John "Gordo" Gordon (born July 7, 1940) is a retired

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...

radio broadcaster who was best known as the play by play announcer for the

Minnesota Twins The Minnesota Twins are an American professional baseball team based in Minneapolis. The Twins compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Central Division. The team is named after the Twin Cities area w ...

on the Twins Radio Network and their Metro Affiliate KSTP 1500 AM. He is well known among Twins fans for his intense emotional style of play-calling, and for his trademark call of each Twins

home run In baseball, a home run (abbreviated HR) is scored when the ball is hit in such a way that the batter is able to circle the bases and reach home plate safely in one play without any errors being committed by the defensive team. A home run i ...

: "Touch 'em all, _______!" (including the name of the player who hit the home run). This was in marked contrast to the more calm, laid-back style of his longtime broadcast partner

Herb Carneal Charles Herbert Carneal (May 10, 1923 – April 1, 2007) was an American Major League Baseball sportscaster. From 1962 through 2006, he was a play-by-play voice of Minnesota Twins radio broadcasts, becoming the lead announcer in 1967 after ...

. The two would alternate between play-by-play and commentary, often switching roles midway through games.

Career

Gordon was born John Gordon Gutowsky in

Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at th ...

Michigan Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and the ...

and began his career in broadcasting with the class-A

Spartanburg Phillies Spartanburg is a city in and the county seat, seat of Spartanburg County, South Carolina, United States. The city of Spartanburg has a municipal population of 38,732 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, making it the 11th-largest c ...

in 1965 after earning a degree from

Indiana University Indiana University (IU) is a system of public universities in the U.S. state of Indiana. Campuses Indiana University has two core campuses, five regional campuses, and two regional centers under the administration of IUPUI. *Indiana Universit ...

. In 1970 he left Spartanburg to join the

Baltimore Orioles The Baltimore Orioles are an American professional baseball team based in Baltimore. The Orioles compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) American League East, East division. As one of the American L ...

' broadcast team, a job which he left in 1973 to accept a job as the head broadcaster at the

University of Virginia The University of Virginia (UVA) is a Public university#United States, public research university in Charlottesville, Virginia. Founded in 1819 by Thomas Jefferson, the university is ranked among the top academic institutions in the United S ...

where he called

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

and

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

games. In 1977 he joined the broadcast team for the

New York Yankees The New York Yankees are an American professional baseball team based in the Boroughs of New York City, New York City borough of the Bronx. The Yankees compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Amer ...

' AAA affiliate, the

Columbus Clippers The Columbus Clippers are a Minor League Baseball team of the International League (IL) and the Triple-A (baseball), Triple-A affiliate of the Cleveland Guardians. They are located in Columbus, Ohio, and are named for speedy Merchant ship, mercha ...

, and in 1982 he moved up to the Yankees' major league broadcast crew, where he remained through 1986. Gordon joined the Twins' broadcast crew on WCCO 830 AM as Herb Carneal's partner in 1987, which ended up being a season in which the Twins would go on to defeat the

St. Louis Cardinals The St. Louis Cardinals are an American professional baseball team based in St. Louis. The Cardinals compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) Central division. Since the 2006 season, the Cardinals ha ...

in the

1987 World Series The 1987 World Series was the championship series of Major League Baseball's (MLB) 1987 season. The 84th edition of the World Series, it was a best-of-seven playoff played between the American League (AL) champion Minnesota Twins and the Nation ...

. He remained with the Twins and started broadcasting alongside former Twin

Dan Gladden Clinton Daniel Gladden III (born July 7, 1957) is an American former Major League Baseball player and current radio broadcaster. He was the starting left fielder with the Minnesota Twins' two World Series Championship teams in 1987 and 1991. Base ...

. His longtime partner Carneal died April 1, 2007 at the age of 83 due to congestive heart failure. Gordon announced that the 2011 season would be his last as play-by-play announcer for the Twins. The Twins held a ceremony before Gordon's last game to commemorate his years with the organization. At the end of the ceremony, Gordon's long-time broadcast partner Dan Gladden drove Gordon for a lap around the ballpark on a sidecar of a motorcycle. The Twins won Gordon's final game 1-0 on a walk-off hit by

Trevor Plouffe Trevor Patrick Plouffe ( ; born June 15, 1986) is an American media personality and former professional baseball third baseman. He previously played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Minnesota Twins, Oakland Athletics, Tampa Bay Rays, and ...

. In 2016, he was elected to the Minnesota Twins Hall of Fame.

Personal life

John has a wife, Nancy, and two grown children. They make their home in

Bloomington, MN Bloomington is a suburban city in Hennepin County, Minnesota, on the north bank of the Minnesota River, above its confluence with the Mississippi River, south of downtown Minneapolis. As of the 2020 census, the city's population was 89,987, ...

and are very active supporters of the

Fellowship of Christian Athletes The Fellowship of Christian Athletes (FCA) is an international non-profit Christian sports ministry founded in 1954 and based in Kansas City, Missouri. It has staff offices located throughout the United States and abroad. History FCA was found ...

Honors

Gordon was inducted into the South Atlantic League Hall of Fame for his work with the Spartanburg Phillies on June 19, 2001 and into the

Pavek Museum of Broadcasting The Pavek Museum is a museum in St. Louis Park, Minnesota, that has one of the world's most significant collections of vintage radio and television equipment. It originated in the collection of Joe Pavek, who began collecting unique radios while ...

Hall of Fame in 2008.

Filmography

Gordon played fictional Twins broadcaster Wally Holland in the 1994 movie ''

Little Big League ''Little Big League'' is a 1994 American family sports film about a 12-year-old who suddenly becomes the owner and then manager of the Minnesota Twins baseball team. It stars Luke Edwards, Timothy Busfield, and Dennis Farina. The film is direct ...

''.

External links

John Gordon broadcaster biographyTwins Radio Network

References