Matt Shepard, after five seasons, out as TV voice of the Tigers

Detroit — Two days after the Tigers' season ended, here comes the first big shakeup.

Matt Shepard, a staple on the airwaves of Metro Detroit for decades, is out after five years as the television play-by-play voice of the Tigers on Bally Sports Detroit. Bally officials informed Shepard of their decision during a Tuesday morning meeting.

A national search soon will commence to find Shepard's replacement.

"Bally Sports Detroit thanks Matt Shepard for his five seasons of dedication in the Tigers television booth, and wishes him the best in his future endeavors," Greg Hammeran, senior vice president and general manager of Bally Sports Detroit, said in a statement to The Detroit News. "He's been a great teammate and has an incredible passion for Detroit sports and bringing compelling storylines to millions of fans every year.

"Change is often difficult, but we feel it's time to head in a new direction and are looking forward to the process of finding our next play-by-play voice of the Tigers."

Shepard, 58, was named the Tigers' TV voice in January 2019, months after longtime team broadcasters Mario Impemba and Rod Allen were fired following an altercation after a White Sox-Tigers game in Chicago.

Shepard filled in on the broadcasts for the rest of 2018, and was the natural fit to be promoted, despite a national search that included more than 50 interviews.

"We hugged; I cried," Shepard said in 2019, referencing the moment Jeff Byle, executive producer at Bally Sports Detroit, offered him the job.

Shepard worked with a rotating stable of analysts, including Kirk Gibson, Craig Monroe, Dan Petry and, until this past season, Jack Morris. Todd Jones and Cameron Maybin joined the broadcasts, in a more limited fashion, in 2023. The analyst rotation is expected to remain unchanged for 2024, though workloads may shift.

Shepard didn't immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday.

Shepard had made a name for himself in Metro Detroit media circles long before getting the Tigers' TV job, covering all of the city's professional sports teams, much of that work for what then was Fox Sports Detroit. He long hosted a morning radio show, and he was the play-by-play voice for Michigan men's basketball and Eastern Michigan football, jobs he gave up when he was promoted to first chair on Tigers telecasts.

“That’s very, very difficult to do," Byle said at the time of Shepard's hectic and always-rotating schedule of on-air duties. "This now will be an opportunity for Matt to concentrate on Tigers play-by-play for an extended time.

"You’re going to see him take this opportunity — and grow.”

Despite being a familiar and respected voice in this market — he's been called one of the hardest-working journalists in Detroit — it just never completely clicked. Shepard struggled to earn the support of much of the Tigers' fan base, who made their opinions known on a nightly basis on social media.

It didn't help, it's surely worth noting, that the Tigers didn't have a very good product on the field during his tenure; the Impemba-Allen partnership, despite their lack of an off-air friendship, worked so well, in part, because it took place during a great stretch of Tigers baseball. Then again, the Josh Lewin-Gibson team was popular in the late 1990s and early 2000s, even though the team was bad.

Shepard, like all professional broadcasters, also was dealt a tough hand in 2020, when he had to call road games remotely amid the coronavirus pandemic.

"It's just not quite the same thing," Shepard said in 2021, speaking of remote broadcasts.

Shepard also was prone to the occasional questionable commentary, like during a game this past August, when cameras panned to a bachelorette party. Of the future bride, Shepard said, "Nothing sexier than a girl drinking a Leinenkugel."

Shepard grew up in Farmington Hills and graduated from Central Michigan.

Bally Sports Detroit will make the next hire, as it pays the on-air voices (as independent contractors), though the Tigers will be heavily consulted and still will need to sign off on the next man or woman. That's a different setup than radio, where the Tigers pay play-by-play announcer Dan Dickerson's salary.

tpaul@detroitnews.com

Twitter/X: @tonypaul1984