Fred Manfra

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Manfra in the broadcast booth at Camden Yards, 2011.

Fred Manfra is an American sportscaster, best known for radio and television broadcasts of the Baltimore Orioles, a major league baseball team. He has covered many other sports, including football, basketball, ice hockey, horse racing and the Olympics.

[edit] Biography

A Baltimore native, Manfra is a 1964 graduate of Patterson High School, where he was inducted into its Hall of Fame in 1996.^[1] He began his broadcasting career at radio station KREL in Corona, California in the early 1970s, and gradually moved up through other jobs in Ventura, California (KBBQ-FM and KBBY-FM), Davenport, Iowa (KSTT-AM), Milwaukee (WRIT-AM), and Detroit (WWJ-AM). He also worked for the Associated Press radio sports network in Washington, D.C. before moving to New York City to begin a long stint with ABC network radio.

Manfra worked for ABC for fifteen years, doing many weekend sports shows. He has handled varied assignments including the NBA Finals and All-Star Game (1985–91), Winter and Summer Olympic events, the NHL Stanley Cup Finals and All-Star Game (1991), the Breeder's Cup (2000–2002), and horse racing's triple crown races. He also broadcasted college football, USFL and arena football games, New York Knicks basketball, and boxing and wrestling events.

Manfra was hired as a play-by-play announcer for Baltimore Orioles radio broadcasts on WBAL-AM on December 16, 1992. He succeeded Joe Angel, who had moved to the expansion Florida Marlins in a similar capacity. Primarily teamed with Jon Miller for most games, Manfra also worked with Chuck Thompson whenever Miller did Orioles telecasts on WMAR or Sunday Night Baseball on ESPN.^[2] He was joined in the radio booth by Angel upon the latter's return in early-February 2004.^[3]

Manfra and his wife reside in Fallston, Maryland, and have two grown daughters.