ESPN Ruocco serves as a lead television play-by-play broadcaster for the
NBA,
WNBA, and
NCAA Women’s College Basketball on
ESPN. Ruocco began working for
ESPN and
ESPN New York 98.7 FM in 2008 as a contributor on
The Michael Kay Show and as a substitute host on various
ESPN Radio shows. He was a fill-in host prior to 2008 for ESPN Radio and anchored
ESPN Radio SportsCenter and was a correspondent for the
NFL Network. He also called college football and basketball games for
ESPN Radio In 2020, Ruocco was the first play-by-play announcer to use the correct pronouns for
New York Liberty star
Layshia Clarendon, who is non-binary, when describing Clarendon’s baskets and rebounds, compelling a progressive and inclusive shift for gender norms in sports. In 2023,
ESPN formed a second core NBA broadcast team for the
2023–24 season, with Ruocco as play-by-play and former NBA players
Richard Jefferson and
JJ Redick as analysts. The team would call the
NBA Sunday Showcase series on ABC (replacing
Mark Jones and
Doris Burke), plus work together for other marquee events throughout the season and into the NBA playoffs.
YES Network Ruocco joined the
YES Network in 2007 as the
New York Yankees statistician. He is the secondary play-by-play television announcer for the
Brooklyn Nets and
New York Yankees. He joined the Nets broadcast team in 2011. He also does select college basketball games for YES and was the host of
This Week in Football for the YES Network, which focused on the
New York Giants and
New York Jets. His analysts were
Howard Cross, Gary Myers, and
Ross Tucker. Ruocco debuted as a lead play-by-play broadcaster for the YES Network when he called a series between the
New York Yankees and
Houston Astros in June 2015. During the 2019 baseball season, Ruocco stepped up as the main voice of the
New York Yankees on the
YES Network. In addition to Ruocco’s regular slate of Yankees broadcasts, he took over for YES Network’s play-by-play broadcaster
Michael Kay as he underwent vocal cord surgery. Ruocco also filled in for the legendary radio sportscaster
John Sterling on
WFAN in July 2019 when he took off his first radio broadcast after working 5,060 straight Yankees games since 1989.
R2C2 Podcast Ruocco co-hosted the podcast R2C2 alongside former New York Yankees all-star pitcher
CC Sabathia. Sabathia and Ruocco welcomed athlete and celebrity guests for wide-ranging conversations. In 2023, R2C2 held its final episode after six years. ==Personal life==