The Red Sox, who have angered fans with their decision to dismiss beloved play-by-play announcer Don Orsillo after this season, reportedly tried to defuse the backlash by asking Orsillo to lie about the reason behind his departure.
According to Boston radio station WEEI, NESN requested Orsillo tweet that the decision to part ways with the network was mutual, when in fact the network dumped him for Dave O’Brien in order to "re-energize” the team’s television’s broadcasts. Orsillo declined.
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Orsillo, who has been the network's play-by-play voice for Red Sox baseball since 2001, has the support of more than 58,000 fans who have signed an online petition to keep him in the broadcast booth.
O'Brien has been part of the Red Sox radio broadcast on WEEI since 2007 and calls Wednesday Night Baseball on ESPN. He also serves as a college basketball and NBA announcer for ESPN. The Quincy, Mass., native called the Marlins from 1993-2001.
Ominsport's Marc Lancaster contributed to this report.