Todd Leitz has spent the last 11 seasons as the public address announcer at Dodger Stadium, but his path to becoming the voice behind the Dodgers almost took him straight through San Diego.
Before he ever settled into the role with Los Angeles, Leitz got his first real taste of major league PA work at Petco Park. The Padres held an open audition in 2014 that drew thousands of hopefuls, and Leitz said he made it all the way to the final two before coming up short.
That near miss, though, ended up being part of the reason he was ready when the Dodgers came calling.
“I almost got the job, but I thank God every day that I didn’t get the job, but I also thank the Padres, because they gave me an opportunity to learn how to be a public address announcer at a major league ballpark.
“I had never done PA announcing at all, and I never even considered that that might be something that I could do, so I thank them for giving me the chance to learn and not hiring me, so that I was ready for the Dodgers when the opportunity came.”
After the Padres decision, the Dodgers had an opening for a part-time PA announcer, and Leitz reached out with the experience he had just picked up. The process moved forward from there, starting with a chance to call games during the college baseball classic the team stages every preseason.
“They said, ‘well, why don’t you come out for the college baseball classic, which we do every year preseason,'” Leitz said.
“And I called a couple innings, and Lon Rosen came up and stuck his hand out and said, ‘we’re going to need you for the Angels series,’ and I’m like, ‘OK, cool,’ and then we went back and forth for several weeks until I finally realized that I was going to get the job.”
Since then, Leitz has become the familiar voice introducing Dodgers players and keeping the ballpark updated during games, with his calls woven into the backdrop of walk-up songs. He has now become part of the sound of the current golden age of Dodgers baseball, and he is set to keep doing the job as long as he wants.
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