Charley Steiner: Calling first full Dodgers game following cancer ‘the most meaningful event’ of career
· Yahoo Sports
Charley Steiner has accomplished a great deal in his storied career in sports media.
One of the iconic SportsCenter anchors of the 1980s and 1990s.
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Perhaps the best thespian of them all in ESPN’s This is SportsCenter ad campaign.
For a brief time, a radio voice of the New York Yankees.
And since 2005, the radio voice of the Los Angeles Dodgers.
He’s made memorable TV appearances, entered the Radio Hall of Fame, and called championships, but he now considers calling a nine-inning regular-season Major League Baseball game his most meaningful moment.
The 77-year-old put his announcing career on hold in 2024 when he learned he had multiple myeloma, a blood cancer, and severe back issues. Steiner’s cancer went into remission in October of that year, and he’s since been slowly working his way back to full strength, calling innings here and there. For the 2026 season, the Dodgers voice initially returned to the booth for opening day in 2025 but had to leave midway through.
He followed a similar pattern for a few games this season and worked himself up to six innings in August, when, at the behest of producer Duane McDonald, he decided to try to call a full nine-inning game.
While his voice was raspy at times, Steiner was back in rare form, offering up several bon mots, including a dig at Dodgers starter Justin Wrobleski, who gave up two home runs on the day, saying during an advertisement read: “Toyota dealers: they make it easy. Wrobleski makes it hard.”
In 2024, long-time @Dodgers announcer Charley Steiner had his broadcasting dream disrupted by a single word: cancer.
Tom Rinaldi tells the story of Steiner’s fight to return to the job he loves. https://t.co/T3c8TtPeFz
— FOX Sports (@FOXSports) October 15, 2026
Fox Sports’ Tom Rinaldi profiled Steiner in a piece that ran before Wednesday’s Game 3 of the NLCS. In it, Steiner explains what it meant to him to be able to call a full game following his cancer diagnosis.
“I started doing an inning here, inning there, and it wasn’t great,” Steiner said. “But I also knew if I get better, I can do this again.
“This game was the most meaningful event I had ever been associated with.”
The radio announcer called 10 full games over the final six weeks of the regular season and several playoff games so far. The Dodgers may not have much more of a postseason ahead of them, but Steiner appears far from finished in the broadcasting booth.
“I was seven years old when I wanted to be the Dodger announcer,” said Steiner. “Now I’m 77, and I’m a Dodger announcer, accomplishing a childhood dream.”
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