Charles Herbert "Charley" Steiner (born July 17, 1949) is an American sportscaster. He is the main radio voice of the Los Angeles Dodgers, paired with Rick Monday to call innings 4 through 9 of games that are televised. Vin Scully calls the first three innings in a simulcast. Steiner calls the television play-by-play on games that Scully doesn't work (East of the Rockies). Steiner was originally hired to fill the void left by Ross Porter's departure. Steiner also hosts Baseball Beat on XM Satellite Radio's MLB Home Plate. On Baseball Beat, he has six writers, authors, columnists, broadcasters, or celebrities as guests daily. There is also a daily blog by the show's producer at Baseball Beat: the Blog. Previously he appeared as an anchor on the ESPN television show, SportsCenter, hosted a radio talk show at ESPN Radio, and did play-by-play for ESPN baseball and college football broadcasts. From 2002 to 2004, he was an announcer for New York Yankees radio broadcasts, paired with John Sterling. To date, he is the last person to share play-by-play duties with Sterling on the Yankee radio broadcasts (Suzyn Waldman, who took over for Steiner beginning in 2005, is strictly an analyst). Originally from New York City, Steiner began his career as a newscaster for WIRL radio in Peoria, Illinois, in 1969. Charley graduated from Bradley University in Peoria, Illinois. He broadcast his first sports show in 1971 for KSTT radio in Davenport, Iowa. After stints in Connecticut and Cleveland, Steiner entered the New York market in 1978 at WXLO radio [1] (where he did newscasts for, among others then-morning host and future actor Jay Thomas), and later moved over to sister station WOR for several years before joining ESPN. He was the Play-by-Play man for the NFL's New York Jets in 1986 and 1987 and the USFL's New Jersey Generals from 1983 to 1985. Apart from his knowledge of baseball, Steiner is also known for his knowledge of boxing, a sport in which he covered some major fights for SportsCenter. He won a CableACE award for a program about Muhammad Ali and a Clarion award for his coverage of the Mike Tyson rape trial. Steiner was involved in many comical situations during his tenure on ESPN's SportsCenter, including one broadcast when Carl Lewis sang the national anthem at a New Jersey Nets NBA game. Amused by hearing Lewis sing, Steiner simply could not contain himself and began laughing during the SportsCenter show that night, not being able to stop himself until the show ended. His famous comment on the event was that the song had apparently been written by "Francis Scott Off-Key." Steiner was featured on one of the most famous SportsCenter television promos from their This is SportsCenter comical promo campaign. In 1999, amid fears of the Y2K situation, Steiner starred in a SportsCenter promo, where SportsCenter cast spoke about a "contingency plan" at ESPN's studios after Y2K, and Steiner was featured wearing a tie as a head band (along with Braveheart-style face paint) and screaming the phrase "Follow me to freedom!" [2] He would later scream this phrase at Wrigley Field after singing Take Me Out to the Ballgame on August 31, 2005. A second This is SportsCenter promo featured Steiner being traded from ESPN to Melrose Place in exchange for actor Andrew Shue. Steiner is then seen wearing shorts and introduces himself to Laura Leighton (in character as "Sidney Andrews") as the new "pool boy" in the show's apartment complex. [3] On August 9, 2004, Steiner returned to ESPN to co-host an "old school" version of SportsCenter with Bob Ley. Steiner also hosted a program on the NFL Network called Football America, which ran from 2003 to 2005.
