... as part of a rotation of former M's announcers trying to fill the unfill-able void left when Dave Niehaus passed away last November. But I'm thrilled to be returning to Seattle. I've always loved the city, team, organization, and (now) the ballpark. I'll primarily be working on the radio, doing the play-by-play with Rick Rizz. Expect a lot of Dave Niehaus anecdotes and remembrances.
I don't know yet how this will impact my doing Dodger Talk. Hopefully, everything will all work out. I imagine this summer I'll hold the record for the most TSA pat downs.
Thanks for all your support. Thanks to the M's for having me back.
Go Mariners and Dodgers!
Awesome Ken. Can't wait!
ReplyDeleteWell, when your radio staff saves more games than your bullpen staff, you must be in Seattle.
ReplyDeleteIt will be good to have you back on the Seattle airwaves. I'm just sorry it took Dave's passing to get it done.
Congratulations, Ken! Here's to a busy, jet-lagged 2011 for you.
ReplyDeleteThings are looking up for radio broadcasts of the M's this summer. Sadly, we cannot say the same about the M's themselves.
ReplyDelete"I don't know yet how this will impact my doing Dodger Talk."
ReplyDeleteWeirdly, I was heartened by this comment. When I first heard you were going to the Mariners, I figured we'd lost you for good. But since you say you "don't know yet how this will impact" Dodger Talk, it means that you're still going to be there! I'm sure a guy who's multitasked as much as you will be able to figure it out. Hey, it won't be a problem when the Mariners come to Dodger Stadium for an exhibition game in March!
Well anyway, congrats on your new gig.
-Scott from Marina Del Rey
That is the best news! It will be wonderful to hear you and Rick. We will all miss Dave so very much, but hearing you will definitely help make the transition easier.
ReplyDeleteFantastic! You're the best acquisition the Mariners have made in many years.
ReplyDeleteI too, was worried when I heard of your Seattle gig.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad to hear that you haven't jumped the Dodger's ship. It's a bad feeling when I look forward to the radio/tv team over the baseball team. Oh well, I feel like it's gonna be that kind of year.
Anyway, congrats.
Just read the confirmation in the Seattle Times, it's great to have you as well as the other familiar voices back on the M's broadcasts. If you're paired with Fairly again, promise that you'll get him to finally commit to a favorite Cartwright brother - I think that will be a necessity this coming season.
ReplyDeleteSince you're in So. Cal., perhaps you could give Milton Bradley a little pat down before spring training. (The witty, talented, warm and unbridled Jimmy Piersall used to tell Harry Caray during White Sox broadcasts, "I'm crazy, and I've got the papers to prove it." Too bad Milton remains in denial...there isn't any help in denial.)
I wandered again! It'll be great to have you back, Ken!
Congrats. And glad you'll be on the radio side, somehow that feels right.
ReplyDeleteAnd I'll get to listen on XM....
I only listened to radio broadcasts when I was in my car. Now I'll have to do it at home. Welcome back.
ReplyDeleteGreat news, Ken. Hopefully, you can be two places at once because you are so vital to Dodger Talk.
ReplyDeleteHooray!
ReplyDeleteCongratulations on the gig, Ken. I'll check it out on XM radio this season.
ReplyDeleteIf the M's are smart they'll make you the permanent play by play guy. Your unique and often humorous takes on the game are qualities that are sadly missing in most announcers. The Mariners will be at best mediocre, but looking on the bright side you get to watch the great Ichiro Suzuki up close. Congrats and don't stop writing this extremely entertaining blog.
ReplyDeleteThis is fantastic news. I was hoping you would consent to coming back. Please let us know which games you'll be calling so we can tune in and hear your most outrageously skewed humor. I fell off my chair many times at some of the literary references and other connections you would make during a game that you knew only a handful would get. Please also make time to meet your Seattle readers when you're here.
ReplyDeleteI'm thrilled you're coming back to Seattle to do play by play. The M's were pretty awful when you called games before in Seattle, and they're pretty awful once again.
ReplyDeleteSo few of us achieve dreams. Go get 'em, Ken.
ReplyDeleteKen...You can never have too much money, you can never have too many jobs. I wish you the best at the juggling act.
ReplyDeleteWell, I guess MLB Gameday Audio is getting a renewal.
ReplyDeleteKen, I know you've said you're a bit of a technophobe, so here's what you do to keep the patdowns down. Get an ISDN line installed at your house, get the MLB package, and then you can watch the games on TV and describe them on the radio.
ReplyDeleteSeriously, congratulations. Other than the travel, sounds like your going to have another summer of your life.
I'm delighted for you, and will definitely turn on a Mariners game on MLB GameDay audio to listen to you!
ReplyDeleteCongratulations, Ken!
ReplyDeleteYour ability to make colonoscopy prep sound entertaining will surely come in handy for M's games. More often than not, they have a lot in common.
I'll meet you at 13 Coins!
As a Puget Sound resident, this is great news. Welcome back to Seattle! We can all look forward to more readings of "Levine's Law". As someone else mentioned, I hope you can post a schedule so I can make sure and listen in on those days you'll be in the booth.
ReplyDeleteI think the idea of rotating announcers is great this year because noone has to replace the legend.
ReplyDeleteIt will be fun to hear Ken Wilson, who has not done a Mariner broadcast in almost 30 years.
It is a gloomy dark day here in Puget Sound but I feel soooo much better after reading an email with a link to the GOOD NEWS that you are coming back to Seattle and we will get to laugh again. I only listen to M's games on radio because all are on FSN now which is not part of my limited cable. Ah that's okay, I like radio better anyway. It's just that I don't know what the players look like. Oh yeah, you can tell me! Thanks, Ken, for putting up with airports and airplanes. Pitchers and catchers report February 13!
ReplyDeleteI'm glad to see Ken Wilson and Ron Fairley comming back.
ReplyDeleteThis totally rocks! Let's hope there's no reason for it but "NO WABASH"
ReplyDeleteThis is great Ken, looking forward to listening to you all summer.
ReplyDeleteBe sure to post when you are announcing.
ReplyDeleteI am a casual baseball fan and I would love to hear you announce.
Welcome back to Seattle, Ken. I enjoyed you when you were here fulltime and always looked forward to your short-term stints during Dave's vacations and the like. Dave anecdotes will help us get through another tough season, and although I suspect you feel like Thumbelina trying to fit into Goliath's booths, it is far better to give us people who knew and loved Dave than trying to find the next one.
ReplyDeleteThis is great news. All my fellow Ms season ticket holders are equally stoked. The only downside for you is that this team won't give you many opportunities to develop a signature home run call, so work on the called third strike instead.
ReplyDeleteI want to congratulate you but then again if it's going to impact my enjoyment of your Dodger Talk broadcast, which has soothed me on countless evenings throughout season after season, then I'm going to be a child and pout and not tell you I'm glad for you.
ReplyDeleteThank you
ReplyDeleteThat sounds awesome. That the Mariners do that is also awesome. That you try to make it work with your Dodger Talk is alse... well... you know. Go you! :-)
ReplyDeleteI'm a bit too young to remember much of your first stint with the M's, but as a lifetime Mariners fan I gotta say I am absolutely thrilled to have someone with a sense of humor like yours calling some games.
ReplyDeleteI've been reading all your blog posts recently and it's one of the best blogs I've come across.
I'm just syked to tell people that one of our announcers wrote for "The Simpsons"....no big deal!
And thanks for dropping by Lookout Landing and saying hi to all us internet dork Mariners fans, very cool of you.
I wish you all the best and here's to avoiding another 100 loss season!
Thanks Sanford. I can't wait. My first broadcast will be March 23rd in Arizona. The M's vs. those pesky Colorado Rockies.
ReplyDeleteHope to meet you sometime this season in Seattle.
Ken, how could you leave LA? The Hollywood Fairytales are alive and well.
ReplyDeleteNonetheless, and bethatisitmay, I know your heart lies firmly in baseball and play-by-play has always been your hearts' desire. I bleed Dodger blue, but there's now just a brush of Mariner...what color are they, anyway?