Karl Ravech’s prolonged exit from ESPN was somewhat of a blessing in disguise for the veteran baseball broadcaster.
Ravech was informed in July that his tenure at ESPN was ending after 33 years. Yet he continued calling baseball games on the network through the end of the Little League World Series in August.
In the meantime, Ravech was universally praised for his selfless work with the network in a variety of capacities, most prominently as the voice of ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball franchise for four seasons through 2025.
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Ravech recently launched a YouTube series, Dirt From the Dugout. The latest episode, featuring an interview with Los Angeles Dodgers manager Dave Roberts, dropped Tuesday — two days after the finale of the Little League World Series.
“As I’ve jokingly said,” Ravech said in the episode, “it is a it’s a neat thing to sort of be alive while people are eulogizing your career and hearing all of these wonderful things said about you when I know if if the circumstances were different and I had just done a Kentucky basketball game or a Dodger baseball game, there would be people who are not necessarily throwing me flowers.
“So, I’ll take it for the time being.”
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Ravech provided commentary for ESPN and ABC’s coverage of the Little League World Series in Williamsport, Pa. since 2006.
In 2011, Ravech added the Little League World Series Championship games and the College World Series to his yearly schedule.
ESPN’s Tim Kurkjian, who worked Little League World Series broadcasts with Ravech, praised his now former co-worker on the latest episode of ESPN’s Baseball Tonight podcast.
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“He is the best point guard that I’ve ever played with,” Kurkjian said of Ravech. “When you’re a show host or a play-by-play guy, you are the point guard. He was so good and still is, of course, at making sure everyone on the team got the ball where they needed it, in the best position to score.
“It was never about Ravi, it will never be about Ravi. He just wanted to make sure that this is Eduardo (Perez)’s time to talk, this is Tim’s time to talk. He did a hundred games with those two guys in the booth, and Ravi, it was never about him.”
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