Dan Shulman Talks Broadcast Style

Dan Shulman was featured here in Sunday Notes on June 21, the topic being broadcast traits he shares with his son Ben, who calls Toronto Blue Jays games on radio. Today we’ll hear from the TV play-by-play voice of “Canada’s Team” on non-familial matters, primarily how a club’s fortunes influence tone in the booth. The elder Shulman has been behind the mic in both good times and bad, but does the number of wins and losses — be they over a multi-week stretch or a much longer span — actually matter in terms of a broadcaster’s style?

Shulman addressed that subject, and more, on a recent visit to Fenway Park.

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David Laurila: How well a team is doing impacts the mood of a fanbase. To what extent does it — or should it — influence how the games are called?

Dan Shulman: “I think every broadcaster has their own internal balance. Some sway more positive. Some sway more neutral or objective. My job is to keep people interested in watching the team, whether they’re playing well or they’re not playing well, but you certainly can’t have entirely the same tone when the team is having a bad year, as opposed to when they’re having a good year. In 2024, the Blue Jays finished last. In 2025, they made it to the World Series. The tone is very different.

“You do always try to find some positives. In 2024, after the deadline, they traded off a bunch of guys and had some younger players coming up who did pretty well and were interesting. You focus on that a little bit. But again, the overall tone is different. You can’t sugarcoat everything. You have to be pretty honest with the viewers. At the same time, you can’t go on the air and say, ‘This is bad; none of these players belong here.’ That’s not how the job is done.”

Laurila: Basically, it is fair to be critical, but only to a point…

Shulman: “Again, everybody finds their own comfort level. I have never had anybody who’s employed me say, ‘You shouldn’t have said that on the air.’ Not once, not for any sport or any network. There is a difference between saying, ‘That was the wrong read right there,’ or ‘He threw to the wrong base,’ versus saying, ‘This guy doesn’t deserve to be in the big leagues.’ Those are two totally different things. So, you try to keep it in the micro a little bit more. You analyze the play. That said, I’m the play-by-play announcer. The analyst is going to be doing a lot of that, whereas my job is more saying what happened.

“You can say things like, ‘The Blue Jays need more right-handed power off the bench,’ or ‘They need some platoon guys who are going to help them a little more.’ You’re saying something there without saying, ‘This guy shouldn’t be on the team and that guy shouldn’t be on the team.’ There are different ways to say the same thing.”

Laurila: You do a lot of national work, and not just baseball. Does that influence how you call Blue Jays games?

Shulman: “No. They’re very different. If I come in and do a Pirates-Cubs game for ESPN, it’s a 50-50 broadcast. Same for college basketball. If I’m doing Kentucky-Kansas, it’s a 50-50 broadcast. I might not see those players again for weeks, if not months, whereas I’m going to see the Blue Jays in their clubhouse the very next day. When you do a local broadcast — even though we’re national, I’m covering a team — probably three quarters of our commentary is about the Blue Jays. That’s the way it works. Almost all of the people watching are Blue Jays fans. Only a very small percentage would be general baseball fans, or fans of the other team, so I have to cater my broadcast to my audience. My audience for an ESPN baseball game is very different than my audience for a Blue Jays game.”

Laurila: How do approach first names and last names when calling games for your local market? For instance, some broadcasters are prone to say things like, “José is on-deck,” or “Julio really got into that one.”

Shulman: “I probably bounce back and forth. I might say, ‘Ernie Clement is coming up. He’s hitting .295 on the season and is 1-for-2 today,’ and after that I might call him Clement or I might call him Ernie. Sometimes it depends a little bit on the first name. If the guy’s name is John or Bob or Bill or Dave, I don’t think it happens as much. Ernie is a less-common name. Vladdy is a name that obviously stands out. So, I do use it sometimes, but it’s never first name only.”

Laurila: Speaking of Ernie Clement, why has he become such a huge fan favorite?

Shulman: “Because he’s a great guy. Fans pick up on that. We’re not only talking about the nice double play that he turned, we’re trying to bring some background on these players to make them more interesting to the viewers. If players tell me a good story, maybe a human-interest story, or somebody else tells me a story about them, I want to get that on the air. Fans can also see Ernie on their screens. They can see him smiling, how he much he loves playing baseball, and how much his teammates like him. Adding stories personalizes the players. It humanizes them.”

Laurila: Broadcasters certainly influence fans’ perceptions…

Shulman: “Yes, although I’m not trying to make them perceive. I’m trying to say things on air that are interesting to fans, and how they run with them is their business. I’m not trying to say… I mean, Ernie is a great guy. Do I want them to know that? Sure. But I don’t spend a lot of energy on that sort of thing. I’m just trying to think, ‘What is important in this moment? What is interesting in this moment?’ There are moments where all that matters is what’s happening on the field. If it’s the bottom of the eighth inning in a one-run game, and a big hitter is at the plate, I’m not going to tell you a funny Ernie Clement story, or a funny Davis Schneider story. I’m doing baseball now. But baseball allows those moments where you do personalize, when you tell those stories. I’m a big fan of what’s important in the moment.”