Slowes, Shea selected as radio broadcasters

VIERA, Fla — Charlie Slowes, former play-by-play voice of the Washington Bullets, and David Shea, the radio voice of the Boston Bruins, were named by the Washington Nationals yesterday as the team’s radio announcers.

Slowes, in Washington from 1986 to 1997, has spent the last seven seasons as the play-by-play announcer for the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. Beyond his tenure in Boston, Shea worked the Minnesota Timberwolves’ debut season in 1989 and boasts more than 20 years in sports broadcasting encompassing minor league baseball, college hockey, college basketball and pro soccer.

Shea and Slowes were chosen after an intensive search by Nationals officials that included more than 100 applicants. Team president Tony Tavares said yesterday Elliott Price, a broadcaster with the Montreal Expos since 1989, would have been one of the two selections had he and the team been able to solve immigration and visa issues that prevented him coming to the United States to take the radio job. Tavares consulted two attorneys regarding Price without resolution.

“I don’t want to diminish what we have. I am ecstatic for Charlie and David, both very solid pros, but I am disappointed for Elliott,” Tavares said.

The pair will start March 5 when the Nationals play Baltimore in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

Slowes said he jumped at the chance to return to Washington.

“I was there for 11 years. It’s really where I established myself as a play-by-play guy in a major market and showed I could have some staying power,” Slowes said. “The only reason I left was that I thought I had a better opportunity at the time. And the reason I’m coming back is I definitely have a better opportunity at this time.”

Armas to open

Tony Armas Jr. will start for the Nationals in their exhibition opener Wednesday against the New York Mets at Space Coast Stadium, manager Frank Robinson said yesterday.

Robinson said Armas will get the nod mostly because of the calendar.

“That’s the way the schedule works out. We set it up for Opening Day,” Robinson said. “Two innings.”

It will be Armas’ first chance to show he has recovered completely after missing parts of two seasons after shoulder surgery in 2003.

“That’s the good part. I’m happy about that,” Armas said. “It doesn’t matter if it was going to be the first [game], second, or third, fourth, whatever. I don’t care. I just want to be out there.”

Armas went 2-4 with a 4.88 ERA in an injury-plagued season last year with the Montreal Expos. The right-hander made 16 starts but missed the first 49 games because of his on-going shoulder problems.

This winter in his native Venezuela, Armas allowed just two earned runs in 14 innings in the Venezuelan Winter League.

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