SerpApi.Org
For the past decade, Tuesday nights during college basketball season meant Karl Ravech and Jimmy Dykes on the call for ESPN; sadly, that won’t be the case moving forward.
Ravech is part of ESPN’s latest round of layoffs, according to The Athletic and Front Office Sports. The 61-year-old has been a lead voice for the network for over 30 years, serving as the No. 1 play-by-play announcer for ESPN’s Major League Baseball coverage, the host of “Baseball Tonight,” an anchor on “SportsCenter,” and more recently, college basketball. Ravech had not yet heard the news from ESPN when The Athletic’s Andrew Marchand spoke to him this morning. Last night, he called the Phillies vs. Dodgers game in Philadelphia.
Ravech is one of several big names ESPN is parting ways with. NFL analyst Ryan Clark found out the news in the middle of “NFL Live” on Monday. NFL Network insider Tom Pelissero is also being let go, along with NFL Network analyst Charles Davis, injury/fantasy football analyst Stephania Bell, longtime SportsCenter anchor David Lloyd, and Cam Newton, a “First Take” contributor. ESPN acquired the NFL Network in January. On Monday, ESPN chairman Jimmy Pitaro sent this memo to ESPN employees, which was acquired by Front Office Sports.
“Over the past several months, we’ve made significant progress integrating the NFL assets that we acquired into ESPN. Throughout this process, we have taken the time to carefully evaluate our collective teams, resources and organizational structure to best position us for the future. As a result, we had to make some difficult decisions about job impacts that we will be communicating today.
While most of the job impacts are tied to the acquisition, we will also notify colleagues in other parts of the company today that their positions have been impacted. We are committed to treating employees with compassion and respect and to providing support as they navigate this transition.
Even in moments like these, the strength of ESPN comes from our people, our teamwork and our shared mission to serve sports fans.”
Layoffs are an unfortunate reality in sports media, even at ESPN, the Worldwide Leader. Best of luck to Ravech moving forward, and thanks for the memories — and keeping Jimmy Dykes in line for all these years.
