“Sometimes things just don’t work out,”. Should Jerry Remy Retire permanently from radio?

Case Spurs Fan Debate Over Boston Announcer

By KATHARINE Q. SEELYEMARCH 24, 2014

BOSTON — Jerry Remy, the longtime color announcer and former second baseman for the Boston Red Sox, has been a superstar in New England for decades. He owns several restaurants bearing his name and reigns as president of Red Sox Nation, the team’s crazed, irreverent, die-hard fans.

But in August, Mr. Remy’s fame turned to notoriety. His son, Jared, now 35, was accused of murdering his girlfriend, Jennifer Martel, 27. The two had a daughter, Arianna Remy, then 4, who, the police said, was at home when her father stabbed her mother repeatedly with a knife. With her father behind bars and her mother dead, the little girl has been living for several months with a foster family.

Now, Jerry Remy and his wife, Phoebe, are seeking custody of Arianna. So are Ms. Martel’s parents, Brian and Patricia Martel, as are their son Brian Jr. and his wife, Andrea, who have young children of their own.

The families are set to face off against each other in a custody battle on Tuesday in a courtroom in Cambridge, Mass.; the proceedings are closed to the news media.
Photo
Jared Remy is accused of murdering his girlfriend Jennifer Martel. Credit Pool photo by Ted Fitzgerald

The case has drawn national attention largely because of Jerry Remy’s celebrity and the questions it raises about the extent of parental responsibility. Mr. Remy, who said at the time of the murder that he felt “disgust and remorse,” immediately took a leave of absence from the broadcast booth and sat out the rest of the season, even as the Red Sox went on to win the World Series.

He has returned this season, his 27th, and has been in Florida providing color commentary during spring training. But as he prepares for opening day at Fenway Park on April 4, his decision to go back to work has drawn mixed reviews. Supporters on websites and social media have said that Mr. Remy should not be blamed or punished for his son’s problems; opponents, some of them outraged, suggest that he enabled his son’s behavior and that his jocular patter in the booth was inappropriate while his son faces murder charges.

While the murder has been widely covered in Boston, a four-page report in The Boston Globe on Sunday detailed Jared Remy’s history of violence over 17 years and showed a pattern of leniency toward him in various courts. In almost 20 cases in which he was the defendant, the article said, he was let off; the murder case is the exception.

The most recent episode was on Aug. 14, the night before Ms. Martel’s murder. Jared Remy was arraigned on charges that he slammed her head into a bathroom mirror. But Ms. Martel did not appear in court to extend a restraining order she had against him, and he was let go. The next day, witnesses told the police that they saw Mr. Remy stabbing Ms. Martel on the patio of their suburban townhouse. Neighbors called 911 while one tried to pull Mr. Remy, a large, hulking man, off Ms. Martel. The police found Mr. Remy, shirtless and covered in blood, at the scene. He has pleaded not guilty and is scheduled for trial in October.

Jerry Remy has never offered a defense of his son.

“Words cannot describe my wife’s and my grief,” he said in a statement at the time of the murder. “Son or not, I am at loss for words articulating my disgust and remorse over this senseless and tragic act.”

Jerry Remy, a private man despite his very public job, lay low over the winter. As thoughts turned to spring training, many Red Sox fans wondered whether he would return to the broadcast booth, and whether he should.

“Is Remy obligated to retire permanently because of his son’s alleged transgression?” asked Dan Shaughnessy, a sports columnist for The Globe. Referring to Don Orsillo, Mr. Remy’s partner in the booth, Mr. Shaughnessy asked, “How is it possible to go back to the magical Remy-Orsillo formula of humor and banter during Sox telecasts?”

In January, Mr. Remy, 61, broke his silence and told reporters that he would return to his job with the New England Sports Network, which broadcasts the games.

Jennifer Martel, who was killed in August. She was the mother of a young daughter, Arianna, who is now the subject of a custody dispute. Credit The Jennifer Martel Memorial Fund.

“I felt for a couple of months, for two or three months, that it was over, there’s no way I was coming back,” he said then. “I had two main concerns: what the public would think and whether I could be myself.” But at the prompting of friends and his wife, he decided to come back.

“I’ve never been a quitter, and I don’t intend to be one now,” he said. “I’ve been in professional baseball in some capacity for 40 years. It’s where I feel I belong.”

He also spoke of his son. “Jared’s had issues from a very young age,” he said. “And we as a family have tried to do the very best we can to address those issues.”

“Sometimes things just don’t work out,” he added. “We’ve tried the best we possibly could to get him the help he needed.”

He also expressed concern for the Martels, saying his return to the booth was not meant in any way to minimize their grief.

In a statement on behalf of the Martels, Nancy Sterling, their family spokeswoman, said they had “no opinion” on Jerry Remy’s return to broadcasting because their sole focus was on gaining custody of Arianna, who is now 5.

Richard Martel, 77, grandfather of Jennifer and great-grandfather of Arianna, said in a telephone interview that it would be “a joke” if Jerry Remy were to win custody.

“It’s his son called up on murder charges,” Mr. Martel said.

“He thinks everything is on his side because he has money,” he added. “Money won’t love that child.”

Mr. Remy was largely silent in the booth on Sunday. It was not clear whether he would attend the custody proceedings in Cambridge on Tuesday.

A version of this article appears in print on March 25, 2014, on page A19 of the New York edition with the headline: Case Spurs Fan Debate Over Boston Announcer.