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Karl Ravech had “no idea” what was coming.
The 61-year-old, who had worked at ESPN for 33 years, was among the company’s layoffs Tuesday, less than 24 hours after his final assignment, which was calling the Phillies-Dodgers game in Philadelphia.
ESPN MLB insider Buster Olney was with Ravech on Monday and opened up about Ravech’s final day on the job.
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“Obviously, terrible news yesterday,” Olney said on ESPN New York radio’s “DiPietro & Rothenberg” on Wednesday morning. “And I’ll just talk about Karl Ravech, who I have worked with 23 years at ESPN. People ask me all the time about who I root for — friends, family, people you bump into. And I always say, ‘you root for good stuff to happen to good people,’ and that’s why it’s hard today with Karl, because I got to do ‘Baseball Tonight’ with him, I got to do ‘Sunday Night Baseball’ with him, and every time we worked a game — and the last time was Monday night in Philadelphia, we had no idea what was to come — man, you know, he comes in, energy, excited, prepared. We’re sitting in the office with Dave Roberts, the Dodgers manager, the other day, they’re having a laugh.
“And my heart goes out to him. And I just have loved working with Karl at ESPN.”
Ravech was one of the biggest names let go on Tuesday in ESPN’s 2026 layoffs, a list that includes NFL analyst Ryan Clark — who found out he was getting fired during “NFL Live” on Monday — “First Take” star and former NFL MVP Cam Newton, NFL Network insider Tom Pelissero, longtime “SportsCenter” anchor David Lloyd, football injury expert Stephania Bell, NFL Network analyst Charles Davis and combat sports reporter Andreas Hale.
ESPN New York was also impacted as former Jets star Bart Scott was let go.
Scott, who also made television appearances as an NFL analyst, was hosting a midday show with former WFAN partner Chris Carlin.
Ravech briefly acknowledged the ESPN layoffs Tuesday night on his “Dirt from the Dugout” podcast, saying “we’re well aware of it,” while adding, “we’re not going to discuss that tonight.”
When The Athletic reported on Ravech’s firing Tuesday morning, Ravech told the outlet he had yet to hear from ESPN with the news.
Ravech, who joined ESPN in May 1993, was a longtime MLB studio host for the network, which included “Baseball Tonight.”
He was their lead MLB play-by-play voice since 2022, had called the Home Run Derby before Netflix got the rights this year and has also called the College World Series and Little League World Series.
