Jerry Remy Signs New Multiyear Deal

soxhop411

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BOSTON (AP) — Boston Red Sox TV analyst Jerry Remy has agreed to a new multiyear contract.

Cable network NESN announced the deal on Wednesday. It says the 64-year-old Remy will remain its primary color analyst and work 115 Red Sox games each season.

The length and other terms of the contract were not released.

Remy, a former Boston second baseman, has worked more than 3,900 Red Sox games during his broadcast career.
http://boston.cbslocal.com/2017/01/18/red-sox-tv-analyst-jerry-remy-signs-new-multiyear-deal/

So much for people thinking that NESN was pushing him out the door
 

Clears Cleaver

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I thought Jerry really upped his game last year with insightful and predictive analysis more often than not.

Good for him.
 

Hank Scorpio

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Glad to have Remy back in the fold. Hopefully we can lock Eck up for the remaining 47 games, or at minimum, drop Steve Lyons in the ocean somewhere.
 

Number45forever

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I got to the point last season where I'd hear Steve Lyons' voice on the broadcast and immediately switch to something else. Glad to have a big dose of Remy still.
 

Doc Zero

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I thought Jerry really upped his game last year with insightful and predictive analysis more often than not.

Good for him.
Yeah, I'm glad I'm not the only one; I thought Remy was remarkably good last year. I mean, I've always been somewhat of an apologist, but last year he really seemed to step his game up.
 

NoXInNixon

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I think the departure of Orsillo was a big reason for the change in Remy. As much as we all loved DO, too often the two of them would ignore the game to talk about some silly thing. Dave O'Brien keeps the commentary focused on the game, and when Remy is talking about baseball, he shows a great depth of knowledge.
 

Savin Hillbilly

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The wrong side of the bridge....
Agreed. I thought he was the sharpest he'd been since the early Orsillo days. I think he and Don got a little too comfortable after a while, and then of course the whole horror story with his son made it hard for him to relax and be himself in the booth. He really made a heck of a comeback.
 

InsideTheParker

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Agreed. I thought he was the sharpest he'd been since the early Orsillo days. I think he and Don got a little too comfortable after a while, and then of course the whole horror story with his son made it hard for him to relax and be himself in the booth. He really made a heck of a comeback.
I agree. On the other hand, Orsillo was always better with someone else. He seemed to "up his game" with Eck and some of the other sit-ins when Remy was out. Maybe your notion of "a little too comfortable" with each other explains that.
Meanwhile, the countdown has begun: http://www.springtrainingcountdown.com/#sthash.f82E3c39.FCPBQ31W.dpbs
Currently 25 days, 13 hrs. + to pitchers and catchers.
 

Bergs

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I'm pleasantly surprised about this; I really thought they were trying to push him out. Hopefully Lyons disappears into the sunset. Or a fiery bucket of AIDs. Whatever.

I also hope (without any real belief it'll happen) that DOB will relax and StFU a bit more.
 

ToeKneeArmAss

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I think the departure of Orsillo was a big reason for the change in Remy. As much as we all loved DO, too often the two of them would ignore the game to talk about some silly thing. Dave O'Brien keeps the commentary focused on the game, and when Remy is talking about baseball, he shows a great depth of knowledge.
I loathe Remy - both as a broadcaster and as a human being - but even I will begrudgingly admit that he was better last year.

When he's watching the game and talking about what he sees from his perspective as a former player, he can offer excellent insight. The rest of the time (for me at least) he's just plain annoying. Thankfully as NoXInNixon pointed out, O'Brien doesn't take the bait when it comes to Remy's schtick so he tends to stay more focused on what's happening on the field.

That said, I turn down the TV sound and put on the radio broadcast 9 times out of 10.
 

mauf

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After a big dose of Steve Lyons last year, and after getting a taste of NESN management's judgment with the replacement of Don Orsillo with Dave O'Brien, I'm happy to accept a less-than-perfect status quo. Remy isn't best-in-class like Orsillo is, but he's perfectly serviceable.
 

Infield Infidel

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I loathe Remy - both as a broadcaster and as a human being - but even I will begrudgingly admit that he was better last year.

When he's watching the game and talking about what he sees from his perspective as a former player, he can offer excellent insight. The rest of the time (for me at least) he's just plain annoying. Thankfully as NoXInNixon pointed out, O'Brien doesn't take the bait when it comes to Remy's schtick so he tends to stay more focused on what's happening on the field.

That said, I turn down the TV sound and put on the radio broadcast 9 times out of 10.
With MLB.tv I've been listening to radio overlay a lot. Sometimes I listen to other teams announcers , and it's nice to hear other voices and other points of view. Some are terrible (NYY, CWS), but some are really good. I really enjoy listening to Gary Thorne in Baltimore. Tampa Bay and Seattle are also good IIRC
 

joyofsox

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Remy did start out well last season (either someone pointedly told him to do some work and actually earn his salary or he saw the writing on the wall re Orsillo and got worried) but within maybe a month I felt he was back to his old habit of doing nothing more than play-by-play calls of the replays (telling us what we were seeing on the screen - "he puts the bat on the ball and hits it into left field" - rather than offering analysis). Remy's engagement was short-lived, so the news of a multi-year deal is depressing.
 

effectivelywild

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Remy did start out well last season (either someone pointedly told him to do some work and actually earn his salary or he saw the writing on the wall re Orsillo and got worried) but within maybe a month I felt he was back to his old habit of doing nothing more than play-by-play calls of the replays (telling us what we were seeing on the screen - "he puts the bat on the ball and hits it into left field" - rather than offering analysis). Remy's engagement was short-lived, so the news of a multi-year deal is depressing.
Maybe they included an opt-out for him after year 2? Aren't those usually good for the team?
 

Bergs

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Remy did start out well last season (either someone pointedly told him to do some work and actually earn his salary or he saw the writing on the wall re Orsillo and got worried) but within maybe a month I felt he was back to his old habit of doing nothing more than play-by-play calls of the replays (telling us what we were seeing on the screen - "he puts the bat on the ball and hits it into left field" - rather than offering analysis). Remy's engagement was short-lived, so the news of a multi-year deal is depressing.
This does not jibe with my recollection, and I imagine if you were to waste time scouring the game threads, you would find some supporting evidence to that effect.
 

jerry casale

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This does not jibe with my recollection, and I imagine if you were to waste time scouring the game threads, you would find some supporting evidence to that effect.
I've had EI for 10 years now and it's worth the $159 just to hear the other team's color guys. Remy is the worst. All he's done for 10 years is tell us what we just have seen. With all their resources, NESN is way behind most other broadcasters.
 

RIFan

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This does not jibe with my recollection, and I imagine if you were to waste time scouring the game threads, you would find some supporting evidence to that effect.
I agree with you. I don't recall any drop off. The long break where Lyons was prominent was painful, but I thought it helped Remy stay on top of his game all year. I felt like he realized his job was at stake and stepped up accordingly.
 

TonyPenaNeverJuiced

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Steve Lyons can only do a few games because his vocabulary is limited to pre-recorded sayings from "MLB: The Show." He'll have to skip any game that features a player who is not on a team's 40-man roster by the 2017 edition release date.
 

Bergs

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I've had EI for 10 years now and it's worth the $159 just to hear the other team's color guys. Remy is the worst. All he's done for 10 years is tell us what we just have seen. With all their resources, NESN is way behind most other broadcasters.
I've had either EI or MLBTV since 2004 (yes, I take credit for 2004), and I'd say you're pretty severely overstating the glory that is other broadcast teams. There's a few really good ones, but not a ton. NESN is top 10-ish, imo*. Fangraphs crowdsourcing rankings back that up:

http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/2016-broadcaster-rankings-tv-20-11/
http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/2016-broadcaster-rankings-tv-20-11/
*Except when Steve Lyons is in the booth. Fuck that guy.
 

TFisNEXT

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Great news. Remy was top notch last year. Count me amongst the group that really thought he stepped his game up again.

I also agree with the NESN broadcast team overall. They are pretty good when you look at other teams. If you have ever had the mlb game package, you'd see how awful so many other broadcasts are.
 

Red(s)HawksFan

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There are very very few broadcasters to whom you can listen on a daily basis and still find them fresh, which leads to a lot of people disliking what they hear regularly and pining for something new. For most of these road announcers that people have high praise for, they'd be just as <insert your annoyance with the local guy(s)> if you listened to them for 150+ games a year over a period of years.

I 100% buy into the notion that the NESN crew is top half in the league quality-wise. I find Lyons unlistenable and Remy is Remy, but I'll still take the NESN booth over about 26-27 other crews around the league.
 

CarolinaBeerGuy

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With MLB.tv I've been listening to radio overlay a lot. Sometimes I listen to other teams announcers , and it's nice to hear other voices and other points of view. Some are terrible (NYY, CWS), but some are really good. I really enjoy listening to Gary Thorne in Baltimore. Tampa Bay and Seattle are also good IIRC
YDNRC. Tampa Bay's announcers are awful.

EDIT: If the Fangraphs thing is right, maybe you're not too far off.

http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/2016-broadcaster-rankings-final-results/
 

Bob Montgomerys Helmet Hat

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There are very very few broadcasters to whom you can listen on a daily basis and still find them fresh, which leads to a lot of people disliking what they hear regularly and pining for something new. For most of these road announcers that people have high praise for, they'd be just as <insert your annoyance with the local guy(s)> if you listened to them for 150+ games a year over a period of years.

I 100% buy into the notion that the NESN crew is top half in the league quality-wise. I find Lyons unlistenable and Remy is Remy, but I'll still take the NESN booth over about 26-27 other crews around the league.
I think this is spot on.
I'll go so far as to say that as great as Eck is, his schtick would undoubtedly wear thin over 150 games.
 

wyatt55

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Count me as thinking Remy was easing his way out the door and surprised by the deal. Maybe the multi-year deal is aided by the PR hit of ousting Don.

Eh, so shoot me. I like Psycho's analysis. I think his commentary on hitting and all over the diamond defensively is insightful. Moreso in the studio but I enjoy him in the booth too. He gives interesting strategic commentary ("the cut off man was actually out of position here because...") that I like. Made more credible by him having played all nine positions at the MLB level (however briefly).
 

Bob Montgomerys Helmet Hat

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Eh, so shoot me. I like Psycho's analysis. I think his commentary on hitting and all over the diamond defensively is insightful. Moreso in the studio but I enjoy him in the booth too. He gives interesting strategic commentary ("the cut off man was actually out of position here because...") that I like. Made more credible by him having played all nine positions at the MLB level (however briefly).
So you're the one
 

Hoodie Sleeves

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I loathe Remy - both as a broadcaster and as a human being - but even I will begrudgingly admit that he was better last year.

When he's watching the game and talking about what he sees from his perspective as a former player, he can offer excellent insight. The rest of the time (for me at least) he's just plain annoying. Thankfully as NoXInNixon pointed out, O'Brien doesn't take the bait when it comes to Remy's schtick so he tends to stay more focused on what's happening on the field.

That said, I turn down the TV sound and put on the radio broadcast 9 times out of 10.
This is pretty much where I am.

He was better this year, but he's still pretty terrible, and way too prone to talking about absolute nonsense that has nothing to do with the game (or pulling the camera away from the action). That can be fine when it's 9-2 in the 3rd inning, but when he was with Orsillo, they were lapsing into that sort of thing in competitive games regularly. We'd miss at-bats in close games because we were watching a closeup of a tiny Wally sitting in a tiny adirondac chair.
 

21st Century Sox

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Happy with this, Remy was much better this year. I actually struggle with O'Brien. He just never stops talking, like ever. He is often insightful, but can really beat a dead horse. I like sometimes in the bigger moments when the booth just stops, this never happens with D. O. there.....
 

nvalvo

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I can tolerate Remy, but echoing a few other posters, I feel that he does far too much renarrating in a PBP mode what has just happened, with at best a touch of the illustrative color that gives his job its name. NESN shows its booth on the screen far more than anyone else, which I also see as close to unforgivable.

I wonder how much of other posters' perception that Remy has improved was the result of the contrast with Lyons, who I think we almost all agree is absolutely distractingly unlistenable. When Lyons actually does the job, he's replacement level; when he picks weird baseball culture war fights, he's a cavity drill. And he does that sort of a lot.

So I listen to opposing booths a lot. I love all of the incarnations of San Francisco's booth, and I'd also put NYM (although I have less experience with the latter) miles ahead of NESN. Scully is his own thing, of course. Among ALers, I like Baltimore's booth and Oakland's and to a lesser extent Toronto's. The Royals broadcast is sort of a weird experience, with a color guy who's kind of a weirdo, but it's charming for a couple games at a stretch; Cleveland and Seattle are similar. The White Sox are fine when Harrelson isn't on, and terrible when he is.

I thought O'Brien was excellent on WEEI — he can be very precise, which is good for radio — but only find him decent on NESN, so I worry that we've Peter Principled him. Tim Neverett's pretty good, though, too, so it wasn't a total disaster.
 

nvalvo

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Happy with this, Remy was much better this year. I actually struggle with O'Brien. He just never stops talking, like ever. He is often insightful, but can really beat a dead horse. I like sometimes in the bigger moments when the booth just stops, this never happens with D. O. there.....
This exactly matches my criticism of TV O'Brien. On radio, that consistency of rhythm and flow is necessary, but on TV, less can be more.
 

HriniakPosterChild

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If Jerry Remy sounded like he were from Mississippi instead of Massachusetts, he wouldn't have owned that chair for the last 99 years. But he does, and he calls games for the Boston Red Sox, and it's genuine. His accent is a huge plus for him. It makes a good color guy a New England institution.
 

CoRP

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If that's true (and, frankly, it does make sense), let's all be grateful that Newtown's own Suzyn Waldman chose to ply her craft in the Big Apple.
 

joe dokes

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So maybe I wasn't the only one who wrote NESN and a couple of advertisers that I actually turned off the television when I saw that Lyons was doing the game.

Tim Neverett's pretty good, though, too, so it wasn't a total disaster.
I think Neverett improved as the season went on, but his insistence on reading every bit of minutae from the press guide about every player in every at bat, rather than just sort of working it in when relevant, made him unlistenable at times.
 

ellis28

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I'm nostalgic and love Remy... but l loved him with Orsilllo. He never seemed to click with OBrien. They could still click, but it's not quite right. Unfortunately there is no solution but to wait and see.
 

sezwho

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Disclaimer: wild accusations to follow! I know this is a personal thing, but I simply can’t listen to his barely bitten back sarcastic and nasty self centered tone, interspersed with dumb yucks. I just cant get past the fact that all the stories he tells about being a cantankerous miserable old piece of @#$% are exactly the energy he brought home to the shattered and broken family he created. Where did an abusive roid monster who murders his wife come from? I’m sure enough that he learned this abuse at home and for me, Remy can’t take is slime trail off into the horizon fast enough. So there. On the other hand, oddly he did actually seem a little more on top of his game last year so I’m not likely to get my wish.
 

reggiecleveland

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I loved, more than most, Don and Jerry. I actually enjoyed the times they want off topic.But I also feel that tone is never coming back. But I find it unfair, without inside info, to blame Jerry for the actions of his son.

That said, the horrific crime is like a shadow hanging over the broadcasts, especially when he hearkens back to the lighthearted side of things. Certainly some of the this is how much bigger a personality Eck is in comparison

I really like Obrien on radio, and he is good. Once Orsillo left Jerry shoud have been replaced by somebody that fit better with O'brien.

But, we are hardcore fans and will watch anyway.
 

shaggydog2000

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I loved, more than most, Don and Jerry. I actually enjoyed the times they want off topic.But I also feel that tone is never coming back. But I find it unfair, without inside info, to blame Jerry for the actions of his son.

That said, the horrific crime is like a shadow hanging over the broadcasts, especially when he hearkens back to the lighthearted side of things. Certainly some of the this is how much bigger a personality Eck is in comparison

I really like Obrien on radio, and he is good. Once Orsillo left Jerry shoud have been replaced by somebody that fit better with O'brien.

But, we are hardcore fans and will watch anyway.
I would deeply enjoy a 50/50 split between Remy and Eck. And Lyons being fed alive to alligators in a giant plexiglass tank between innings.
 

grimshaw

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I can't imagine Remy ever retiring as a broadcaster/studio analyst unless he is shoved out the door because of how routine oriented he is. I'm going to guess it is very difficult for him to sit around the house without having an every day distraction. He could have a Heinsohn-esque career.

He is easily top 10, and I tune in to most MLB broadcasts a few times a week. When you say hundreds of sentences a game for 140 games a year, your're going to repeat your points and even forget you have shared them before.

Try listening to any other AL or NL east broadcast (not the Mets) for a week.
 

reggiecleveland

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I can't imagine Remy ever retiring as a broadcaster/studio analyst unless he is shoved out the door because of how routine oriented he is. I'm going to guess it is very difficult for him to sit around the house without having an every day distraction. He could have a Heinsohn-esque career.

He is easily top 10, and I tune in to most MLB broadcasts a few times a week. When you say hundreds of sentences a game for 140 games a year, your're going to repeat your points and even forget you have shared them before.

Try listening to any other AL or NL east broadcast (not the Mets) for a week.
Have to agree. MLBtv used to be only the home announcers, and some of the out of town guys were horrible. It is not uncommon for the announcers to follow a formula. This is (batter name) he's (#hits) for (# at bats) with (extra base hits, Rbis, runs,) he (pick one: 1. was on a pennant winning or ,WS winning team in 20--, 2. His best year was in 20-- when he {insert stats} 3. He hails from {insert hometown})

One other common trend is constant complaining about umps. Tampa, White Sox, Angels, Rangers, Mariners get every call against them all year, every year, how do they ever win? YES especially post 04, is pretty tame by comparison. Whether it is imagined or not I enjoy the tiny hint of sadness in Kay's voice that has been there since Spring Training 2005.
 

JMDurron

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I get just a bit more leeway from my spouse for being distracted by a Red Sox game when Remy is on because she enjoyed the goofiness of Remy and Orsillo when hanging out in the room where I was watching the game over the past few years. For that alone, I'd be glad to have Remy back. There's something to be said for not changing out both of the voices of the golden age of the Red Sox at (almost) the same time, too. As thick as that accent is, Remy's voice is 1/2 of what I got used to listening to once I got MLB Entra Innings back in 2006, and I'm going to miss it once it is gone.
 

pokey_reese

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Anyhow, ignoring that unpleasantness (Does BABIP yet slumber? Can we book sacrifices for the future?), this sucks for Remy and his family as individuals, and is a loss for viewership as a whole. How much more Steve Lyons are we going to be subjected to?

God, cancer is bad enough to deal with once, but having it come back repeatedly, and having to live with the knowledge that it can (and likely will) at any time, is almost mind-numbing. I watched my grandmother go through this, and my mother still is (thankfully), and this can't be helping with his depression. I hope that treatment goes well and quickly, and he is back in the booth soon.
 

trekfan55

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Wow. I never realized he was still smoking.
This is the biggest testament to the addictive properties of cigarrettes and nicotine in particular. I quit smoking more than 8 years ago (for the 2nd time) and have not smoked since. To this day I have cravings. I know this is a matter for another thread but still... wow. Here's to a speedy recovery.
 

koufax37

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While I used to enjoy the Remy/Orsillo silly banter during non-competitive stretches, I'm somewhat disappointed in the extension, and prefer Eck by a large margin, even more so with a talented team where analysis is more important than distraction.