Castiglione thrilled by Sox season
BOSTON — The Red Sox have won three World Series championships since that fateful night when Aaron Boone’s walk-off homer temporarily kept the Curse of the Bambino alive in 2003, and they now have a chance to make it four titles in 14 years. Can you believe it?
Joe Castiglione might ask the same question. In fact, some time over the next week, Castiglione, radio voice of the Red Sox for 36 years, may use that exact phrase if Boston beats the Los Angeles Dodgers in this year’s Fall Classic. “Can you believe it?” has become somewhat a trademark for Castiglione, beginning with the Sox’ historic, curse-busting World Series clincher in 2004.
Or Castiglione may go another route. He just doesn’t know yet.
“You think about it, but you can’t script it,” the Hamden native said on Tuesday afternoon from his radio booth at Fenway Park, prior to Game 1 of the World Series. “I thought about it forever in ’04. You never know for sure it’s gonna happen, but when I was pretty sure, there were a lot of things I thought about. Then it comes to a conclusion, and you don’t know how it’s gonna end. You just hope it’s something definitive — not a half-swing or, worse, an umprie’s review. It would be the fourth, we’d be the first team with four (this century), so that would play into it.”
Of course, beating the
Dodgers is no sure thing. Either way, the Red Sox have already had an historic season, winning a clubrecord 108 regular-season games. Castiglione rates this as perhaps the best team he’s covered.
“If they win,” he noted, “they’re the best team we’ve had.”
He is sure of one thing. “This is probably the most exciting team we’ve ever had,” Castiglione noted. “They hit home runs, they make great catches, they steal bases, they pitch. Most of all, they’re wonderful young guys. We’ve got guys who’ve come up throug the system — Jackie (Bradley, Jr.), Mookie (Betts), the catchers, (Rafael) Devers, (Xander) Bogaerts. These are top-quality people, as well.”
It’s been an eventful season in the booth for Castiglione, 71. He’s fallen out of his seat while making a call, and found himself in the strange environs of the visiting announcers’ booth for an inning against the Yankees.
While calling Andrew Benentendi’s acrobatic, game-clinching catch in Game 3 of the ALCS in Houston, Castiglione got out of his chair to get a better view.
“I made the call and went to backpedal in a chair with wheels,” he recalled. “The chair went one way, and I didn’t go.”
Fortunately his radio partner, Tim Neverett, was able to help him up quickly. Still, the incident went viral and made the rounds on the MLB Channel, ESPN and other outlets.
“I was embarrassed at first, but I guess it was funny,” Castiglione said.
A few weeks earlier, Castiglione swapped radio booths with Yankee radio voice John Sterling for an inning. New York’s Giancarlo Stanton hit a grand slam that inning, allowing Sterling to go off on one of his trademark calls over the Boston airwaves.
“I was gonna do a Mel Allen, ‘Going, going gone ...’ but it was out so fast, I just said ‘Gone,’ ” Castiglione recalled. “It was a bullet.”
Castiglione has lived in Marshfield, Mass. for years but still gets back to Hamden a few times a year. His mother, Pamela, just sold and moved out of the home she’s lived in since 1951, moving up the road about a mile to live with Castiglione’s sister, Cheryl. His brother, Frank, and sisters, Emily and Carol, used to live within about a twomile radius of each other and still all live in the Hamden/New Haven area.
Castiglione will be back in the booth next year and has no plans for retirement. He and his wife are in good health, and he’s simply having too much fun.
“I don’t have a timetable,” he noted. “I love it.”
Castiglione has some work to do if he’s going to catch Vin Scully, the longtime former voice of the Dodgers who retired a couple of years ago. When Castiglione congratulated Scully on returning for a 65th season five years ago, Scully asked him how long he’d been on the job.
“Thirty-one years,” Castiglione said.
“Oh,” Scully replied, in classic Scully voice, “you can do it, too.” Castiglione did the math. “I figured I’d be 97,” he realized.
Can you believe it?