Why can Don (red sox announcer)?

I don't get it. There's got to be something going on behind the scenes
because he certainly has done a great job at the mike.

What I read is they blame him for the bad ratings.

Right - like the poor performance of the Sox has nothing to do with that - if anything Don and Jerry keep more viewers than would have been there.

Idiots.

What a crying shame. As recentl;y as 2 years ago, he and Rem-Dog had an industry/media rating of 5th best team announcing team for all the major league teams. Is it not bad enough with the slide of the team into the toilet with the last place finish... as well as the shift at the top over to Dombromski. The ratings slip has nothing to do with them...for sure.

The VP head of programming of NESN has had it in for Orsillo. Witness the following:

"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.

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.
— 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."

That is exactly my thought - someone, much smarter, is going to scoop him up quick. Heck Orsillo probably get a nice increase too - he is going to be better off, but us Boston fans are not.

Jerry was upset too.

“He’s been an outstanding partner for 15 years, and I’m truly going to miss him on a work-related side, and I’m going to miss him on a personal side because he’s also become a very, very close friend of mine,” said Remy, standing in the visiting team’s broadcast booth at U.S. Cellular Field, his briefcase in one hand, his voice trembling the more he spoke.

“It’s been awfully difficult on him, it really has. It’s difficult on everybody. You get used to somebody, and you’re friends, and you work together for such a long time, you have such a good time doing your job, and it’s over. I’ve been very fortunate because I’ve worked with a lot of good people, and he’s right at the top of the list.”

The banter between Orsillo and Remy was one of the chief reasons viewers tuned into NESN, especially in losing seasons such as this one. No tangent was obscure enough to go off on, and many times, the end result was a fit of infectious giggles.

“For the last 15 years, it’s been an absolute pleasure to work with Don,” Remy said. “I can remember him sitting in the booth when the job became available. He was asking me if there was any chance he could probably get it. I said a few things to a few people, and he did get it. I know that he’s going to land on his feet, and he’s going to be in great shape. I’m sure they’re going to be lining up for his services, I really mean that. He’s terrific at what he does. He’s been absolutely fabulous to work with. I love him. He’s going to do just fine. I’m not worried about that part of it.”

Thanks for including that article and feedback. I'm a life-time RS fan with a family full of fans. I'm no longer in Boston area and don't subscribe to NESN but I still remember their broadcasts.

Furthermore, Boston throughout the years has been blessed with famous and amazing RS (and other major sports) announcers. You can load up the sports broadcasters HOF (if there was one) with ex-RS announcers.

My memory (and some Wiki search) yielded this list - and these are among the most famous, popular and are among the best in sports IMHO - many of whom went on to fame as national sports broadcasters:

Curt Gowdy (51-65)
Ned Martin (61-71, 79-92)

Don Orsillo ('01-15)
Sean McDonough (in booth and in studio)
Jerry Remy ('88- present)
Tom Larson (in studio 75-84)
Ken Harrleson
Dick Stockton (75-78)
Johnny Pesky (69-74)
Mel Parnell (65-68)
Ken Coleman (66-74)

...apparently Ken Coleman stayed in the radio broadcast booth 'til his retirement in 1989. The listings was mainly about TV broadcasters. Ken was the (local and ?) voice of 1967, 1986 World Series.

Coleman was inducted to the Boston Red Sox Hall of Fame on May 18, 2000 at the age of 75.

Fans came out to voice their support for Don Orsillo, but the folks at Fenway Park weren't interested in hearing it.

After NESN announced the longtime play-by-play announcer would be replaced by Dave O'Brien next season, fans showed up to Monday night's Red Sox game with signs and fliers supporting Orsillo, according to the Boston Globe.

"To prevent a potentially embarrassing scene, NESN moved its pregame show from Yawkey Way to a more secure spot near the Red Sox dugout," Globe columnist Dan Shaughnessy wrote. "Two Sox employees told the Globe that workers at Fenway turnstiles were ordered to confiscate any signs supporting Orsillo as fans entered Fenway."

@Jared_Carrabis guy behind us had 2 security guys try to take his sign and wouldn't let them pic.twitter.com/HmeHYax0VG — tommy rodrigues (@tommyrod90) September 1, 2015

Shaughnessy's line about signs being confiscated was later removed from the column.

The Globe deleted the line about the Red Sox confiscating Don Orsillo signs, but screenshots are a thing. pic.twitter.com/IRiBbrxheb — Jared Carrabis (@Jared_Carrabis) September 1, 2015

This comes after fans started a petition Tuesday asking NESN to keep Orsillo as the voice of the Red Sox. As of Monday night, it had more than 50,000 supporters.

http://www.sportingnews.com/mlb/story/2015-08-31/don-orsillo-red-sox-fan-support-sign-fenway-park-nesn

Kinda funny, huh, that the Boston Globe writer had to change his column -- couldn't have anything to do with the fact that John Henry owns the Boston Globe?

I move away from Boston and sports goes to hell in a hand-basket. It's all MY fault!

Seriously, that's disgusting. I'm sure that Shaughnessey will be opening his mouth some more...el;elsewhere in media.

So I figure then the herald has to have said something about this... (I edited out the Patriots figures - but included the link - Patriots have the opposite support)...




New England sports fans are down on the Red Sox — especially the decision by the team’s bosses to jettison popular game caller Don Orsillo — and fewer fans than ever are willing to call the Fenway nine their favorite sports team, according to a new survey.

A whopping 71 percent of fans rated the decision to part with Orsillo as “poor” — the lowest grade allowed, with only 1 percent rating the move “excellent.”

“It’s one of the most unpopular decisions the Red Sox and NESN could have made,” said Susan Mulcahy of Channel Media & Marketing Research. “And when you add it on to the other decisions they’ve made, they’ve infuriated the masses.”

The respondents also were way down on Sox ownership, with only 4 percent of those surveyed saying John Henry, Tom Werner and the departing Larry Lucchino did the best job with their team — putting them, like their team, in last place.

http://www.bostonherald.com/inside_track/the_inside_track/2015/08/fans_show_love_for_don_orsillo_tom_brady

So after working with Jerry Remy for 15 years and knowing the two were more than work colleagues, they did not include Don's short video for a tribute to Jerry. What a bunch of idiots.

https://www.boston.com/sports/boston-red-sox/2022/04/21/don-orsillo-jerry-remy-tribute-red-sox/?p1=hp_secondary

serious bad blood there between Orsillo and NESN...

Thanks for pointing out he's an announcer.

I thought Why Can Don was the new Chinese president.

And still serious bad blood between the fans and NESN on this decision to this day fans are angry about it.



You know the fans do not forget - simply scroll down to the bottom of the article I linked and there are over 50 comments people added to the article. Red Sox fans are if anything else dedicated and loyal (maybe a bit crazy) but yeah loyal. You can see how PO'd they are.