Washington (CNN) President-elect Donald Trump is breaking from 11 presidents' worth of tradition and benching Charles Brotman.

The 89-year-old Brotman -- once the voice of the Washington Senators baseball team -- has announced every inauguration parade since Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1957.

"I looked at at my email, then I got the shock of my life," Brotman told CNN's Carol Costello. "I felt like Muhammad Ali had hit me in the stomach."

Brotman, who has been the announcer at presidential inauguration for sixty years, said when he read the email from the Trump transition team he thought he "was going to commit suicide."

He told WJLA he was "heartbroken" and "destroyed" by the decision at first.

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