Steve Webb
LOS ANGELES, CA — It’s not uncommon for a player to begin the seasonn on the Injured List, but fans of the Dodgers will have to live without radio play-by-play man Charley Steiner for a bit. It was announced on Wednesday that Steiner will not be in the broadcast booth for Opening Day this year, due to his ongoing recovery from a back issue.
The 74-year-old Steiner started his career in radio in the Midwest before relocating to the East Coast, where he worked for both the New York Yankees and ESPN. He joined the Dodgers in 2005 after Ross Porter was let go by the team.
For four years covering the 2005 through 2008 seasons, the Dodgers’ unique broadcasting arrangement had Steiner teamed with analyst Rick Monday and working play-by-play on radio during all home and intra-divisional road games. However, Steiner’s duties during these games would begin with the fourth inning and cover the remainder of the game, as the first three innings were a radio/television simulcast voiced by Vin Scully. Steiner handled television play-by-play on all other games (with analyst Steve Lyons), primarily road contests east of the Rocky Mountains.
For the 2009 season, the Dodgers had Steiner and Monday as their radio team for all 162 games, though the Scully simulcast of the first three innings would remain.Starting in 2014, Steiner was paired with Orel Hershiser on the television broadcast for all games Scully did not call, and broadcast on the radio with Monday the other games.
Following Vin Scully’s retirement from the Dodgers after the 2016 season, the team split its radio-TV duties between Steiner and Joe Davis, with Steiner remaining on the radio side but switching to television on those occasions Davis has a Fox Sports assignment. This arrangement has since been augmented with the arrival of Tim Neverett and Stephen Nelson, with Neverett handling the bulk of the radio assignments and Nelson as the Davis’s sub on the TV side.
At this time, it is not known just how long Steiner will be away from the microphone, but as he said in his statement, he hopes to be back before the end of the year.
Rest up Charley, can’t wait for you to call another World Series winner in October.
