The offer was just too good.
C.J. Nitkowski is leaving the Texas Rangers television broadcast booth after seven award-winning seasons calling games on Fox Sports Southwest and later Bally Sports Southwest.
Nitkowski is taking the same job as television analyst for the Atlanta Braves. Nitkowski has lived in Atlanta for more than a decade and raised his three children there.
"This last year just got tough. It started to weigh on me. I'm on the road 120 days a year, so every three years, I'm missing a year," said Nitkowski, who turns 51 in March. "I was not looking for anything. I wasn't looking to get out. I was thinking I could take this job into retirement."
The last time Nitkowski slept in his own bed for more than a month was in September 1998, after he and his wife bought their first house in Houston. He was traded by the Astros in the offseason.
The move will leave the Rangers looking to find a new booth partner for television play-by-play man Dave Raymond.
"I love Dave, and I love Emily [Jones], and I love our crew, and when you build a rapport, and you're finishing each other's sentences, and you're on the same page as far as what you find funny ... the idea we could make fun of each other ... to me that was really special," Nitkowski said. "That was the part that weighed on us the most."
Raymond, Nitkowski, and Jones, the team's dugout reporter, had an easy, familiar rapport that often included humor. As a former Major League pitcher, Nitkowski offered top-level analysis and insight that was fit for a national broadcast.
Getting to call the Rangers' first World Series run in 2023, Nitkowski said, "relieves the guilt, for sure. I felt bad enough as it was," he said. "That made it extra special, and I'm super grateful I got to experience that with the fans. The fact that I got to be part of it to some degree was just fantastic. What a special season."
Nitkowski joined the club in 2017 — after they had won consecutive AL West titles — but just as it was beginning a stretch of six consecutive losing seasons.
"I think I became a better broadcaster three years ago when the team lost 102 games because that's when you have to work harder to try to keep people engaged," he said. "This year, it was easy because the team was great, and you just stay on the game, and there are so many things to stay engaged on and to find interesting. I don't feel like we ever mailed it in, and I felt like that 2021 season really shaped me as a broadcaster and made 2023 super easy."
Raymond, who worked with Nitkowski at MLB.com before they teamed up for Rangers broadcasts, said their booth interaction will be tough to replicate.
"I will miss him dearly," Raymond said. "In our business, it's really rare that you end up with a chemistry like we had, and that's what you hope will develop with somebody else. When it's really easy and natural like it was, it's hard to see that go."
Raymond and Nitkowski, along with Jones, knew each other so well that they could communicate with a shorthand, a language that keen viewers could recognize, which added another layer to the broadcast.
"There definitely was a shorthand between us, whether it was a glance or a posture in the booth or something as simple as a lean or a smile or a nod, the other would know what the other was doing. That made it a breeze to work with him," Raymond said. "He's really good at what he does. He's kind of an ultimate teammate in the booth. Someone who really does set aside their ego for the betterment of the broadcast."
Indeed, saying goodbye to Raymond and Jones and the rest of the Rangers Bally Sports Southwest crew was the toughest part of the move, Nitkowski said.
"Everybody in my family at one point over the last two months was like, 'Oh, but what about Dave,' he said. "That was a really tough call to make."
Potential booth replacements for Nitkowski include part-time analysts David Valle and David Murphy and studio analyst Mike Bacsik.
"C.J. has done an outstanding job of analyzing the game and educating the audience in his seven years in the Rangers’ TV booth," Rangers executive vice president of public affairs John Blake said in a release. "He thoroughly prepared each and every game, no matter the club’s position in the standings, and he will be missed. We are in the process of determining how best to fill the television analyst role going forward, and I expect we’ll have some decisions early in 2024.”
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