Voice of the San Diego Padres got his start at Lakewood High

TAMPA, Fla. — Alex Miniak is in his 11th season at the Voice of Petco Park and the San Diego Padres.

This Largo native credits the Center for Advanced Technologies and Communications program at Lakewood High School in St. Petersburg with helping him achieve his broadcast success.

“In CATCOM, I learned about audio and video production,” Miniak, a 1995 Lakewood graduate, said. “That is what started my career path. I would lay down audio tracks for new packages, montages, video yearbook. I really enjoyed the production aspect of it.”

After graduating from the University of Florida’s College of Journalism and Communication, he bounced around the country working full time in radio - that’s until he found a job with a Double-A baseball team in New England, the New Hampshire FisherCats.

“I was the on-field MC hosting the games, then the team president came down to me and said, ‘Hey, you belong upstairs.’ I spent six years there.

Before landing the job with the Padres, he auditioned for similar positions at Wrigley Field and Fenway Park.

A highlight of his career was working on the Tampa Bay Rays’ playoff run in 2020 when the Rays played in the bubble in San Diego. He’s also the voice for all 30 MLB stadiums in the popular video game MLB The Show.

“What I found now is that I love marketing, media, and sports and love doing it live,” he said. “That’s my calling card now, live event production. It’s a huge adrenaline rush, and I love every minute of it.”

Because of the video game, Miniak has fans all over the country, but his biggest fan is still in Largo, hoping to catch his son’s voice in the background of a Padres game.

“My dad is a nightly Rays watcher in Largo; in fact, he watches both games back to back every night,” Maniak said. “He’ll watch the Rays game in the east and the Padres in the west. He goes to bed at midnight.”