It’s hard enough broadcasting for one sport at the pro level. The travel, the research and the pressure are all dialed up to 10. However Toronto’s Matt Devlin seems to thrive under that pressure, and manages to not only stay at the highest level, but switch seamlessly between different sports.
Toronto newspaper, The Star, recently ran a feature on Devlin and his ability to make the switch between both baseball and basketball as required by his employer, Rogers Sportsnet. It’s a fascinating look at a routine which seems to lack any sort of routine.
It was a hurried zigzag of a trip for Matt Devlin, but the three-city run he made a couple of weeks ago says a lot about him.
He woke up July 12 in Las Vegas, where he was calling Summer League games for NBA-TV, but hustled back to Toronto to emcee DeMar DeRozan’s contract signing. That job done, he took off for Oakland later that night, switching gears from basketball — he’s been the play-by-play voice of the Toronto Raptors since 2008 — to baseball and a two-week, 11-game stint as the voice of the Toronto Blue Jays.
This marks the fourth year in a row that Devlin has helped give Buck Martinez, the Jays’ regular play-by-play man, some time off after baseball’s all-star break. Going from basketball to baseball is a big change of pace, but it’s part of what’s made Devlin’s 26-year career so successful. He juggles the Raptors’ full schedule with the Jays in the summer and college football in the States, starting in September.
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