Airwaves full of color
Boston fans fortunate to have such great broadcast analysts
To repeat the news from earlier this week: Jerry Remy has never been better in his role as NESN’s ingame Red Sox analyst.
We were all saying it even before the announcement that Remy has again been diagnosed with cancer. We’ve all been saying it because it’s fact.
But it got me to thinking: We’re living in pretty good times in terms of what we’re getting from our exjock, on-the-scene color analysts. In an era when all four of our big league sports teams go into each season with a chance to win a championship (and often do), our color analysts are delivering championship commentary and entertainment.
Maybe it’s just me, but I like all of them, and for different reasons. Feel free to disagree, but what’s not to like about . . .
Jerry Remy (Red Sox, NESN) — No need to get into the specifics all over again, other than to point out that the Rem Dawg is funny, informed and on top of the play. Bonus Points: “Here comes the pizza” remains one of the great offthe-cuff comments in the history of Boston sports broadcasting.
Dennis Eckersley (Red Sox, NESN) — He brings a Hall of Fame resume and his trusty Eck Dictionary to the booth, and NESN viewers are the better for it. We don’t know how expansive a role Eck will play moving forward, but here’s hoping there’s more Dave O’Brien Remy-Eck awaiting us. Bonus Points: His one-onone interview with Kirk Gibson, who hit that epic pinch-hit home run off him in the 1988 World Series, is a Top 10 NESN moment for 2018.
Lou Merloni (Red Sox, WEEI) — His role as a daily talk-show host has emboldened him to be more critical of the team than other color analysts, and for a former infielder he’s surprisingly good at breaking down pitching mechanics. WEEI needs to expand his role in the booth. Bonus Points: The Framingham South High School and Providence College graduate is one of three locally raised Italian-Americans to hit a home run in his first Fenway Park at-bat, joining Eddie Pellagrini and Tony Conigliaro.
Cedric Maxwell (Celtics, 98.5 The Sports Hub) — He’s goofy, he’s irreverent, he’s unpredictable . . . and he’s really, really good at breaking down a game. Max has a unique talent for turning off the laugh track when the game gets serious, and serious words need to be spoken. Bonus Points: His “I got the ball!” outburst that interrupted play-byplay man Sean Grande’s eloquent postgame oratory after the Celtcs clinched the 2007-08 NBA championship is forever Radio Gold.
Tommy Heinsohn (Celtics, NBC Sports New England) — Tommy is not unlike 92-year-old iconic producer-director-writer Mel Brooks in that younger people really dig him. Heinsohn, 83, is a homer who wears the badge proudly, and that in itself is a brand of honesty that connects with younger viewers. Heinsohn is not your father’s color analyst; he’s your color analyst. Bonus Points: Tommy Points. Extra Bonus Points: If you haven’t seen the classic Miller Lite television ad he did with the late, great NBA referee Mendy Rudolph years ago, you’re missing out. Watch it. You’ll thank me.
Bob Beers (Bruins, 98.5 The Sports Hub) — Offers less shtick than the others, but that’s partly because the rapid-fire nature of hockey play-by-play makes it more difficult to add a Vegas comedy act. He’s great at sizing up the entire ice surface on the fly, and for a guy not raised in Boston he seems to know a ton of Bruins history. Bonus Points: Though he only logged 77 regular-season games with the Bruins during his journeyman career, he did play for the University of Maine Black Bears, the Providence Bruins and, of course, the vaunted Maine Mariners.
Andy Brickley (Bruins, NESN) — Let’s just get this out of the way: Jack Edwards, NESN’s play-byplay man, is a lunatic, and thankfully so. And yet Brickley is a comfortable and exemplary partner, having found a way to interject his commentary and analysis without stepping on Jack’s toes. Bonus Points: Like Merloni, Brick is a local kid from Melrose and the University of New Hampshire. He played first base during his UNH days and by all accounts was a deadly hitter in the Intercity League.
Scott Zolak (Patriots, 98.5 The Sports Hub) — A graduate of the Tommy Heinsohn School of Broadcasting, Zo is a homer’s homer who often doesn’t even need a microphone to get his point across. Sometimes he just cuts out the middle man by leaning out the window of the booth and dealing directly with the Gillette Stadium masses. But when a play needs ’splainin’, he ’splains. Bonus Points: Back when Rob Gronkowski was still a toddler, Zolak was the clubhouse leader in submitting irreverent on-field celebrations. Had he been a baseball player, he’d have been drilled twice a week.