The St. Louis Cardinals will have a new television play-by-play voice in 2023 after making a significant change to the booth on Thursday.
The team announced that it is parting ways with broadcaster Dan McLaughlin by mutual decision after 24 seasons. The change comes a week after McLaughlin was arrested for driving while intoxicated for a third time.
“I have spent the last several days reflecting on my steps towards addressing my health and the well-being of my family and me,” McLaughlin said in a statement, via Dan Caesar of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. “I have come to the conclusion that my sole focus needs to be on my recovery, which I have started, and that of my wife and (four) children.”
McLaughlin was arrested for the same offense twice in a 13-month span previously, with the last one coming in 2011. He nearly lost his job at that point, and though a decade passed between offenses, the third arrest was not something the team could put up with.
The 48-year-old began calling games on a part-time basis starting in 1999 and became the full-time play-by-play announcer seven years ago. The Cardinals’ TV network, Bally Sports Midwest, promised a nationwide search for his replacement.
