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| Dan and Ben Shulman |
For the first time in World Series history, a father-son broadcasting team—Dan Shulman on television and his son Ben Shulman on radio—deliver the play-by-play for the Toronto Blue Jays' national broadcasts in Canada during their matchup against the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Dan, a veteran ESPN and Sportsnet announcer, calls the TV action alongside analyst Buck Martinez for Sportsnet, while 25-year-old Ben, the Jays' lead radio voice since 2024, handles the radio feed for Sportsnet 590 The FAN. Their booths at Dodger Stadium are just one floor apart, mirroring their setup at Rogers Centre during the regular season.
According to The Athletic, the Shulmans' shared moment has drawn widespread acclaim, with ESPN's Joe Buck—son of legendary broadcaster Jack Buck—expressing delight at the parallel to his own experiences calling games with his father. As Dan reflected in a pre-series interview, he told Ben, "Man, this is pretty cool," about heading to Dodger Stadium; Ben replied, "This is pretty cool for you, too."
Dan Shulman, 58, is a Toronto native whose broadcasting journey began accidentally as a University of Western Ontario student, volunteering at campus station CHRW to call Mustangs football and basketball games. By 1995, at age 28, he became TSN's play-by-play voice for the Blue Jays, partnering with Martinez for seven seasons and forging one of baseball's iconic duos. Shulman's U.S. breakthrough came in 2002 with ESPN Radio's Sunday Night Baseball, where he called 12 World Series (including Barry Bonds' 754th home run in 2007) and teamed with Jessica Mendoza and Aaron Boone in 2016—the first woman in a prominent regular MLB TV role.
Returning to Sportsnet in 2020 as the Jays' TV lead, Dan earned the 2023 Ford C. Frick Award from the Baseball Hall of Fame for his excellence in broadcasting.
📻Ben Shulman's Rapid Rise
Unlike his father's serendipitous entry, Ben, born in 2000, dreamed of broadcasting from age two, obsessed with sports but self-admittedly "cripplingly unathletic." He started calling semi-pro Intercounty Baseball League games at 16 in Ontario, then honed his skills at Syracuse University's Newhouse School, broadcasting NCAA basketball, baseball, and even field hockey. Post-graduation in 2022, Ben voiced High-A Fort Wayne TinCaps games before his Jays radio debut that May, filling in for Ben Wagner against the Angels—his father listened from a nearby conference room.
By 2024, Ben secured the full-time radio role, becoming one of MLB's youngest lead play-by-play voices. Working one floor below Dan at Rogers Centre, he's carved his own style, though early on he mimicked his dad's cadence before finding his groove.