Hank Greenwald

Howard Sanford "Hank" Greenwald (June 26, 1935 — October 22, 2018) was an American sportscaster, known best for being a play-by-play announcer for the San Francisco Giants of Major League Baseball.

Biography

Early career A native Detroiter, Greenwald changed his name from Howard to Hank to honor Detroit Tigers Hall of Famer Hank Greenberg. Greenwald attended Syracuse University's journalism school and graduated in 1957. He began his broadcasting career on WAER calling Syracuse Orange Football games during the heyday of Jim Brown, Ernie Davis, Floyd Little, and Larry Csonka. He was also a broadcaster for the former NBA team, the Syracuse Nationals. In the 1960s, he broadcast Hawaii Islanders baseball in the Pacific Coast League.

San Francisco Giants (first and second stints) and the New York Yankees Greenwald began calling games for the Giants in 1979, but ended this stint in 1986, after Greenwald had a disagreement with station management. After joining the New York Yankees radio broadcast team for the next two seasons, Greenwald returned to the Giants in 1989 when the team reached the World Series. Greenwald later expressed resentment toward Yankees owner George Steinbrenner, saying "Steinbrenner is everything you've heard, maybe worse." The Giants hired former Baltimore Orioles and ESPN announcer Jon Miller as Greenwald's replacement. (which sent the San Francisco Giants to the World Series for the first time since 1962). This came after Greenwald called Giants first baseman Will Clark's pennant clinching hit off of Chicago Cubs relief pitcher Mitch Williams in the bottom of the eighth inning:

CBS Radio In 1997, Greenwald was employed by the CBS Radio network as a baseball announcer, calling Saturday Game of the Week broadcasts as well as that year's NLDS between the Giants and Florida Marlins.

Oakland Athletics In 2004, Greenwald was hired as a television play-by-play announcer for the Oakland Athletics working about 1/3 of the team's telecasts with analyst Ray Fosse. He announced games for the A's in the 2004 and 2005 seasons.

Other San Francisco Bay Area assignments Greenwald also called basketball play-by-play for the Golden State Warriors (with legendary announcer Bill King) and the University of San Francisco Dons.

Personal life Greenwald married Carla Reiter in 1973. His first game announcing for the major league Giants was on September 6, 2009; he filled in for regular announcer Dave Flemming.

Footnotes