randy Johnson" episode Walsh hosted. The show was awarded with an Emmy in 2008.
His work on the Diamondbacks Live pre-game show was also honored with an Emmy Award in 2007, as it was the winner in the "News Producer" division. In September 2002, the Phoenix New Times honored him as the city's best sports television interviewer.
A fixture as well in Phoenix and Tucson sports radio, he has been the host for the Coyotes radio pre-game broadcasts since 1996 and has been the television host for Coyotes over-the-air telecasts the past nine seasons. He has also done weekday sports updates for KSLX (100.7 FM) in Phoenix and has been the sports director for KDKB (93.3 FM).
Walsh worked for KTAR radio in Phoenix from 1988-93 as a sports reporter, talk show anchor and co-host of the pre- and post-game radio broadcasts for the Arizona Cardinals and Phoenix Suns. From 1991-93, he was the color commentator for Cardinals games.
From 1988-91, Walsh served as the play-by-play announcer for the Phoenix Firebirds (AAA) of the Pacific Coast League and in 1987, he did the play-by-play duties in Tucson for the Tucson Toros (AAA) and the University of Arizona Ice Cats hockey team.
A native of Rochester, N.Y., Walsh graduated from the University of Arizona in 1986 with a degree in radio and television. He got his start in the business while at Arizona, hosting a nightly sports talk show and serving as the pre and post-game host for Wildcats football and basketball games on KNST radio. Also during his time at Arizona, he served as a basketball manager for Lute Olson and had a role as a sports reporter in the 1987 movie "Can't Buy Me Love."
After serving as the director for each of the Arizona Diamondbacks' self-produced game telecasts on KTVK (3TV) for the organization's first 10 years, Scott Geyer's role as Vice President, Broadcasting shifted entering the 2008 season to oversee the use of the club's new 136-feet wide by 46-feet tall video scoreboard in centerfield that is one of the world's largest high definition video screens as well as other updates with video technologies to enhance the fan experience at Chase Field and better communicate with D-backs fans.
In his current role with the D-backs, Geyer oversees the broadcasting and game operations departments while also keeping the club's broadcasters up to date about the organization. He played an integral role prior to the start of the 2008 season in the installation of the new Daktronics HD video scoreboard, a $14 million project that also included the build-out of video production rooms to service the new board, and the technology behind the digital media network throughout the ballpark's concourses.
Geyer, who has 26 years of experience in sports television, joined the D-backs in 1995 to prepare the organization for its live television productions and to provide design insight into the construction of Chase Field from the media point of view. Prior to his move to baseball, he spent 10 years as a producer and director for the Phoenix Suns television package, while also managing the production and post-production division of America West Arena (now US Airways Center) since it opened in 1992. His baseball television resume includes directing a Major League package for Fox Sports Net and a five-year stint directing AAA baseball in the Phoenix area in the 1980s.
Geyer is a native of the San Francisco bay area and graduated from San Diego State University with a degree in broadcast journalism, prior to making Phoenix his home in 1980. He and his wife, Lisa, have two sons, Adam and Travis.
