Mercurio to join Tides broadcast team
The 2010 season will be Mercurio's third broadcasting the Tides, and his first since the 1988 season. He orginally came to Hampton Roads to broadcast the Tidewater Tides in 1977 and later served as the Assistant General Manager of the club from 1981-1987. He is currently the program director at ESPN Radio 94.1 and has hosted the Tony Mercurio Show for the past 24 years.
Mercurio has won 14 "Sportscaster of the Year" awards since 1986. He was appointed by then-Governor George Allen of Virginia to the Hampton Roads Sports Facility Authority from 1996-2000. In 1997, he was named the Abe Goldblatt Memorial Award recipient from the Norfolk Sports Club. In addition, he won the Marshall Johnson Award for service to the State of Virginia for high school sports coverage in 2000 and 2001. He also won the Peninsula Sports Club "special achievement award" in 2001 and was named a member of the Sons of Italy in 1997. He has broadcast high school football for 16 years and has been the radio voice of the nationally ranked ODU Lady Monarchs basketball team for the past 18 seasons.
Mercurio will join Pete Michaud for the home broadcasts, while Bob Socci will handle the play-by-play duties for the majority of road games. Michaud, who was the 2010 recipient of the Abe Goldblatt Memorial Award, is in his fourth season with the Tides while Socci is entering his fifth year calling the action for Norfolk.
2010 will be the first year for the Tides on ESPN Radio 94.1 FM, a 40,000 watt station that can be heard from Virginia Beach to Richmond as well as from the Eastern Shore of Virginia to parts of Northeast North Carolina.
The Tides open their 2010 season on Thursday, April 8 with a 7:15 contest at Harbor Park against the Durham Bulls. Tickets are currently on sale at the Harbor Park box office, through ticketmaster or online at norfolktides.com.