Dodgers hire ESPN college baseball announcer
Eric Collins spoke from South Bend, Ind., Saturday about how he’d just realized “an unattainable dream.”
Collins, 39, who called NBC’s Olympic baseball coverage last summer, has joined the Dodgers’ television broadcast team.
Collins, who has also called some college baseball playoff games for ESPN as well as doing part-time radio and television play by play for the Chicago White Sox in 2004 and 2008, will handle play by play for the Dodgers on the road games played east of the Rockies when veteran Vin Scully takes off.
It was a role held last season by Charley Steiner, who will move to the radio booth full time, partnering with Rick Monday.
Collins and other candidates auditioned during Dodgers spring-training games.
Collins said even though he was born in Cleveland, went to Syracuse University and lives in Chicago does not mean he can’t be quickly up to speed on the Dodgers and what they mean to Los Angeles.
“I’m going to be out in Los Angeles a couple of times in the next couple of weeks and I will make my presence felt,” Collins said.
Collins will continue to work for ESPN, covering women’s basketball and softball in addition to baseball.
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