“There are the major leagues and the minor leagues, that's all,” Neely said Thursday after being named the successor to Matt Vasgersian as the Padres play-by-play announcer on the Channel 4.

Neely knows. He called minor league games for 19 seasons before he got the Padres job.

“This is my dream job,” Neely said.

“The main thing that I have always wanted to do was be the play-by-play man on television or radio for a major league baseball team,” he said. “I cannot make it simpler than that.

“But there are so few jobs that so rarely come open. And when they do there is so much competition for every job. I'm honored that I've been selected.”

Neely's journey as a play-by-play man began in 1990 with the Boise Hawks of the short-season Single-A Northwest League. “Troy Percival was the backup catcher,” he said. “It wasn't until the next season that they converted him into a relief pitcher.”

Neely, 43, made three stops at Single-A before advancing to Triple-A Louisville. And over the past 13 seasons, Neely was the play-by-play man, on both radio and television, for Double-A Tulsa.

“Tulsa was great to me,” Neely said. “While I was there, they encouraged me to do other things.”

Starting in 1990, Neely began doing play-by-play on the backup game of ESPN's national package. “Ten percent of the country got me each week,” Neely joked.

In 2007, he was hired by Fox's Big Ten Network to do NCAA basketball, baseball and Olympic sports.

Neely will join a team that includes Mark Grant and Tony Gwynn as analysts. Vasgersian left Channel 4 to become an anchor with the new MLB Network.

A St. Louis native and a University of Kansas grad, Neely will make his Channel 4 debut March 7 in the Padres' first televised spring training game from Peoria, Ariz.

“With his network experience, Mark will be right at home with Channel 4's award-winning production team,” station General Manager Craig Nichols said. “Mark is going to bring a fresh perspective and personality that will complement Grant's color commentary.”