A NEW VOICE
Werner: Why Orsillo had to go
NEW YORK — It was going to be impossible for the Red Sox and NESN to move the popular and talented Don Orsillo out of the television booth without there being a major public outcry.
Still, the situation could have been handled better — with better timing and a whole lot more candor. But the news of Orsillo’s ouster was leaked out, as often happens in these cases, and then Red Sox/NESN management got quiet instead of getting out in front of the story.
Which brings us to the question of the day: Why, exactly, is Orsillo being replaced?
The answer, in the opinion of Red Sox chairman Tom Werner and NESN president/CEO Sean McGrail, is that they believe Dave O’Brien, currently the play-by-play man on the radio side, will be an upgrade.
It has nothing to do with ratings, they said, though Werner and McGrail both concede that ratings are down this season. It’s just that they want O’Brien.
And now they’re saying so.
Speaking about this issue for the first time since WEEI’s Gerry Callahan broke the news of Orsillo’s ouster last week, Werner said, “I think when the opportunity to bring Dave aboard came to us, after a lot of thought we decided, you know what, he’s one of the premier broadcasters in the country and we thought he’d be a great addition to the team.”
Speaking by telephone from Boston, Werner said that O’Brien is “well known for bringing out the nuances of baseball strategy, sharing insights about players. It was nothing against Don. It was the opportunity to bring on Dave.”
No doubt about it: O’Brien is a terrific baseball play-by-play voice. He’s worked seamlessly with Joe Castiglione on the radio side, and he does games on the national side for ESPN. If the Red Sox and NESN were worried O’Brien would eventually land a TV gig in a prominent market, or gain a higher profile at ESPN, well, that would have been a worthwhile fear.
Still, there’s the awkward manner in which Orsillo’s ouster has been handled.
“I understand it has created some controversy,” Werner said. “And I also understand that Don is a great broadcaster, but we felt that starting next year it was worth going in a different direction reenergizing the broadcast. And when the opportunity presented itself to bring Dave O’Brien to NESN, we just felt after a great deal of thought and consideration that was the right decision to make.”
Werner used the wrong word there, the simple reason being that Red Sox telecasts on NESN do not lack energy. If anything, they sometimes have too much energy when Orsillo and color analyst Jerry Remy stray from the game action.
Werner told me he might have used a better word than “re-energize.” But he — and McGrail — should just stick with the truth: They wanted O’Brien. Fine. The mistake was going after him in midseason, as there was no way this wasn’t going to get out. Had they waited until the season was over, Orsillo still would have had plenty of time to explore another baseball gig.
“It was a miscommunication,” said McGrail. “We informed Don almost immediately when the decision had been made, within a few days. . . . We thought it would be kept confidential. It wasn’t.”
As for Remy’s future with NESN, McGrail told me, “Jerry’s in our plans for next season. He will be on the telecasts. We haven’t finalized that, but he will be involved.” In a reduced role? “We don’t know yet,” McGrail said. “We’re working through that. We weren’t going to talk about that until October, but he will be with us for sure.”
Assuming Remy is still in the booth next season, it will be interesting to see if the former Sox second baseman has the same rapport with O’Brien that he has had with Orsillo. After all, it took a while for Remy to warm up to Orsillo when the two were paired full-time in 2001. Plus, Remy froze out Josh Maurer when the voice of the Triple-A Pawtucket Red Sox spent a week in the big-league booth earlier this summer.
“Some of that will develop over time,” said McGrail of a potential O’Brien/Remy tandem. “I won’t say it will be perfect from Day 1.”
‘We felt that starting next year it was worth going in a different direction.’
— TOM WERNER RED SOX CHAIRMAN