What to know:
Bobb Vergiels, 74, spent 15 years announcing for the Detroit Tigers, 10 years as the Detroit Lions’ press box announcer and 24 years announcing football and basketball at Wayne State University.
Vergiels announced two World Series during his time with the Tigers, including the team’s 2006 World Series run.
He began experiencing kidney stones in 1981 and said he eventually passed more than 100.
In 2024, a new urologist discovered Vergiels had stage 4 kidney failure. He was 72 at the time.
Vergiels worried he was too old for a transplant, but doctors at Henry Ford Health determined he was healthy enough to undergo the procedure.
While announcing a Toledo Walleye hockey game in January, a woman approached him with a message saying she had heard he needed a kidney and wanted to help.
DETROIT — If you’ve been to a sporting event in Southeast Michigan in the last 25 years, you’ve likely heard the voice of Bobb Vergiels.
Whether it was at Comerica Park, Ford Field, or Crisler Arena, his familiar voice welcomed fans for years.
“I was with the Tigers for 15 years, with the Detroit Lions as the press box announcer for 10, and I announced football and basketball at Wayne State University for 24 years,” Vergiels, 74, said. “Announcing for the Tigers was amazing for me because I was there for the 10 years that are arguably the 10 best years in Detroit Tigers history.”
“When we had Dave Dombrowski as the general manager and Jim Leyland as the manager,” he said. “I got to announce two World Series.”
However, Bobb had been living with a very serious health issue. One that had been with him for decades.
“My dad had kidney stones, and in 1981, I had my first one, and I didn’t know what it was,” he said. “All I knew was it was a tremendous pain. How was I ever to know that I would eventually pass over 100 of them?”
Fast forward 25 years to October 22, 2006. It’s Game 2 of the 2006 World Series, and Vergiels is in the press box for one of the biggest moments of his life.
It was also one of the most painful.
“I had just a horrible kidney stone attack; I was in pain,” he said. “I was almost doubled over in pain, and I couldn’t dare take a pain pill because it would make me sound like I had been drinking.”
“So, I had to do this game with a kidney stone,” he said. “I couldn’t wait until the last out of the ninth inning so I could take my pain pill.”
Bobb lived with this for nearly 20 more years before a visit to a new urologist in 2024 led to a stunning discovery.
“My urologist had retired, and I got a new urologist, and he did some checks,” he said. “He says, ‘Do you realize that you’re in stage four kidney failure?’ I said, no, I didn’t know that.”
‘God told me I needed to offer a kidney’
Bobb was 72 years old at the time of the diagnosis and thought he was too old for a kidney transplant. He went through a litany of tests at Henry Ford Health and eventually was deemed healthy enough for a transplant despite his age.
“I feel strange about taking a kidney because why didn’t you give it to a 50-year-old guy who can live another 20 years,” he said. “No matter how I do, I don’t know how long I would go.”
His doctors thought otherwise.
“People have transplanted people up to as old as 80 years old,” Dr. Atsushi Yoshida, the head of transplant surgery at Henry Ford Health, said. “We know people 80 years old who look perfectly fine. So, I think a lot of it has to do more with physical age than actual age.
Bobb would spend the next year and a half waiting for a donor – even putting out the call on his Facebook page. However, it was a chance meeting while he was at work announcing at a Walleye game in Toledo back in January that changed everything.
“Going into the third period of this game, there was a knock on the glass behind me, and there was a lady standing there, and she turned her phone toward me, and it said I hear you need a kidney,” Vergiels said. “The next day we chatted, and she said, ‘God told me I needed to offer a kidney, and I heard you needed one.’”
“Wow, this person who didn’t even know me is stepping up to save my life,” he said. “That’s just incredible.”
What seemed like something scripted in a movie had seemingly come true for Bobb. Then it took an even more unlikely turn.
“She went through all the tests through Henry Ford and called me several months later and said, ’We’re a match,” he said. “A couple of days later, Henry Ford called me and said we have another match for you.”
“At the last minute, it was switched,” he said.
In July, after years of waiting, Bobb underwent a robotically assisted kidney transplant, a minimally invasive approach that can help reduce recovery time. Despite the amount of time and severity of his ailment, Bobb also did not need dialysis.
“We were able to transplant him preemptively before he actually needed dialysis,” Dr. Yoshida said. “By doing that, people live a lot longer.”
“50 percent of people will survive five years after starting dialysis,” he said. “After transplant, your chances of living are up to 13, 14, 15 years pretty easily.”
Bobb’s been recovering in the three months since his transplant and has taken a step back from public address announcing while he recovers. He hopes to get back in the box in the next few months.
He also hopes to get a chance to eventually meet the person who donated the kidney. He remains thankful for what’s in front of him.
“I have three granddaughters, one that’s going to graduate from law school, two from college,” he said. “I want to see them graduate.”
“I have some grandkids who are 10, 8, and 6 and I’d sure like to see them go as far in school as they can,” Now, I may have that opportunity.”
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