Nationals Talent
Bob Carpenter, Play-by-Play
Carpenter is in his fourth year in the Nationals' broadcast booth. He joined MASN as the play-by-play announcer after 10 years in the TV booth of the St. Louis Cardinals and more than 20 in the major leagues. The St. Louis native debuted in 1984 with Cardinals baseball on the Sportstime Cable Network, then returned in '95 on KPLR-TV and KMOX Radio. He has been nominated for 4 St. Louis/Mid-America Emmys, winning twice in '96 and '97. His signature home run call, "See ... you ... later!" got local and national recognition during Mark McGwire's record-setting home run chase in '98. Carpenter also appeared on TV in the '80s and '90s with the Texas Rangers, New York Mets and Minnesota Twins.
Bob was one of ESPN's busiest announcers over a 20-year career as play-by-play announcer for MLB, college basketball and college football. He has broadcast baseball playoffs, AAA All-Star games, NCAA and NIT basketball tournaments, and college football bowl games. Studio work included College Gameday and College Football Scoreboard shows. His baseball work with ESPN paired him with former major leaguers Buck Martinez, Joe Morgan, Jim Palmer, Ray Knight, Jerry Reuss, Frank Viola and many others. On the basketball side, he worked with Dick Vitale, Bill Raftery, Larry Conley, Jim Valvano and many others.
Bob announced the 2005 NCAA Basketball Final Four in St. Louis for NCAA International TV. He handled 2 NCAA Tournaments for CBS, paired with Billy Packer, and has been courtside for 7 NCAAs overall.
Prior to ESPN, Bob handled a variety of sports for USA Network, including college basketball and football, pro golf (including The Masters) and pro tennis (including the U.S. Open).
Carpenter started his broadcasting career in 1976 as baseball play-by-play announcer for the Tulsa Oilers, the Cardinals' AAA affiliate. In over 30 years of broadcasting, he has called dozens of sports, anchored studio shows, hosted radio sports talk and covered news. He is a popular public speaker and emcee.
Carpenter is a 1971 graduate of McBride High School in St. Louis and earned a Radio-TV-Film degree with honors from the University of Missouri-Kansas City in 1975. Bob and Debbie, his wife of 29 years, have 2 daughters, Katie and Allison.
Rob Dibble, Color Analyst
Rob Dibble joins MASN for the 2009 season as color commentator for Washington Nationals broadcasts.
Prior to joining MASN, Dibble was a baseball analyst for MLB on Fox, and a contributor to FoxSports.com's baseball coverage. Additionally, Rob serves as a co-host (along with Fox's Kevin Kennedy) of The Show, MLB Home Plate's afternoon drive-time baseball talk show on XM Radio.
Dibble worked with ESPN from 1998-2004, as a co-host of The Dan Patrick Show on ESPN Radio, as well as on the network's Saturday Gameday coverage. He also appeared on Baseball Tonight, and served as analyst on select Major League Baseball games on ESPN Radio and TV. A full-time panelist on Fox Sports Net's Best Damn Sports Show Period from 2005-2008, Dibble made his television debut in 1997 as a studio analyst for National Sports Report on Fox Sports Net.
Rob was a seven-year Major League Baseball veteran; a right-handed pitcher, he retired from baseball in 1995. He had a 27-25 record with 89 saves and a 2.98 ERA with the Cincinnati Reds, Chicago White Sox and Milwaukee Brewers. He struck out 645 batters in 477 career innings. Dibble combined with Norm Charlton and Randy Myers to form the "Nasty Boys" bullpen which helped Cincinnati win the 1990 World Series. Dibble tossed 4-2/3 scoreless innings in three appearances during that World Series against the Oakland A's. In the playoffs that season, he was named co-MVP of the National League Championship Series for hurling five scoreless innings against the Pittsburgh Pirates, striking out 10 and picking up a save. Dibble had his finest major league season in 1991 when he saved 31 games for the Reds. He was named to the National League All-Star team in 1990 and 1991.
Rob enjoys many outdoor activities such as hunting, fishing and playing golf. He lives in Los Angeles with his wife Jonna and three dogs.
Debbi Taylor, Nationals Sideline Reporter
Debbi Taylor comes to MASN from Sun Sports/FSN, where she was a sideline reporter for the Orlando-based Regional Sports Network. She was also a sports reporter for the Fox affiliate in Orlando where she covered the Daytona 500 and Super Bowl. Prior to Orlando, she anchored sports at the CBS/FOX affiliate in Providence, Rhode Island.
Debbi got her start in sports broadcasting from spending 6 years at the New England Sports Network (NESN) in Boston, where she hosted the morning show, as well as doing feature interviews and reporting for the Red Sox pre and post-game shows.
Debbi has won a national Emmy and two local Emmys, one for her trip to Cuba and "The Friendship Games." She was honored by the late Red Sox legend Ted Williams by being one of only two women included in the "Hitters Hall of Fame" (the other was longtime Red Sox owner Jean Yawkey).
Taylor is a native of Nashua, NH and grew up attending baseball games at Fenway Park with her mom and dad and four siblings. She is married to Wade Taylor and they have a daughter Kaitlyn.
Johnny Holliday, Host of Nats Xtra
One of the finest play-by-play announcers in the country, Johnny Holliday returns for his third year with MASN as the co-host of Nats Xtra, the exclusive pre-game and post-game show. In addition to his baseball duties, Holliday has spent 30 years as the "Voice of the Terrapins." In addition to calling the action for the Maryland football and basketball teams, Holliday hosts the Ralph Friedgen and Gary Williams television shows. As the Terps' director of broadcasting, he also handles a myriad of speaking duties within the athletics department, ranging from banquets to golf outings.
His long list of credits includes ABC's coverage of the 2000 and 1996 Summer Olympics and the Winter and Summer Olympics in 1984, 1988 and 1994. In addition, he has covered championship boxing, The Masters, and the Liberty and Aloha bowls.
Holliday's announcing career allows him to lay claim as Washington's most versatile broadcaster, and among the best nationally. Whether in radio, where he was named America's No. 1 disc jockey during his rock 'n roll deejay days, or his public address duties with the Cleveland Browns, Oakland Raiders, and Golden State Warriors, to his work in Washington television for the Senators and Bullets, Holliday makes a complicated business look easy.
A native of Miami, Fla., Holliday began his broadcasting career in Perry, Ga., and through the years has worked in four of the nation's prime radio markets: Cleveland, New York, San Francisco and Washington. Washingtonian magazine honored him as a Washingtonian of the Year for his many civic activities. His basketball and softball teams, the Radio Wonders, have raised more than $1 million for charity. In October 2003, he was inducted into the Radio-Television Broadcasters Hall of Fame.
Ray Knight, Co-Host of Nats Xtra
Two-time MLB All-Star Ray Knight will return for his third season as the co-host of Nats Xtra, MASN's pre- and post- game show.
Few baseball players garner as much respect as Ray Knight. In the twilight of his playing years, Knight mustered one of his best seasons to triumphantly lead the New York Mets to a World Series Championship. It was the team's first title in 17 years. His play earned him the Most Valuable Player honor for the 1986 World Series and he was named the National League Comeback Player of the Year by The Sporting News.
The Albany, Georgia native played professional baseball for 17 years; 13 of those were spent in the Major Leagues as an infielder with the Cincinnati Reds, the Houston Astros, the New York Mets, the Baltimore Orioles and the Detroit Tigers. Knight retired from baseball in 1989 and moved on to become an ESPN broadcaster. In 1993, he returned to the Major Leagues to work as a coach for Cincinnati. He ascended to manager of the Reds in October 1995 and maintained the position until July 1997.
Byron Kerr, Co-Host of Nats Xtra
Kerr returns to MASN as a fill-in anchor for Nats Xtra and as the fill-in sideline reporter for Nationals baseball games. He has been the pregame/postgame host and sideline reporter for MASN at the BB&T college basketball Classic at Verizon Center the past two seasons.
He is the host of the Nats Insider weekly magazine show and Nats Talk Live post-game call-in show heard on the Nationals Radio Network and its flagship, Federal News Radio 1500 AM. Kerr is the voice of George Washington University Colonials men's basketball.
Kerr was a sports anchor and Metro Networks Sports Director for WTOP Radio in Washington, D.C. He called George Mason University basketball for 11 seasons and was the voice of the WNBA Washington Mystics for six seasons. He also provided television play-by-play for the Mystics in 2006. Kerr called games for the NBA Washington Wizards, college football and basketball games nationally on Westwood One and MLS Soccer for D.C. United. Kerr was the play-by-play voice for Westwood One's national radio coverage of the 2005 Kansas City and 2006 Albuquerque NCAA Women's Tournament Regional Finals. Kerr was the television play-by-play announcer for the 2008 Capital Classic All-Star game on MASN and has appeared on Comcast SportsNet, Sunshine Network, NBA TV, NewsChannel 8 and WJLA ABC 7 covering baseball, soccer and basketball since 1993.
He has covered major league baseball in the National Capital Area since 1990 and has been on location covering the American League Championship Series for USA TODAY Sky Radio and Mutual Radio. Kerr has been the public address announcer for the NBA's Washington Wizards and select ACC and CAA baseball games
Kerr is a graduate of the University of Virginia.
Phil Wood, Co-Host of Nats Xtra
A native Washingtonian, Phil Wood has spent his entire career in the D.C.-Baltimore area. Throughout the years he's hosted radio sports talk shows in both markets with a decided emphasis on baseball, and has also performed on-air duties on and around broadcasts of the Washington Bullets and Capitals; Baltimore Orioles, Colts, Ravens, and Skipjacks (AHL); and Bowie Baysox.
Phil's a past winner of the NSSA Maryland Sportscaster of the Year Award, a "Best of Baltimore" Award from Baltimore Magazine, a "Best of Washington" Award from the Washington City Paper, and was the 1982-83 James H. Ellery Award winner (broadcaster-of-the-year) in the American Hockey League. His book "Nationals on Parade" was published in 2005, and he's been a columnist for the Washington Examiner since its inception.
Phil can also be seen on MASN's "Hot Stove Baseball" during the off-season, and co-hosts "Talkin' Baseball," network radio's only year-round show dedicated to baseball, on Radio America. He's a graduate of Austin Peay State University, the same school that produced Orioles' relievers George Sherrill and Jamie Walker.
Phil and his wife and two daughters reside in Reisterstown, MD.
Ben Goessling, Nationals Guest Host, MASNsports.com Blogger
Ben Goessling joined MASN in January 2010. He covers the Nationals and makes guest appearances during pre- and post-game broadcasts.
Goessling is in his third year covering the Nationals after two seasons on the beat at the Washington Times, where he was a frequent contributor to MASN's pre-game shows during the "Hot Corner" segment. In addition to covering the Nationals and two World Series, he covered the Washington Capitals, Redskins and Wizards, as well as local college basketball, the AT&T National tournament and the 2009 Frozen Four. He also did a series of trend stories and sports business pieces for the Times.
He began his career at the Star Tribune in Minneapolis, where he covered everything from sports to local news and business. He has also worked at the St. Paul Pioneer Press, where he was honored by the Minnesota Associated Press Sports Association for a 2004 investigation into allegations of coaching impropriety at the University of Minnesota.
A Twin Cities native, Goessling graduated from the University of Minnesota with majors in accounting and journalism.
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