Fred Manfra
Encyclopedia
Fred Manfra is an American
sportscaster
, best known for radio and television broadcasts of the Baltimore Orioles
, a major league baseball
team. He has covered many other sports, including football
, basketball
, ice hockey
, horse racing
and the Olympics.
native, Manfra is a 1964 graduate of Patterson High School, where he was inducted into its Hall of Fame in 1996. He began his broadcasting career at radio station KREL in Corona, California
in the early 1970s, and gradually moved up through other jobs in Ventura, California
(KBBQ-FM and KBBY-FM), Davenport, Iowa
(KSTT-AM), Milwaukee (WRIT-AM), and Detroit (WWJ-AM). He also worked for the Associated Press
radio sports network in Washington, D.C.
before moving to New York City
to begin a long stint with ABC
network radio.
Finals
and All-Star Game
(1985–91), Winter and Summer Olympic events, the NHL
Stanley Cup Finals
and All-Star Game
(1991), the Breeder's Cup (2000–2002), and horse racing's triple crown
races. He also broadcasted college football
, USFL
and arena football
games, New York Knicks
basketball, and boxing
and wrestling
events.
for Baltimore Orioles
radio
broadcasts on WBAL-AM
on December 16, 1992. He succeeded Joe Angel
, who had moved to the expansion
Florida Marlins
in a similar capacity. Primarily teamed with Jon Miller
for most games, Manfra also worked with Chuck Thompson
whenever Miller did Orioles telecasts on WMAR
or Sunday Night Baseball
on ESPN
. He was joined in the radio booth by Angel upon the latter's return in early-February 2004.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
sportscaster
Sportscaster
In sports broadcasting, a commentator gives a running commentary of a game or event in real time, usually during a live broadcast. The comments are normally a voiceover, with the sounds of the action and spectators also heard in the background. In the case of television commentary, the commentator...
, best known for radio and television broadcasts of the Baltimore Orioles
Baltimore Orioles
The Baltimore Orioles are a professional baseball team based in Baltimore, Maryland in the United States. They are a member of the Eastern Division of Major League Baseball's American League. One of the American League's eight charter franchises in 1901, it spent its first year as a major league...
, a major league baseball
Major League Baseball
Major League Baseball is the highest level of professional baseball in the United States and Canada, consisting of teams that play in the National League and the American League...
team. He has covered many other sports, including football
American football
American football is a sport played between two teams of eleven with the objective of scoring points by advancing the ball into the opposing team's end zone. Known in the United States simply as football, it may also be referred to informally as gridiron football. The ball can be advanced by...
, basketball
Basketball
Basketball is a team sport in which two teams of five players try to score points by throwing or "shooting" a ball through the top of a basketball hoop while following a set of rules...
, ice hockey
Ice hockey
Ice hockey, often referred to as hockey, is a team sport played on ice, in which skaters use wooden or composite sticks to shoot a hard rubber puck into their opponent's net. The game is played between two teams of six players each. Five members of each team skate up and down the ice trying to take...
, horse racing
Horse racing
Horse racing is an equestrian sport that has a long history. Archaeological records indicate that horse racing occurred in ancient Babylon, Syria, and Egypt. Both chariot and mounted horse racing were events in the ancient Greek Olympics by 648 BC...
and the Olympics.
Early life and career
A BaltimoreBaltimore
Baltimore is the largest independent city in the United States and the largest city and cultural center of the US state of Maryland. The city is located in central Maryland along the tidal portion of the Patapsco River, an arm of the Chesapeake Bay. Baltimore is sometimes referred to as Baltimore...
native, Manfra is a 1964 graduate of Patterson High School, where he was inducted into its Hall of Fame in 1996. He began his broadcasting career at radio station KREL in Corona, California
Corona, California
Corona is a city in Riverside County, California, United States. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 152,374, up from 124,966 at the 2000 census...
in the early 1970s, and gradually moved up through other jobs in Ventura, California
Ventura, California
Ventura is the county seat of Ventura County, California, United States, incorporated in 1866. The population was 106,433 at the 2010 census, up from 100,916 at the 2000 census. Ventura is accessible via U.S...
(KBBQ-FM and KBBY-FM), Davenport, Iowa
Davenport, Iowa
Davenport is a city located along the Mississippi River in Scott County, Iowa, United States. Davenport is the county seat of and largest city in Scott County. Davenport was founded on May 14, 1836 by Antoine LeClaire and was named for his friend, George Davenport, a colonel during the Black Hawk...
(KSTT-AM), Milwaukee (WRIT-AM), and Detroit (WWJ-AM). He also worked for the Associated Press
Associated Press
The Associated Press is an American news agency. The AP is a cooperative owned by its contributing newspapers, radio and television stations in the United States, which both contribute stories to the AP and use material written by its staff journalists...
radio sports network in Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
before moving to New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
to begin a long stint with ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
network radio.
ABC Radio
Manfra worked for ABC for fifteen years, doing many weekend sports shows. He has handled varied assignments including the NBANational Basketball Association
The National Basketball Association is the pre-eminent men's professional basketball league in North America. It consists of thirty franchised member clubs, of which twenty-nine are located in the United States and one in Canada...
Finals
NBA Finals
The NBA Finals is the championship series of the National Basketball Association . The series was named the NBA World Championship Series until 1986....
and All-Star Game
National Basketball Association All-Star Game
The National Basketball Association staged its first All-Star Game in the Boston Garden on March 2, 1951. From that year on, the game has matched the best players in the Eastern Conference with the best players in the Western Conference....
(1985–91), Winter and Summer Olympic events, the NHL
National Hockey League
The National Hockey League is an unincorporated not-for-profit association which operates a major professional ice hockey league of 30 franchised member clubs, of which 7 are currently located in Canada and 23 in the United States...
Stanley Cup Finals
Stanley Cup Finals
The Stanley Cup Finals is the championship series to determine the winner of the Stanley Cup, emblematic of the professional club championship of ice hockey. Although the Cup itself has existed since 1893, an annual championship series between professional teams was not established until 1913...
and All-Star Game
National Hockey League All-Star Game
The National Hockey League All-Star Game is an exhibition ice hockey game that is traditionally held at the midway point of the regular season of the National Hockey League , with many of the league's star players playing against each other...
(1991), the Breeder's Cup (2000–2002), and horse racing's triple crown
Triple Crown of Thoroughbred Racing
The Triple Crown of Thoroughbred Racing consists of three races for three-year-old Thoroughbred horses. Winning all three of these Thoroughbred horse races is considered the greatest accomplishment of a Thoroughbred racehorse...
races. He also broadcasted college football
College football
College football refers to American football played by teams of student athletes fielded by American universities, colleges, and military academies, or Canadian football played by teams of student athletes fielded by Canadian universities...
, USFL
United States Football League
The United States Football League was an American football league which was in active operation from 1983 to 1987. It played a spring/summer schedule in its first three seasons and a traditional autumn/winter schedule was set to commence before league operations ceased.The USFL was conceived in...
and arena football
Arena football
Arena football is a variety of gridiron football played by the Arena Football League . It is a proprietary game, the rights to which are owned by Gridiron Enterprises, and is played indoors on a smaller field than American or Canadian outdoor football, resulting in a faster and higher-scoring game....
games, New York Knicks
New York Knicks
The New York Knickerbockers, prominently known as the Knicks, are a professional basketball team based in New York City. They are part of the Atlantic Division of the Eastern Conference in the National Basketball Association...
basketball, and boxing
Boxing
Boxing, also called pugilism, is a combat sport in which two people fight each other using their fists. Boxing is supervised by a referee over a series of between one to three minute intervals called rounds...
and wrestling
Professional wrestling
Professional wrestling is a mode of spectacle, combining athletics and theatrical performance.Roland Barthes, "The World of Wrestling", Mythologies, 1957 It takes the form of events, held by touring companies, which mimic a title match combat sport...
events.
Baltimore Orioles
Manfra was hired as a play-by-play announcerSports commentator
In sports broadcasting, a commentator gives a running commentary of a game or event in real time, usually during a live broadcast. The comments are normally a voiceover, with the sounds of the action and spectators also heard in the background. In the case of television commentary, the commentator...
for Baltimore Orioles
Baltimore Orioles
The Baltimore Orioles are a professional baseball team based in Baltimore, Maryland in the United States. They are a member of the Eastern Division of Major League Baseball's American League. One of the American League's eight charter franchises in 1901, it spent its first year as a major league...
radio
Radio
Radio is the transmission of signals through free space by modulation of electromagnetic waves with frequencies below those of visible light. Electromagnetic radiation travels by means of oscillating electromagnetic fields that pass through the air and the vacuum of space...
broadcasts on WBAL-AM
WBAL (AM)
WBAL is a news-talk radio station located in Baltimore, Maryland, USA. WBAL broadcasts on a clear channel frequency with 50 kilowatts of power. Owned by the Hearst Corporation, WBAL's tri-mast transmitters are located in Randallstown, Maryland...
on December 16, 1992. He succeeded Joe Angel
Joe Angel
Joseph "Joe" Angel is a radio play-by-play announcer for the Baltimore Orioles of Major League Baseball. A native of Bogotá, Colombia, Angel is famous for his proper pronunciation of Latin players' names....
, who had moved to the expansion
Expansion team
An expansion team is a brand new team in a sports league. The term is most commonly used in reference to the North American major professional sports leagues, but is applied to sports leagues worldwide that use a closed franchise system of league membership. The term comes from the expansion of the...
Florida Marlins
Florida Marlins
The Miami Marlins are a professional baseball team based in Miami, Florida, United States. Established in 1993 as an expansion franchise called the Florida Marlins, the Marlins are a member of the Eastern Division of Major League Baseball's National League. The Marlins played their home games at...
in a similar capacity. Primarily teamed with Jon Miller
Jon Miller
Jon Wallace Miller is an American sportscaster, known primarily for his broadcasts of Major League Baseball. He is currently employed as a play-by-play announcer for the San Francisco Giants. He was also a baseball announcer on ESPN until the network chose not to renew his contract following the...
for most games, Manfra also worked with Chuck Thompson
Chuck Thompson
Charles L. "Chuck" Thompson was an American sportscaster best known for his broadcasts of Major League Baseball's Baltimore Orioles and the National Football League's Baltimore Colts...
whenever Miller did Orioles telecasts on WMAR
WMAR-TV
WMAR-TV, channel 2, is the ABC affiliate television station in Baltimore, Maryland, owned by the broadcasting division of the E.W. Scripps Company...
or Sunday Night Baseball
Sunday Night Baseball
Sunday Night Baseball is the Major League Baseball exclusive game of the week that is televised Sunday nights at 8 p.m. ET on ESPN during the regular season...
on ESPN
ESPN
Entertainment and Sports Programming Network, commonly known as ESPN, is an American global cable television network focusing on sports-related programming including live and pre-taped event telecasts, sports talk shows, and other original programming....
. He was joined in the radio booth by Angel upon the latter's return in early-February 2004.
External links
- Biography of Fred Manfra at mlb.comMLB.comMLB.com is the official site of Major League Baseball and is overseen by Major League Baseball Advanced Media, L.P. . MLB.com is a source of baseball-related information, including baseball news, statistics, and sports columns...
- 1996 interview of U.S. President Bill Clinton with Jon Miller and Fred Manfra