When play-by-play man Rory Markas started broadcasting Angels games in 1994, he could not end his call with “Just another Halo victory!” as often as he would in the 2000s, when Anaheim became a perennial playoff contender.
Now, fans will not hear him proclaim “Just another Halo victory!” again. Markas has died at age 54.
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According to the Associated Press, Markas was found dead at his Palmdale home on Monday and the
cause of death was not immediately available. The Orange County Register is reporting heart attack. Markas had surgery for a blood clot on his brain in late
2008.
His most memorable call
was arguably the final out in the 2002 World Series, when center fielder Darin Erstad was positioning himself under a fly ball:
“Erstad says he's got it! Erstad makes the catch!
The Anaheim Angels are the champions of baseball!''
Markas also did broadcasts for the Milwaukee Brewers, Los Angeles
Clippers, USC men's basketball and
Pacific Coast League baseball. He also made the rounds as a sports reporter for KNX Radio and various Los Angeles television stations, including KTTV/Channel 11 most recently. He was honored with two Associated Press Sportscasting awards and
received the 2008 Radio Play-by-Play Award from the Southern California
Sports Broadcasters Association.
Markas is survived by his mother, Billie, and brothers Gary and Troy.
In recent seasons, Angels radio broadcasting on KLAA AM 830 and telecasting on Fox Sports West and KCOP/Channel 13 were split between the team of play-by-play man Steve Physioc and color commentator Rex Hudler and Markas with his commentator, Mark Gubicza. Around Thanksgiving, Fox Sports issued a statement that revealed Hudler and Physioc had been fired.
“We are going in a different direction next season and will use single announcing teams on TV and radio that will include Rory Markas and Mark Gubicza on Fox Sports West and KCOP and Terry Smith and Jose Mota
calling the action on radio (KLAA AM 830),” read the statement. “We believe this approach
will create greater consistency on our telecasts, as well as a deeper
familiarity with fans and viewers.”
It's unclear what will become of those plans now.
OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.
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