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.[5] 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."[5]
He remained in San Francisco until 1996, when he announced his retirement. At the time he retired, Greenwald had announced 2,798 consecutive games.[5] In his book This Copyrighted Broadcast, Greenwald cites disagreements with Giants' Vice President Larry Baer as his reason for retiring.[6] The Giants hired former Baltimore Orioles and ESPN announcer Jon Miller as Greenwald's replacement.[6]
Perhaps Hank Greenwald's most memorable call was his emotional description of the final out in Game 5 of the 1989 National League Championship Series[7] (which sent the San Francisco Giants to the World Series for the first time since 1962).
Twenty-seven years of waiting have come to an end! The Giants have won the pennant!
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:
And Clark hits it up the middle, into center-field, base hit!!! Maldonado scores! Here comes Butler...on his way to third is Thompson, the Giants lead three to one!!! And Superman has done it again!
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.
Greenwald married Carla Reiter in 1973.[3] His son Doug[5] (born 1974) is the play-by-play announcer for the Fresno Grizzlies, formerly the Giants' AAA affiliate and now the Houston Astros' affiliate. He also has announced baseball and women's basketball for the Santa Clara Broncos.[8][9] His first game announcing for the major league Giants was on September 6, 2009; he filled in for regular announcer Dave Flemming.[10]
