Many years have passed — 32, to be precise — but Sean McDonough will always remember the moment.
Only 31 years old and a lifetime of big calls and network blazers still ahead of him, McDonough was the play-by-play caller for CBS when the network owned the rights to MLB’s postseason in the early 1990s.
It was McDonough’s voice that American baseball viewers heard on Oct. 23, 1993, at 11:39 p.m. Toronto time, when Joe Carter launched his instantly legendary three-run home run over the SkyDome left-field wall to give the Blue Jays an 8-6 victory over the Philadelphia Phillies.
That home run ended the 90th World Series and made McDonough the first —and only — play-by-play broadcaster for the World Series television rights-holder in the U.S. to call a come-from-behind, walk-off home run to win the World Series. (The game was tied when Bill Mazeroski’s home run won the 1960 World Series for the Pirates.)
“Not only was it the end of the World Series, but that game was also the end of our run at CBS,” McDonough recalled this week. “So there was kind of the finality of the game and the Series, and I was also thinking, ‘Okay, we’re done at CBS, and I don’t know if I’ll ever do another World Series again. Which I haven’t. But I was enormously fortunate when I got the opportunity at CBS. I replaced Jack Buck, who was one of my absolute idols. That was heady stuff. I thought to myself, I’m replacing Jack Buck? Really?”
CBS paid $1.06 billion for a four-year deal with MLB beginning in 1990, but poor ratings and a terrible advertising climate contributed to a $500 million loss for the network. MLB reached an agreement with NBC and ABC in 1994 on a joint broadcast venture (no rights fees but shared revenue) that lasted two years before Fox became the U.S. MLB television rights holder for the World Series, a position they still hold today. While McDonough never called a national World Series game after 1993, he went on to an illustrious career calling major college football and college basketball games, “Monday Night Football” and is now the lead voice of ESPN’s NHL coverage.
You can watch a replay of CBS’s entire Game 6 broadcast here — Tim McCarver was the analyst — and fast forward to 2:46.10 if you want to hear McDonough’s call of Carter’s at-bat. The words McDonough chose when Carter changed baseball history:
“Now the 2-2… Well-hit down the left-field line, way back and GONE! (Pauses). Joe Carter with a three-run homer! The winners and still world champions, the Toronto Blue Jays!”
With the Blue Jays back in the World Series, McDonough has been reminded of one of the most memorable moments of his career. Upon looking back at Carter’s home run and his small place in it, McDonough said he is very happy with his call.
“In those moments you’re always thinking about who are the base runners, where are they, if there’s a base hit, will they try to score on it, who has a good arm in the outfield, who doesn’t, and things like that,” McDonough said. “You’re not thinking he’s gonna hit a home run and the game’s gonna be over, the series is gonna be over, and the season’s gonna be over.
“I sounded almost surprised because I was surprised. It was a stunning ending. So, yeah, I’m fine with the call. I always think in the big moments, you describe what happened and then get out of the way. I see the call almost as a boxing analogy because they had defended their title. That’s just what came into my head, and I kind of like it. It was a final-round knockout.”
Dan Shulman is calling this year’s World Series for Rogers-owned Sportsnet, but in 1993, he was a 28-year-old pre- and post-game host for the Blue Jays radio network. He was working Game 6 but also had tickets to the game. As the bottom of the ninth started, Shulman recalled leaving his seat to make it back to the studio, which was located at the hotel adjacent to the SkyDome. He was in a freight elevator underneath centre field when Carter hit his famous home run.
“I thought I was in an earthquake,” Shulman said.
The next day, Shulman heard McDonough’s call on a morning TV show.
“Because it was 1993, I didn’t hear Sean’s call until the next morning on TV,” Shulman said. “Sean is a great broadcaster, and I thought his call was great. I give CBS a lot of credit for hiring him at such a young age, but he was so obviously so talented. Because the [Blue Jays radio broadcaster] Tom Cheek call was local and it stood out for his uniqueness, that’s the one that gets remembered here in Canada.”
McDonough shares the same CAA agent (Matt Kramer) as Fox World Series caller Joe Davis, and Kramer sent both Davis and McDonough a social media post last week highlighting the footage of Game 6 of the 1993 World Series. It jarred some memories for McDonough, including Carter swinging flat-footed on the pitch before destiny.
“I had forgotten that on a 2-1 count, Mitch Williams threw Joe Carter a breaking ball down away, and Joe Carter had a terrible swing,” McDonough said.
“Then there’s a great close-up of Mitch Williams looking in for the sign for the next pitch, and he shakes off the catcher. He then threw him a fastball on the inside part of the plate, kind of down and in, and you know what happened. I had forgotten about the 2-1 pitch, but re-watching that, I was thinking: Why would you throw him that pitch after he looks so bad, swinging and missing at a breaking ball on the previous pitch? I’m sure Mitch still thinks about it.”
McDonough had an interesting connection to the Blue Jays before his World Series call — his professional sportscasting career began in 1982 as a 19-year-old play-by-play announcer for the Syracuse Chiefs of the International League. At the time, Syracuse was the Triple-A affiliate for Toronto, and McDonough called soon-to-be MLB players such as Tony Fernandez, George Bell, Jimmy Key, Kelly Gruber, Mark Eichhorn and John Cerutti.
“I was 19 years old doing Triple-A baseball, and if that job does not happen, then I’m not doing the Red Sox games when I’m 25,” McDonough said. “If that doesn’t happen, I’m not doing the World Series when I’m 30. It all traced back to getting that opportunity in Syracuse in 1982, so I’ve always had affection for the Blue Jays because of my background and connection to them.”
Incredibly, McDonough also called a game-winning home run in the College World Series. He was on the ESPN broadcast when Warren Morris hit a two-out, ninth-inning home run that won the 1996 College World Series for LSU. “Craig Silver, a CBS producer, reached out to me after that and said: ‘Do you realize that between MLB World Series and College World Series combined, they have only ended on a home run three times, and you have called two of them.’ I was like, Wow.”
McDonough said after the 1993 World Series ended, he attended a party thrown by the Blue Jays at the SkyDome. CBS Sports also threw a bash at its hotel after the conclusion of the Series. Then, the young broadcaster made his way around downtown Toronto to enjoy the revelry — and recalled staying up until his flight departed the country later that morning.
“I was much younger then and more able to enjoy a long night,” McDonough said, laughing. “It was a festive occasion in the city.”