Streamlining NESN’s Sox booth would benefit fans

The list of things worth yearning for from 2020, baseballrelated or otherwise, has to be pretty short. But here’s one that rattles around in the brain of an incurably nostalgic sports-media columnist this time of year:

I deeply miss Jerry Remy and Dennis Eckersley on NESN’s Red Sox broadcasts.

I know, I’m hardly alone here. Individually, both were superb analysts — two of the best I’ve ever heard, regionally, nationally, anywhere — whose rich insights on the game were enhanced when they began to reveal their humanity.

Once Remy realized that Eckersley was a true friend and not someone trying to take his job, their bond strengthened, and they began working together more often (including for approximately 30 games in a three-man booth with play-by-play voice Dave O’Brien in 2019), developing the kind of rapport that is scarce in sports broadcasting.

What they had cannot be concocted by someone assembling a roster of broadcasters in a boardroom. It has to be authentic. Remy and Eckersley knew that, and O’Brien deserves more credit than he got for initiating their most compelling conversations and letting them riff.

They were at their best in 2020, during the COVID-19-abbreviated 60-game season, when so much else around us seemed to be at its worst.

Sometimes they were hilarious, such as when discussing a trip to the famed New York City disco Studio 54 as Red Sox teammates in the late 1970s.

Often, they were downright poignant, such as when, late in that lost and irrelevant season when they called the games from NESN’s antiseptic Watertown studios, they discussed how fear and competitiveness left them unable to enjoy their playing careers in the moment.

Maybe such a conversation wouldn’t have happened in a normal season, in a normal world. But with Eckersley and Remy, I’m guessing it would have, at least on nights when the game lacked any compelling angles. Their kinship over shared experiences — and their acknowledgment of their differences, too — was real, and we were so lucky that they let us listen in.

It wouldn’t be fair to expect NESN to find Red Sox broadcasters who can replicate what Remy, Eckersley, and O’Brien had. I recognize that. Remy died in late October 2021 at age 68 after a long battle with cancer. Eckersley retired a year later, moving back to his native Bay Area to spend more time with his grandchildren. NESN lost not one but two irreplaceable broadcasters.

But I do wish NESN would take a more streamlined approach to its Red Sox booth, in the hopes of not only developing more chemistry between the broadcasters, but in providing more consistency for viewers.

The network announced Thursday that its broadcast team will include O’Brien and backup play-by-play voice Mike Monaco, along with color analysts Kevin Youkilis, Lou Merloni, Will Middlebrooks, and Kevin Millar. Youkilis will work more games than anyone, approximately 75, and yet that’s not even half of the schedule. Merloni will do 40-45, with another 70 or so on WEEI. Middlebrooks will have around 30-35, while also contributing to its studio programs. Millar is back for another 20-ish, with the over/under on his meandering references to the 2004 champs set at 149,499.5 for the season.

Merloni and Middlebrooks are good listens, Youkilis is fine, and O’Brien works to bring out the best in all of them. And the group is as consistent as can be with last year, when the late and beloved Tim Wakefield was occasionally part of the booth before his brain cancer diagnosis.

Still, the piece-it-together approach is presumably better for NESN’s budget than it is aesthetically for Red Sox fans that grew up listening to excellent broadcast tandems, your favorite depending upon your generation. (I’m still partial to Ned Martin and Remy, who began working together on NESN in 1988.)

And to get to this decent rotation it has now, NESN has subjected fans to some analysts that did not have staying power, from Carlos Pena and Jarrod Saltalamacchia in 2019, to Ellis Burks (really wanted that one to work) in ’21, to Tony Massarotti in ’22.

I recognize that some ex-players don’t want to commit to anything close to a full schedule, but that’s too much roster churn and too many bad ideas for what should be one of the marquee jobs in regional baseball broadcasting.

So, what’s the ideal? You mean besides watching YouTube clips of old Eckersley and Remy broadcasts, back when the Red Sox had a competitive team?

Middlebrooks continues to improve and has an appealing self-deprecating humor. He has a bright future, in the booth or studio.

But to me, of the current group, Merloni is best suited to be the No. 1 analyst. He played for the Sox, he’s plugged in and passionate about the game, and like Remy, his Massachusetts bona fides are right there in his voice.

He also keeps getting better the further away he gets from the daily sports radio, everything-stinks grind.

Merloni would be excellent as NESN’s main, 130-or-so-games-per-season Red Sox color analyst, assuming the day comes when the network decides to have one again.