Boston Red Sox play-by-play man Don Orsillo will not return to the NESN booth next season according to multiple sources. WEEI was the first outlet to break the news, and Chad Finn of the Boston Globe followed up with his own report.
[On this week's StewPod: Angels pitcher Hector Santiago talks about his huge autograph collection.]
Orsillo has been in the role since 2001, but his contract was up at the end of this season. It will not be renewed by NESN.
According to the Globe, Orsillo may have been pushed out for disagreeing with a new policy.
According to industry sources, Orsillo was never a favorite of Joseph Maar, NESN’s vice president of programming and production/executive producer who arrived at the network in July 2012. Last year, Maar implemented the policy of having its broadcasters — Orsillo and analyst Jerry Remy, in this case — take in-season breaks.
A NESN spokesman said last year that the policy was implemented to keep broadcasters fresh, but it also serves another purpose: A week off during the season for its broadcasters means they must make up the week of work outside of baseball season, which is unusual given their grueling schedule from April through at least September. Orsillo, known as a team player among his colleagues at NESN, was resistant to this approach.
Orsillo was informed of the news during the weekend, but has not commented on the situation.
Don Orsillo, classy as always, offered no comment.
— Pete Abraham (@PeteAbe) August 25, 2015
At the same time, it's clear the news hit Orsillo pretty hard.
Again, Don O. not commenting. But he's clearly crushed. This really is a shame.
— Pete Abraham (@PeteAbe) August 25, 2015
And that's probably the right reaction. Orsillo was considered by many to be one of the best team broadcasters around. In a 2012 survey on FanGraphs, the Red Sox booth was voted the fifth best TV baseball experience in the game. Those rankings aren't gospel, of course, but they highlight that Orsillo and his partner, Jerry Remy, were well liked by a national audience.
Locally, fans and members of the media seem pretty upset about the whole thing.
Most overwhelming response I've ever had to a story. Amazing. https://t.co/Qvszd0RNYD
— Chad Finn (@GlobeChadFinn) August 25, 2015
If there's any positive to come from all of this, Orsillo probably won't be out of work for long. He's clearly a talented play-by-play man, and has showed off a lot of humor while in the booth.
Fans of the Red Sox will never forget the infamous pizza throwing incident, which Orsillo and Remy navigated perfectly.
[embedded content]
That's far from the only highlight you'll find where Orsillo and Remy handle a ridiculous situation with humor, but that's the best one out there. There's also video of the two dealing with an inappopriate fan moment as well as footage of them talking about Remy losing a tooth on air. It's really exceptional stuff.
While those situations show off Orsillo's humor, he is also regarded as a tremendous play-by-play analyst. That should get lost just because he makes us laugh, even though he does a hell of a job as far as that's concerned.
[Check out Big League Stew on Tumblr for even more baseball awesomeness.]
Hopefully, Orsillo won't be out of work for long. The game is better, and a little more humorous, when he's calling balls and strikes from the booth.
More MLB coverage from Yahoo Sports:
- - - - - - -
Chris Cwik is a writer for Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at christophercwik@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @Chris_Cwik
- Sports & Recreation
- Arts & Entertainment
- Red Sox
- Don Orsillo
- NESN
-- Delivered by Feed43 service
Posta un commento