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Rays Add Kevin Kennedy To TV Broadcasts

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By MARC LANCASTER | The Tampa Tribune

Published: February 16, 2009

PORT CHARLOTTE - The Tampa Bay Rays will use three different television analysts to replace the departed Joe Magrane, the team announced today.

Former major league manager Kevin Kennedy will lead the team of announcers set to work alongside longtime play-by-play man Dewayne Staats.

Kennedy, who skippered the Texas Rangers (1993-94) and Boston Red Sox (1995-96), most recently served as a studio analyst for Fox Sports and hosts a daily talk show on XM satellite radio.

Also getting time in the booth will be Brian Anderson and Todd Kalas, who split duties working alongside Staats last summer when Magrane was working on NBC's Olympic baseball broadcasts.

Anderson, a former big-league pitcher who serves as the Rays' assistant pitching coach, and Kalas, the team's pregame and postgame show host, will work select games.

Staats has served as the Rays' lead play-by-play voice since the franchise's inception. He had worked with Magrane the entire time until the former pitcher took a job last fall with the new MLB Network.

There will be one other somewhat new face. Whit Watson will host the "Inside the Rays" series and some pregame and postgame shows. Watson, who has done TV work with the Florida Marlins in the past, hosted the Rays' pregame and postgame shows during the playoffs last fall.

The Rays' 2009 television schedule has yet to be announced.

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