Q&A with sports play-by-play broadcaster Dan Shulman
“And a swing … and a fly ball to left field. Back goes Arozarena and … it’s GONNNNNNNNE. George Springer puts the Blue Jays on top with a huge three-run homer.”
Six million people watched the American League Championship Series (ALCS) Game 7 on Sportsnet on Oct. 20, 2025, as the Jays faced the Seattle Mariners. They heard Dan Shulman call the “Springer Dinger”—a go-ahead home run that put the team on the path to its first World Series since 1993.
Like any good professional, Shulman, BSc’89, makes the work of a sports play-by-play broadcaster look and sound easy. His smooth and confident delivery has been guiding fans through Jays games and ESPN NCAA basketball games for three decades. He’s won major awards. But his path to becoming a prominent sports broadcaster wasn’t at all what he planned. Western Alumni Magazine senior editor Paul Fraumeni spoke with Shulman in February, just before the Jays began spring training and while he had a precious few days off between ESPN games.
You mentioned you have four Zoom meetings in the next few hours. You’re not calling a game today, but you’re still busy. Is that typical?
I would say a handful per week is typical. It could be podcasts, a radio interview, a charity event or conversation with a young broadcaster who’s trying to get into the business. I try to put them all on one day if I can. These are just other parts of the job that not everyone necessarily sees.
Let’s start with that 2025 season. Quite a ride, but it didn’t begin well.
The first two months of the season the Jays weren’t going anywhere. But in early June, all of a sudden, they started scoring a tonnne of runs. Series by series, they played better. The Yankee series over Canada Day weekend was a major turning point.
From then right through until mid- September they were absolutely great. Week by week, I would turn to colleagues Buck Martinez or Joe Siddall and we’d wonder if these guys could keep doing what they were doing. They had a little valley in September, but they managed to do it. And that post- season was something we’ll never forget.
Did you feel the whole country coming together and rallying behind this team?
We feel it in any given year. The Jays get great support in almost every city. We always appreciate that we call games for a team that is so meaningful to so many. But 2025 was something else. I was getting texts from people I haven’t heard from in 20 years saying, “Wow, this is amazing.”
Take my sister, for example. She may never have watched a baseball game before last September. And by the ALCS against Seattle, I’m getting texts from her at 3 p.m. saying, “I can’t wait ‘til first pitch.”
You’ve broadcast basketball, football, hockey, Olympics, baseball. You obviously have a thing for sports. Where does that come from? Were you an athlete in high school?
Not a great one. But, from my earliest memories, I was an enormous sports fan. We had an unfinished basement in our house in the Toronto suburbs and when I was a little kid, I was down there constantly in a Leafs jersey shooting a ball with a stick, or I was on the street playing road hockey or shooting hoops on the driveway. I would read every box score in the papers and all the standings, including university sports. I knew if U of T was ahead of York, if Laurentian was struggling, and what Queen’s and Western were up to. It was all I wanted to do. I took school seriously and had lots of friends, but my life revolved around sports.
Was it a childhood dream to broadcast sports?
No. I followed the games on radio and TV, but I didn’t see myself doing that. I never thought about broadcasting at all until my first year at Western. My parents had encouraged me to do extracurriculars at university. It was my first week and I decide I want to write sports for the student newspaper, the Western Gazette. No journalism background or aspirations. I get to the University Community Centre and there are at least 100 people in line to try to get something going with the Gazette.
So I leave the line. Turns out to be one of the best things I’ve ever done because as I’m heading back towards my Saugeen dorm, I walk past a door that says Radio Western. I knock on the door, I hear a voice say, “Come in.” I ask, “Is this the campus radio station?” A guy says yes. “You do sports?” Yes. “You need volunteers?”
That Saturday they sent me to Windsor, where Western was playing football, and I get the second half on air as the colour commentator. I then started calling basketball and the odd hockey game, and even had a talk show called From the Cheap Seats. But I never expected to make a career out of it.
In second year, I started to major in actuarial science. In fourth year, I stopped broadcasting because you have to write exams to get accredited and I needed to focus. So I wrote the exams and graduated as an actuary. As much fun as I had at Radio Western, I still never really thought about trying to make a career out of it.
You actually worked in the actuarial industry, right?
Yes, I worked for a firm for about six months. But after just a few months, I was getting antsy. I kept wondering if I might be able to make it in radio. Early in 1990, I was able to get a part-time job at CKBB, a small station in Barrie, and for a couple of months, I did that on weekends while I continued working weekdays as an actuary.
I was hired as the low rung on the ladder, but my colleagues were incredibly kind and took me under their wings. After two weeks, I knew this was what I wanted to do. Joe Cummings, who now works at CBC Radio, really helped me. He was always saying, “Come on over, let me show you how to do this.”
I did everything I was asked—covering elections, courts, reading the farm report, the pet lost-and-found, the in-memoriam listings and then eventually newscasts and sportscasts. It’s one of the most important lessons I tell young people today. Get involved, don’t be shy about asking questions and do whatever you’re asked to do.
Then you went for broadcast full-time?
Yes, after a couple of months doing one job during the week and the other on weekends, I went to Barrie full-time. And then about a year later, in 1991, I got hired by CJCL in Toronto. Another stroke of luck. I happened to show up at the exact moment they were starting to contemplate becoming the sports station you know today as The Fan.
I was 24 years old and crazy about sports. I did whatever they asked me to do. A few weeks in, somebody says, “Hey, can you go down to the Leafs game? Just stick a microphone in the media scrum with the coach, bring it back and clip off a few answers for our sports guys.” I found it all unbelievably exciting.
I like to tell this story about my dad. He was a great dentist, very popular with his patients. But every Sunday night, his personality changed a little bit. When I was younger, we’d be sitting at home watching 60 Minutes or the Sunday night NFL game, and I could see he was stressed about going to work Monday morning. He never said to me, “Danny, do something you love.” But just watching him, I saw enough to say, “I want to do something I’ll enjoy.”
After more than three decades watching athletes up close, what’s one thing you’ve learned that might surprise people?
They’re not that different from any group of people you would put together. Some athletes have unbelievable focus, resolve and resilience—it’s not just physical tools that get them there. But there are also many who may doubt themselves in their quieter moments. Some of them need a pat on the back. Some need a kick in the butt. It’s just like any group of professionals.
We all, both media and the public, often forget that athletes have kids who get chickenpox or family members who are ill. They face difficult personal situations like any of us, but they can’t always be at home because they’re playing this sport. They may be different than us in some ways, but in many ways they’re just like everybody else. That’s important to consider while watching a game.
Speaking of athletes, you spent years working with a great ballplayer who became an even better broadcaster, Buck Martinez. When he announced his retirement, many people were deeply sad. What was it like working with him?
Buck had the ability to reach people on an emotional level—as much as any broadcaster I’ve ever known. It’s a huge loss for us, as a network. But it’s also a huge loss for me as his colleague. He could not have been more welcoming when I showed up as a 28-year-old in 1995. He helped me tremendously with TV, baseball, everything.
I’ve had a lot of really lucky breaks in my career, but working with Buck is top of the list. We just had this chemistry almost right away. You can’t fake that. He was a great broadcaster, and he’s an even better person.
How does objectivity play into your announcing?
When I do an ESPN basketball game between, say, Duke and North Carolina, it’s a 50-50 broadcast. I’m neutral. But with the Jays, I’m the home team announcer, so my work will skew more towards the Jays because almost all of our audience are Jays fans. You’d be amazed how, if I talk about a guy from the visiting team for too long, I’ll hear about it. But I will also be called a homer and an anti-Jays broadcaster in the same five minutes.
Some people are more objective than me, and others are bigger hometown announcers. I think it’s silly to call a Vladimir Guerrero Jr. home run the same way I call one by a visiting player.
If you watch Matt Devlin, who does a fantastic job, do a Raptors game, he calls home baskets different than visiting baskets. If you listen to Joe Bowen, a Hall of Fame hockey announcer, he calls a Leaf goal differently than a goal by a visiting player.
Certainly there is some subjectivity or lack of objectivity. Maybe it’s not even objectivity—it’s just emotion in your voice.
Your son Ben is now in the business as the Jays’ radio play-by-play announcer. What advice did you give him as he got serious about broadcasting?
I have four boys and they all know my story, the same one I just told you. Ben was just like I was as a kid. He had a million questions about sports and would travel with me on the road sometimes. By the time he was 12 or 13, he knew he wanted to be a broadcaster. He went off to Syracuse University, generally considered to be one of the best TV and radio programs in the United States. And now, a few years out of school, he’s off to a great start, and I couldn’t be happier for him.
How do you think the Jays will do this year?
Baseball is the most unpredictable of the professional sports. They’re in great shape to be a contender again this year, but the American League East division is a monster. The Yankees and the Red Sox will be tough. The Orioles are much better this year, and you can never count out the Rays. So it’s going to be a dogfight. But, if all goes well, I see the Jays as a playoff team. Once you’re there, as we saw in 2025, anything can happen.
Tell us about a Jays broadcast day for you. When does it all start?
Well, let’s do a Friday at 7 p.m., first game of a series. Let’s say it’s the Minnesota Twins, who I haven’t seen yet this year. Friday morning, I will spend several hours learning about the Twins.
There are so many resources on the internet for a baseball announcer. Baseball Reference is one, FanGraphs is another. I use those and others and put some notes together on each player on the Twins roster.
I don’t like to have a lot of paper during the game, so I create a Word document with all the info I want in it about both teams. For the visiting team, I focus on the key players, and especially the starting pitcher for that night. I’ll go back and watch three or four innings of that pitcher’s last start, listen to what the Twins announcers say about him. I’m sure the other team’s announcers will do the same with our broadcasts. It’s all about gathering relevant stats and info. Baseball has a tonne of statistics, and analytics are bigger than they’ve ever been. It’s important for me to be on top of all that and to have some stories to bring to the broadcast as well.
Then I turn to the Jays. I can probably prepare in an hour because I’m there every day. It’s more just brushing up and updating. Like, Guerrero is now on an 11-game hitting streak. I’ll update the notes I have on each player. There could be something particular to this game, like oh, Berrios used to pitch for Minnesota, how has he done against them? What do I think is relevant and interesting to use in the upcoming broadcast? If two different baseball broadcasters sat down together, they might come up with 10 different elements that are of interest to them.
So, the morning is spent on getting a coffee, walking the dog, and prep. I leave by 2 p.m. to beat traffic and aim to be in the broadcast booth by 2:45, just before the Blue Jays clubhouse opens to media around 3. The broadcast booth is like my little office. I set up my computer, then I’m down in the clubhouse right at 3. I keep notes on my phone during baseball season, and it’s just called “Things to Ask.” I might have a note about Ernie Clement. When I see him in the clubhouse, I say, “Hey, Ernie, yesterday, when you went to your right on that groundball, did you hurt your wrist?” I could have eight or 10 questions and I’ll put them in my phone during the game as I’m broadcasting, because otherwise I won’t remember the next day. After I talk to the players, (Jays manager) John Schneider meets with the media around 3:50, and after that, everyone’s usually out on the field.
If I miss some players in the clubhouse, I might catch them at the batting cage, ask a question or two, check the visiting side for the manager and then head back upstairs between 4:30 and 5 to prepare my scorecard, which is how I keep track of everything that has happened in the game. I need to be able to recall, quickly, for example, what George Springer did in his previous three at-bats. Once that’s set, I zip down to the media dining area in the left field corner. Then we meet with our producer and director. We’re in the booth, they’re in the production truck that’s parked underneath the stadium, and we go over the graphics and video packages available for that game. We discuss which storylines we feel are important. That usually takes about 15 minutes. After that, I might have a radio interview. We might tape our opening at 6:30 or do it live at 7. And then I just lock in for the game. The anthems are played, and it’s game time.
During the game, viewers hear and sometimes see you and your broadcasting partner. But is there a lot going on viewers aren’t aware of?
The behind-the-scenes stuff of a live sporting event is really interesting, whether it’s in the booth or, even more so, in the truck. That’s really where all the action happens. People would be amazed at how many voices are talking at once. I’ll be hearing the producer, director, statistician and analyst. Our producer could say ‘we’re throwing back to the studio’ or telling us [on-field Sportsnet reporter] Hazel Mae is going to do a report from the field. Or our director may tell me “Hey, so-and-so just got up in the bullpen.” It’s important all of us are on the same page.
It’s like juggling knives sometimes, but there’s an adrenaline rush to it. During a game, I can hear my producer and director on talkback, but, for example, Hazel can’t tell me something in my headset without it going out over the air, so she’ll sometimes text me and say, “Hey, I heard you talking about this,” and tell me she has something she can add on air. They try not to talk to me while I’m talking on air, but when Buck or Joe are talking, that’s when they do. There’s a tonne of communication between all of us during a broadcast. It sounds confusing to anyone not in this industry, but when you’ve all been together for so long, it just works. There’s no time for pleases or thank-yous in a live broadcast. It’s short and to the point because there’s so much going on. And, to me, it’s really fun.
I’ve always wondered when you’re live, on the air, what if you have to cough? Or sneeze?
There are two buttons on the audio box we have in the booth. Talkback and cough. If I push talkback, I can talk to the producer and director without it going over the air.
The other button says ‘cough,’ and whether it’s a cough or frog in the throat or whatever, you push that button and that kills your mic. When I push the cough button, I can also nod to my broadcast partner so they can take over for a little bit if need be. There’s a lot of unspoken communication, like hand signals and eye contact. Every now and again I will get a frog in my throat and it takes me a few seconds to cough it out or to drink some water. They’ll watch me to know when I’m ready to plug back in.
