For Orioles fans, the duo of Joe Angel and Fred Manfra has been synonymous with O’s baseball for nearly two decades now, with the two announcing many a game on the radio, good years and bad.  In Thursday’s announcement of this year’s radio broadcast team, the Orioles said that will be coming to an end: Manfra is retiring from full-time duties after 24 years. 

The other familiar voices will all be returning to 105.7 in Baltimore to broadcast all 162 O’s regular season games.  Angel is coming back for his 18th season on the radio mic, and according to the release, will be partnered with Jim Hunter for most games.  Hunter will continue to appear on some MASN broadcasts as well. 

Former Orioles Ben McDonald and Mike Bordick, who have both been on the radio rotation for the last couple of years, will each be announcing “several” games, and even Manfra isn’t retiring completely, though his schedule is limited to “select home games.” 

So, don’t expect to hear Manfra all that often.  But, if you just can’t bear the thought of a baseball season without getting a little Manfra, you’ll be covered, for this year at least.  It may be mostly the end of an era, just not entirely the end, yet. 

With Hunter set to do “most” games on the radio, it’ll be interesting to see when there is an announcement from MASN about the TV broadcast crews. 

Hunter will be continuing to do MASN broadcasts when he’s not on the radio, but the radio release sounds like he’ll be doing nearly all of the games there and so will not be able to do a 50/50 split with Gary Thorne. 

That would sure seem to suggest there will be a new voice in the TV rotation.  Well, unless the new voice they pull in ends up being Tom Davis from the pre- and post-game shows, who is the exact opposite of a new voice to Baltimore sports fans.  I have nothing against Davis, mind you.  I just haven’t heard him call many baseball games. 

If you can’t wait for the regular season to get some baseball on the radio, the other good news from the release is that 105.7 will broadcast 12 Orioles spring training games, starting with their home opener on February 26.  Seven of the twelve games they are broadcasting are on weekday afternoons, so get ready to tune in from work. 

The other spring games on the radio broadcast schedule are March 1, 2, 4, 7, 13, 15, 21, 22, 25, 26, and 27.  The game on the 7th is an exhibition against the Dominican Republic’s World Baseball Classic team, which will feature Manny Machado.  The games on the 22nd and 25th are the only two night games, both with 6:05 start times.