Retiring Nationals play-by-play announcer feels good about future of team

Fresh from  his first meeting with new Washington Nationals baseball team president Paul Toboni, the team's recently retired TV play-by-play announcer Bob Carpenter pronounced himself confident in the future of the team that has floundered since winning the World Series in 2019.

Carpenter was added to the list of National Press Club "Legends of Broadcast" during an Oct. 22 dinner in the Club's Fourth Estate room.

"Being here for the last 20 years has been the highlight of my major league baseball career," Carpenter told the 32 people at the intimate gathering.

He conceded that the last six losing years in the booth have been "rough." But, he said he felt calling games of a losing team 'has made me a better broadcaster." He's had to be positive when things were clearly not working out. "You cannot fool baseball fans," he said.

He said he plans to come back often to Washington and perhaps return to the broadcast occasionally, but he noted that with just over five months to go before the start of the 2026 season, the Nationals don't know for sure who their telecast partner will be. In the spring of 2025 a deal was finally struck that relieves the Nats of their forced association with the Baltimore Orioles majority-owned Mid-Atlantic Sports Network (MASN). Although free to negotiate a different TV deal, the current financial model of cable TV carriage of baseball may limit opportunities for a change.  

Carpenter said he got a call from his agent ahead of the 2005 season asking if he would be interested in the D.C. job.  Bob was about to board a plane and told the agent he would talk to his wife when he landed. The agent reminded him that he needed to decide quickly, because the season was starting in four weeks.  

Married 42 years, Carpenter told his audience that he's been away doing ball games for so many months, "it's like we've only been together for half of it." Carpenter, now 72, plans to fix that and spend more time with his children and grandchildren in Oklahoma.  

Asked about his signature home run call, "See you later," he said he started saying in matter-of-factly, but when slugger Mark McGwire came to the St. Louis Cardinals where Carpenter was working at the time in 1997, the home run balls were hit so high and so far, it took them a long time to land. Not wanting to be ahead of the facts, he started to elongate the phrase to give the ball time to land. Thus his signature call, "See. You. Later."

Legends of Broadcast dinners are produced by the NPC Broadcast/Podcast Team.