Gary Thorne

Gary Thorne serves as a play-by-play commentator for college football on ESPN and ABC, and for Major League Baseball on ESPN Radio. Since 2003, he has called Major League Baseball on ESPN, as he also did from 1990 to 1993 and from 1996 to 2000. He also provides play-by-play for the NCAA Frozen Four.

He called play-by-play on ESPN’s National Hockey League telecasts from 1992-2004. He also called select NHL games on ESPN2 and is the lead play-by-play voice for ABC Sports’ NHL telecasts. He called the inaugural Big League Challenge in 2000. In 1991, he called the network's Big Monday BIG EAST NCAA basketball games.

Thorne has provided analysis for some of the longest and most memorable NHL playoff games in history – the three-overtime Stanley Cup-clinching win for Colorado over Florida in June 1996 (ESPN), Detroit’s three-overtime victory over Carolina in the 2002 Finals  (ABC) and Anaheim’s three-OT win over Detroit in April 2003 (ESPN). He also called Wayne Gretzky’s record 802nd career goal on ESPN.

Thorne’s first appearance on ESPN was in July 1988 for the inaugural Triple-A All-Star Game. He served as the original host and moderator in 1988 for The Sports Reporters, the network's Sunday morning roundtable program.

In 2006, he joined MASN as the voice of the Baltimore Orioles. From 1994 to 2002, he called play-by-play for New York Mets telecasts on WPIX-TV. He served as the lead hockey play-by-play commentator for NBC’s coverage of the 2002 Winter Olympics.  He also worked speed skating and served as a reporter during the 1998 Winter Olympics for CBS.  In 1997 and ’98, he called play-by-play for CBS's NCAA Tournament games.

In 1989, Thorne served as the voice of the Chicago White Sox on WFLD-TV and handled play-by-play on ABC's Thursday night Major League Baseball backup telecasts. He also served as an on-field reporter during World Series coverage. Thorne has also done play-by-play on SportsChannel America's National Hockey League telecasts (1988-92) and New Jersey Devils telecasts on SportsChannel New York (1987-92).

From 1985 to 1988, Thorne worked as a New York Mets broadcaster on WHN-AM. He previously had been the play-by-play commentator and director of broadcasting for the Maine Guides (1984), a Triple-A ball club that he co-owned from 1984-88. He also covered University of Maine hockey games for WBGW-AM and WABI-TV and radio from 1977-86.

Thorne is a 1970 graduate of the University of Maine with a bachelor of science in business. He graduated from the University of Maine School of Law in 1973 and received a doctorate in law in 1976 from the Georgetown University Law Center. He is a former assistant district attorney in Bangor, Maine, and was admitted to the Bar of the United States Supreme Court in March 1977.