Diamondbacks Parting With TV Voice Steve Berthiaume After 14 Seasons

PHOENIX — For fourteen summers, when a Diamondbacks game flickered onto a television anywhere in Arizona, Steve Berthiaume’s voice was the one carrying it — through pennant races, rebuilding years and everything in between. That run ended Monday, when the club confirmed it will not bring back its longtime television play-by-play announcer. The decision, first reported by the Arizona Republic’s Nick Piecoro, closes out the longest tenure of any TV play-by-play voice in franchise history.

“His contract is up and we felt it was a good time to take a step back and re-evaluate our broadcasts,” Diamondbacks president Derrick Hall said Monday. “He was here 14 years and was a great DBack,” Hall added. Berthiaume’s contract expired this fall, and the team has not decided who will take over as the lead TV play-by-play commentator.

Berthiaume, for his part, did not see it coming. “I’m obviously surprised and disappointed,” he told the Republic on Monday, Oct. 5. “As I told the Diamondbacks,” Berthiaume continued, “I’m very appreciative to have had the opportunity to connect with our fan base these past 14 years. I’ve always tried to put the club first. I enjoyed my Arizona experience and I’m grateful to all my friends and colleagues in our broadcast group.”

“I’m quite proud of how hard our group worked to raise the production level on our shows,” Berthiaume said. “MLB Local Media is an outstanding partner and I’m sure will continue to be,” he added. “I’m looking forward to what’s next.”

What made the Berthiaume era distinctive wasn’t volume, it was steadiness. He was known around the club for hard-working pregame preparation, and his broadcasts kept the focus on the action on the field while showcasing a genuine rapport with analyst Bob Brenly, his partner for the entire tenure. The two were introduced together after the 2012 season as Arizona’s new broadcast team, replacing Daron Sutton and Mark Grace — and they became the soundtrack of the franchise for the next decade and a half.

Brenly brought the credibility of a man who had managed the Diamondbacks to the 2001 World Series title, the only championship in Arizona’s history. In recent seasons, the TV booth rotated some on the road — Tom Candiotti, Luis Gonzalez and Josh Collmenter have all taken turns in the analyst chair, with Brenly primarily sticking with home games — but the through-line never changed: Berthiaume calling the play-by-play, Brenly beside him.

Berthiaume arrived in the desert ahead of the 2013 season after twelve years at ESPN, where he was a “Baseball Tonight” host and a SportsCenter anchor. It was a notable career pivot — leaving a national studio chair for a daily local play-by-play grind — and earlier stops in his résumé included SportsNet New York. He had done limited play-by-play for ESPN, and the Diamondbacks were betting on the voice as much as the experience. Fourteen years later, that voice became the longest-running one the franchise has ever had on television.

The lineage he leaves behind reads like a history of the franchise itself. Greg Schulte was the voice at the start, handling TV and radio from 1998 through 2023. Thom Brennaman called games from 1998 through 2006. Daron Sutton followed from 2007 through 2012. Then Berthiaume, 2013 through 2026. Schulte’s retirement after the 2023 playoffs moved Chris Garagiola into the radio play-by-play chair — and the Republic reports Garagiola is expected to be among the candidates to step into the television role, though the club has announced nothing.

The timing matters because of what’s happened around the booth, not just in it. Berthiaume’s tenure spanned the collapse of the regional sports network model: the Diamondbacks were among the first clubs in baseball to move their local broadcasts to MLB Local Media streaming after the Diamond Sports Group bankruptcy, and for the past two seasons a small package of games has aired on KPNX, the Tegna-owned NBC affiliate in Phoenix. When Hall says it’s time to “re-evaluate our broadcasts,” he’s talking about a product that now lives on a streaming platform, not a cable channel — and the next voice will inherit that new reality along with the headset.

Critics, for their part, were lukewarm on the pairing this season. Awful Announcing’s annual local broadcaster rankings placed the Berthiaume-led television team 19th in baseball this year, with the radio team landing at 21st. Rankings like that don’t drive personnel decisions — expiring contracts do — but they frame the conversation the club is now having about what its broadcasts should sound like in the streaming era.

What comes next is genuinely open. The club has not decided who takes over the lead TV chair, it is unknown whether additional changes to the primary broadcasters are coming, and Garagiola — still early in his own run as the radio voice — is only described as being among those who will be considered. For a franchise that has changed its television voice just four times in 29 seasons, the fifth choice will define how a generation of fans hears the game.

Fourteen years is longer than most ballplayers last in a uniform. Berthiaume’s voice carried the franchise’s ordinary Tuesdays as faithfully as its October pushes, and that is precisely what local broadcasters are for — the day-to-day companionship of a long season. On Monday, that companionship ended with a short statement, a surprised broadcaster, and the sound of a club re-evaluating everything about how it talks to its fans. “I’m looking forward to what’s next,” Berthiaume said. So, now, is Arizona.

While the booth turns over, October baseball rolls on: the Braves and Dodgers are knotted in Game 2 of the NLDS, with Game 3 set for Tuesday. And in the Valley, the week’s other gatherings continue — from the Wrigley Mansion reunion to the day’s regional roundup.