Tigers, Fox Sports Detroit add Dan Petry to weekend telecasts

Efforts to round out Fox Sports Detroit’s baseball broadcast team during the Tigers’ final dozen game will include another member of the 1984 world championship team.

Dan Petry will work as a pre- and postgame analyst during Saturday’s and Sunday’s FSD telecasts from Comerica Park, the Tigers and Petry confirmed.

Petry will fill in for Craig Monroe, who has a weekend engagement.

FSD and the Tigers have been scurrying to juggle seats and schedules following suspensions to the regular TV duo of Mario Impemba and Rod Allen, who were ousted after they had a scuffle Sept. 4 following the Tigers-White Sox game at Chicago.

Petry, who is 59, has worked in the past as a Tigers TV analyst, back when the games were split between networks, and as an occasional pinch-hitter on radio and TV. He also has worked with FOX 2 as a broadcast partner with Dan Miller during pre- and post-game sessions on Opening Day and during Tigers playoff years.

Petry pitched for the Tigers from 1979-87, and again in 1991, during a 13-year, big-league career that spanned four teams.

It long has been suspected that the Tigers would prefer to add Petry to their broadcast roster. But openings have been all but non-existent. When the Tigers and FSD several years ago decided to expand TV analyst teams, owner Mike Ilitch was inclined to go with two powerhouse names from the ’84 team: Kirk Gibson and Jack Morris.

There is no indication Petry will be considered as the Tigers and FSD make plans for 2019. But neither would it be a surprise.

While it is not known with certainty that Impemba and Allen are permanently in exile, each had a contract only through 2018, and the disruption brought on by their Sept. 4 skirmish appears to have left both FSD and the Tigers wary of any continuance.

The Tigers have been getting by, in the radio and FSD booths, with a variety of arrangements.

Dan Dickerson has on occasion moved from radio to TV, as he did in earlier trials and again during Monday’s game.

He has twice been replaced in the radio booth by regular Red Wings voice, Ken Kal, and by Greg Gania, play-by-play announcer for the Tigers’ Double A affiliate at Erie.

Matt Shepard also has worked games in the TV booth.

Gibson has picked up additional games as Allen’s nearly fulltime substitute. Morris, who works broadcasts with the Twins, switched to Tigers TV duty during Monday night’s game.

Lynn.henning@detroitnews.com

Twitter: @Lynn_Henning