Behind the Mic: Voice of the Mets Ralph Kiner Dies at 91; Fox Adds Rob Neyer to Digital Team

Baseball lost one its most iconic voices on, as Hall-of-Famer and long-time Mets play-by-play man Ralph Kiner, died at the age of 91.

Kiner, a six-time All-Star, hit .279 with 369 home runs (every 14.1 at-bats) during his 10-year career, mostly with the Pittsburgh Pirates. After retiring early because of back problems, Kiner joined the broadcast crew of the Mets for their expansion season in 1962 and earned a permanent place – the home TV booth at Shea Stadium was named in his honor as Kiner’s Korner. Kiner had a stroke a decade ago that slowed his speech, but remained an occasional part of the Mets’ announcing crew. He worked a handful of games last season at Citi Field, his 52th year of calling their games (Associated Press)…

Rob Neyer, long-time Major League Baseball writer, sabermetrician, and author has joined FOXSports.com as a Senior Baseball Editor. Neyer will make his FOXSports.com debut next week. Neyer joins FOXSports.com from SB Nation, where he served as National Baseball Editor for the past three years.  Prior to that, Neyer spent 15 years covering Major League Baseball as a columnist at ESPN.com.  Neyer began his career as a research assistant for groundbreaking baseball author Bill James, and later worked for STATS, Inc….

…Kevin Martin, a two-time Olympic curling medalist who skipped Team Canada to the gold medal at the 2010 Vancouver Games, will join NBC Olympics for its 2014 Olympic Winter Games coverage. Martin, who holds the men’s record for the most Olympic curling victories with 20 total wins spanning two Olympic Games, will be a curling analyst for NBC Olympics’ coverage. Martin’s team was undefeated during round-robin play at Vancouver in 2010, becoming the first team to accomplish the feat since 1924…

…ESPNcricinfo has added television journalist Gaurav Kalra as Senior Editor for the emerging video editorial and content development group.  Kalra, who joins ESPN from CNN-IBN, will work with ESPNcricinfo’s in-house digital video production teams and acclaimed editorial team to continue to grow and develop the brand’s use of high-quality video in their journalism and storytelling, as well as original analysis and programming. Kalra will be based out of ESPN’s Bangalore office, where ESPNcricinfo also unveiled a new studio and control room built to enhance the production capabilities and quality for the site….

…Greg Wolf, Richard Migliore, Andy Serling, Simon Bray and Alyssa Ali have been tabbed to handle the on-air duties for The Jockey Club Tour on FOX racing series, which makes its debut on Sunday, February 9, with the Donn Handicap at Gulfstream Park. Wolf will serve as the host while Bray and Serling will handle analyst/handicapper duties. Ali will serve as the team’s reporter and Migliore will be an analyst.