Adrian Garcia Marquez

Adrian Garcia Marquez (born December 28, 1973) is an American

In his time calling Lakers basketball, he became an Emmy Award-winning announcer while also securing two NBA 'Best Live Call' Awards and 3 straight 'Best TV Play by Play in Spanish' Awards from the Southern California Sports Broadcasters Association. He also received two "Call of the Year" nominations from SCSB for 2017 and 2018. In 2017 he was runner-up to the legendary Vin Scully, who upon receiving the award said "I think you gave it to the wrong guy, he (Adrian) should have won!". [1] Before joining the Lakers, Garcia Marquez was the voice for MLB on Fox Deportes where he called 5 World Series and All-Star Games as well as the Saturday game of the week. In 2012, he was the Spanish TV voice of the LA Galaxy.

Career

Garcia Marquez graduated from Southwest Senior High School and San Diego City College.^[2]

A native of South

The San Diego native became the analyst for the San Diego Chargers Radio Network in Spanish on Pulsar 107.3 FM in 2008, where he also hosted and produced the pre and post-game shows.^[7] That same year Adrian was a reporter for 710 ESPN Radio in Los Angeles.

The 2007 MLB season marked the debut of Adrian Garcia as a reporter for the

Adrian contributed to "Dodgers Live" alongside hosts Patrick O'Neal, Kevin Kennedy, and Steve Lyons. On Dodgers game telecasts live, Garcia provided post-game player interviews while also reporting on Dodger on-and-off the field developments. Garcia is bilingual. Garcia also joined 710 ESPN Radio in 2007 where he served as reporter and guest host.^[8][9]

From 2002 to 2007, Garcia Marquez worked for

He was the play-by-play announcer for the San Diego Chargers pre-season television games on Mi San Diego, the Spanish-language affiliate of NBC in San Diego.

Garcia Marquez has an extensive background in radio. He began as the San Diego Padres pregame show host for K 1040AM in San Diego in 1999.

Seeing that the Padres had no interest in Garcia Marquez, the former college catcher looked elsewhere and got his break as a play-by-play announcer with the Oakland Athletics in 2000.

That same season, he was recruited by ESPN Deportes and spent almost two years at the international sports network.

At ESPN, he was an announcer, reporter, and analyst for Wednesday and Sunday Night Baseball, Sunday and Monday Night Football and NFL Primetime, all in Spanish. The exposure on ESPN led to the Boston Red Sox appointing him the team's Spanish radio voice in 2001. That year, he had the rare opportunity of calling two no hitters. One by Hideo Nomo on April 4, 2001, vs. the Baltimore Orioles and St. Louis Cardinals pitcher Bud Smith's no-no against the San Diego Padres on September 3, 2001.

From Bristol, Connecticut, he was recruited by the

On Radiovisa 830AM, he was the play-by-play announcer for both USC Trojans en Espanol and the Los Angeles Clippers. He also hosted and produced "Calentando con Adrian Garcia Marquez" sports talk show.^[13][14]

In August 2018, Garcia Marquez became the lead English-language play-by-play commentator of Liga MX, the men's Mexican first division fútbol (soccer) league, on the networks of Fox Sports (US). He has been paired with former Mexican international Mariano Trujillo, former U.S. international Cobi Jones and former England international Warren Barton as his match analyst (co-commentator) partner.

Signature Calls

• "Sientate!!" (English: sit) Baseball
• "Vuela la Pelota, Vuela la Pelotaaaaaaaaaaa...Bye Bye Pelota (English: The ball's flying, it's flying, bye bye ball) Baseball
• ""Lo retrato sin sonrisa"" (Took his picture with no smile, struck him out looking) Baseball
• "Del arco al charco" (English: From the Arc to the Puddle) Basketball
• ""Comienza el sonoro purple y oro"" (English: The purple and gold rumble begins) Basketball
• "Desde Tripotitlan" (English: from Tripotitlan, Three point land) Basketball
• ""Tripotitlan Beach"" (Three pointers from Jack Nicholson seats and visiting bench area) Basketball
• "Desde el Rancho de Tres Caballos" (English: From the Three Horse Ranch, three pointer) Basketball
• ""Desde la tienda de la esquina (English: From the corner store, three pointer) Basketball
• "Volcanazo!!" (English: Volcanic Dunk)
• ""Jumpercito"" (English: Short or midrange jumper) Basketball
• ""Saco el Matamoscas"" (English: Broke out the fly swatter, blocked shot) Basketball
• ""Ganaron Los Lakers, tus Lakers, mis Lakers, nuestros Lakers!!"" (English: Your Lakers, my Lakers, our Lakers, The Lakers, win!!) Basketball
• "Amigos bienvenidos al deporte de los batazos violentos y aficionados atentos...el de las Rrrrrrectas quemantes y magos con guantes...esto es beisbol de grandes ligas..." (English: Friends welcome to the sport of violent swings and mindful fans ...the one of blazing fastballs and magicians with a glove ... this is major league baseball").^[15]

ESPN's Chris Berman once featured him on his "2 Minute Drill" on SportsCenter because he enjoyed some of Garcia's creative calls on NFL Primetime in Spanish, such as his singing of "Ave Maria" during Hail Mary passes.

Nicknamed "El Poeta" by former Houston Astros player and Mexico national team First Base Coach turned analyst, Jose Tolentino, for his poetic intros to games and calls of the action.

References