Farmer, broadcaster & All-Star, dies at 70
Ed Farmer, an All-Star reliever who spent nearly three decades as a radio broadcaster for the Chicago White Sox, has died. He was 70.
The White Sox said he died Wednesday night in Los Angeles following complications from an illness.
A native of Evergreen Park, Illinois, and a graduate of St. Rita High on Chicago's South Side, Farmer was 3043 with a 4.30 ERA and 75 saves while pitching for eight teams over 11 seasons. He was an All-Star for the White Sox in 1980, when he saved 30 games — then a club record.
“He called no-hitters, perfect games and of course, a World Series championship,” White Sox chairman Jerry Reinsdorf said in a statement Thursday. “His experience as a major league All-Star pitcher, his wry sense of clubhouse humor, his love of baseball and his passion for the White Sox combined to make White Sox radio broadcasts the sound of summer for millions of fans. Ed grew up a Sox fan on the south side of Chicago and his allegiance showed every single night on the radio as he welcomed his ‘friends' to the broadcast.”
Farmer joined Chicago's radio booth on a part-time basis in 1991 and became a full-time analyst in 1992 alongside play-by-play announcer John Rooney. He assumed play-by-play duties in 2006 and completed his 29th season in 2019. Farmer called perfect games by Mark Buehrle against Tampa Bay in 2009 and Phillip Humber at Seattle in 2012 as well as Hall of Famer Jim Thome's 500th homer.
DODGERS REACH TV DEAL
Whenever the baseball season begins, Los Angeles Dodgers fans who subscribe to DirecTV and its subsidiaries will have access to the team's regional sports network after a deal ended a nearly seven-year stalemate.
Spectrum Networks said it began delivering Spectrum SportsNet LA to AT&T video subscribers on Wednesday, the same day the deal was announced. The agreement means AT&T TV, DirecTV, U-verse TV and AT&T Now customers in Southern California, Las Vegas and Hawaii will gain access to Dodgers games.
“Working together with AT&T, we were able to reach an agreement to offer the region's most popular teams to local fans across AT&T's video platforms,” said Dan Finnerty, senior vice president of Spectrum Networks.
The Dodgers launched their network in 2014, but faced pushback from pay TV providers over its cost, which kept the team's games from being seen in most of Los Angeles. KTLA-TV stepped in to simulcast several games for the last four years.
During the coronavirus pandemic, SportsNet LA is airing original shows and studio programming as well as key games from recent years.