Fred Manfra, Longtime Orioles Radio Man, Reflects On Decades In Booth

After 25 years in the booth for Baltimore Orioles games, Fred Manfra is going, going, but not quite gone.

Manfra, a Baltimore native who now lives in Fallston, is doing just a handful of home games in what may be his final season behind the mic. But believe it or not, he's not that sentimental about it.

He got a taste of retired life with last year's reduced schedule.

"I found out what summer was really like, which is something you don't really experience," Manfra told Brett Hollander Thursday. "You can sit out on the back and watch the game or listen to the game which I did most of the time and be grilling out there and be one of the fans."

If he'll miss anything, he said, it's being at the yard to watch pitching duels in person. But listening them to on the radio, watching them on TV and taking them in on digital platforms when he and his family moves to Tampa next year is the next best thing.

It's a far cry from a childhood spent with a transistor radio tucked under his pillow.

"I was in little league and I listened to Chuck, to Chuck Thompson. I always wanted to play for the Orioles. I wanted to replace Gus Triandos, the catcher," Manfra said. "I either wanted to play or broadcast and I never had the opportunity to play professional baseball but the broadcasting kind of superseded everything and I'm so glad I did."

That career took him to covering horse racing, the Olympics and all sorts of national radio and television events. He just re-upped his deal with ABC Radio. But then he got a few phone calls. The first was from WBAL Radio's Jeff Rimer. He said he wanted Manfra to come down to do Orioles baseball. Manfra said he would. The next day he got a call from Jeff Beauchamp, WBAL's then-vice president and general manager, asking the same thing.

"And then I get a call from [Orioles then-president] Larry Lucchino, first thing Larry says to me is 'You can come home,'" Manfra said.

So there he was, working with the man who once gave him his radio lullabies.

"Here you are working with your idol and I'll never forget the first game I worked with Chuck," Manfra said.

He recalled Thompson introducing him in his first broadcast, then tossing to Manfra. Manfra recalled being starstruck.

"My mouth opened and I started to try to get words out but I couldn't," Manfra recalled. "I had cottonmouth so bad, all the cotton fields of the south were in the mouth at the time."

He said he never forgot the lessons Thompson imparted on him.

"You become a friend of thousands of people you will never meet in person, but you have to treat each one of those folks as if somebody that is sitting next to you and telling them a story," Manfra said. "The guy that I heard on the radio was the guy that I met and became a friend with and that's what I tried to impart on myself."

He said that one of his greatest regrets, though, was never getting to call a World Series game in Baltimore, though if asked to call a Fall Classic game in Baltimore this season, he'd happily return, even if only for an inning. What's almost as rewarding, though, is seeing the renewed interest in Baltimore baseball following more than a decade of losing years.

"It's awfully nice to see young kids who at one time had no thought about the Orioles," Manfra said. "Now they're I want to be like Chris Davis or I want to be Adam Jones. There's nothing wrong with wanting to be like Joe Flacco, but it's nice to hear them talking about the Orioles in a more consistent manner."