For 15 seasons, Boston Red Sox fans allowed Don Orsillo into their homes as he served as the team's play-by-play announcer for three World Series runs in 2004, 2007 and 2013.
After the 2015 season, NESN, the team's television broadcast partner owned by Fenway Sports Group, replaced Orsillo with Dave O'Brien. And, while O'Brien is a professional broadcaster who's great at his job, fans have longed for the day of Orsillo's legendary broadcasts with the late Jerry Remy.
This past weekend, Orsillo returned to Fenway Park as a visiting broadcaster with the San Diego Padres for the first time since he left.
Over the weekend, he spoke about the love that he still has for the fan base.
“I’m amazed by it,” Orsillo said (via. MassLive). “I truly am. I thought having been gone for nine years that there wouldn’t be many people who remembered. But as I said in my last game here, someone asked how I wanted to be remembered and I said, ‘Being remembered at all is enough for me.’ That’s how I felt then; that’s how I feel in 2024.
“I believe to this day that the broadcaster’s role is that of a family member. You truly become a family member. You’re on, in their living rooms every night, every day. Or you’re on in the background while they’re doing something. You’re their voice of summer. The bond that people have with broadcasters is why I got into this business in the first place.”
While Orsillo still feels welcomed by the fans in Boston, he's lost those positive feelings for the team that he grew up supporting.
“I believe when you’re fired from a team, you lose your allegiance to that team as far as caring whether they win or lose,” Orsillo said. “That was part of the deal: If I’m out, so are they. I can’t be a fan of someone who’s not a fan of mine. You’re going to like someone who despises you or replaces you? I couldn’t do it. My allegiance had to end, especially where I went to another franchise, where I am invested. That fandom ended. Now, my love for the Bruins, Celtics and Patriots has not changed — they didn’t fire me.”
Orsillo has every right to be bitter. There was no reason that the Red Sox should've moved on from him, and that's truly one of the first moments where ownership showed their disconnect from the fan base.
