Regarded as one of the best interviewers in broadcasting, Costas has spoken with the biggest names in baseball and beyond for MLB Network, including President Barack Obama at the 2009 All-Star Game; Hall of Famers Yogi Berra, Bob Feller, Bob Gibson, Reggie Jackson, Ferguson Jenkins, Don Larsen, Juan Marichal, and Tom Seaver; former managers Tony La Russa and Joe Torre, and Hall of Fame Award-winning broadcaster Ernie Harwell.
In 2011, Costas co-hosted with Tom Verducci MLB Network's landmark series "MLB's 20 Greatest Games," which ranked the top-20 games of the previous 50 seasons. The series featured interviews with key players, managers and broadcasters from each game, including Jack Morris and John Smoltz discussing Game 7 of the 1991 World Series, the No. 2-ranked game, and Hall of Famer Johnny Bench, 1975 MVP and Rookie of the Year Fred Lynn, Pete Rose, Bernie Carbo, Dwight Evans, Pat Darcy and Denny Doyle talking about Game 6 of the 1975 World Series, which was ranked by MLB Network as the No. 1 greatest game of the previous 50 seasons.
Costas also contributes to MLB Network's breaking news coverage throughout the year. In January 2010, Costas conducted the exclusive first television interview with Mark McGwire following his admission of steroid use during his playing career. Costas also secured the first interview with Sports Illustrated's Selena Roberts, after she broke the news in February 2009 of Alex Rodriguez's use of performance enhancing drugs. Throughout his career, Costas has hosted coverage of many significant baseball events, covering the American League Championship Series in 1983, 1985, 1987, 1989, 1994, 1995, 1998, 1999 and 2000. Costas covered the NLCS in 1999, and called the 1995, 1997 and 1999 World Series and the 2000 All-Star Game. From 1982 to 1989, Costas was the play-by-play announcer on NBC's Baseball Game of the Week telecasts.
Costas is the author of Fair Ball: A Fan's Case for Baseball, which received excellent reviews and made the New York Times Best Seller list in 2002. The book's net proceeds were donated to B.A.T. (Baseball Assistance Team), a charity providing financial assistance to those in need in the baseball family.
Outside of MLB Network, Costas currently serves as the host of NBC's "Football Night in America," is primetime host of NBC's coverage of the Olympic Games, co-hosts NBC's U.S. Open, Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes coverage, and hosts "Costas Tonight" on the NBC Sports Network. From 2005 to 2009, Costas hosted "Costas Now" on HBO, a quarterly one-hour sports magazine program. From 2001 to 2005, Costas hosted HBO's "On The Record," a weekly interview program. Costas also hosted HBO's "Inside the NFL" from 2002 to 2008.
Costas hosted "NBA Showtime," NBC Sports' NBA pregame show, from 1991 through the 1996 season, and was NBC's top play-by-play man for NBA on NBC game telecasts between 1997 and 2000. Costas' call of Michael Jordan's game-winning shot in the deciding Game 6 of the 1998 NBA Finals is considered one of sportscasting's most memorable calls of the modern era.
Costas began the popular "Costas Coast-to-Coast" nationally-syndicated Sunday night sports radio talk and interview show, which ran from 1986 to 1996. From 1988 to 1994, he hosted his own Emmy Award-winning late-night interview television show for NBC, "Later."
Costas handled regional NFL and NBA assignments for CBS Sports from 1976 to 1981, while working as the radio voice of University of Missouri basketball.
Costas has been honored as Sportscaster of the Year by the National Sportswriters and Sportscasters Association (NSSA) a record eight times, and was the youngest to receive such an honor when he won the award in 1985. Costas was inducted into the NSSA Hall of Fame in June 2012. Additionally, Costas received the Walter Cronkite Award for Excellence in Journalism from Arizona State University in October 2012 as well as the Vin Scully Lifetime Achievement Award from Fordham University's WFUV radio in May 2013.
Costas began his broadcasting career in 1974 at WSYR in Syracuse, where he attended the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University.
