Bob Costas is saying goodbye to baseball, the sport he is perhaps best known for, and is retiring as a play-by-play announcer in the MLB.
Costas, 72, confirmed his retirement from Athletic on Thursday but said he will discuss his decision at a later date.
Near the end of a storied sports broadcasting career, Costas has been the lead play-by-play man for MLB Network games since the network’s launch in 2009. He has also worked playoff games for Turner, and his last assignment was the New York Yankees’ victory over the Kansas City Royals in the American League Division Series on TBS.
Costas decided before this season that he would retire after 2024, which, according to Athletic, coincided with the end of his contract.
Costas received the National Baseball Hall of Fame’s Ford C Frick Award for broadcast excellence in 2018. He called baseball for NBC from 1982-89 and from 1994-2000, including World Series broadcasts in 1995, 1997 and 1999.
He has spent the past five decades working as a play-by-play announcer and studio host for several other sports, most notably as a primetime host of the Olympic Games on NBC from 1992 through 2016.