Can you believe it: Joe Castiglione, the 2024 Ford C. Frick Award winner!
- Thread starter soxhop411
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Joe is very much a part of the fabric of Sox baseball as the players and the park at this point. This award is hard earned and well deserved.
Congrats, Joe - and so well deserved. The Voice of the Red Sox, indeed. Thank you, Joe, for always being there for us.
On a side note: Ned Martin, Jim Woods, and Ken Coleman should also be members.
On a side note: Ned Martin, Jim Woods, and Ken Coleman should also be members.
Excellent news! Well deserved, and I love the continuity and the connection to my personal fave, Ken Coleman.
This is absolutely great. Wish Ned had gotten there first, but Joe is more than a worthy choice.
Here's Buckley's profile in The Athletic about Joe
https://theathletic.com/5097679/2023/11/29/can-you-believe-it-joe-castigliones-four-decades-of-improbable-unbelievable-moments/
Maybe they can put "CYBI!" on the facade, in honor of his HoF status
Here's Buckley's profile in The Athletic about Joe
https://theathletic.com/5097679/2023/11/29/can-you-believe-it-joe-castigliones-four-decades-of-improbable-unbelievable-moments/
Maybe they can put "CYBI!" on the facade, in honor of his HoF status
Excellent title to the thread SoxHop! I'm so happy for Castig to receive this honor while he can enjoy it. It is richly deserved for his skill and he is a prince among men, so I'm glad he was chosen.
Awesome news! And well deserved. Don’t listen on the radio as much as I used to, but his voice is such a big part of the fabric of New England summer nights. And having had the pleasure of chatting with him a couple times, he seems to be a very affable gentleman as well.
So happy for Joe C.!
Cannot begin to count how many times I have mowed the lawn while listening to him and feeling his frustration when the Sox blow an opportunity.
Cannot begin to count how many times I have mowed the lawn while listening to him and feeling his frustration when the Sox blow an opportunity.
My grandmother, who passed away about 35 years ago, was excited to tell me in the mid 1980s or thereabouts how her doctor's son had become a broadcaster for the Red Sox. She would always ask me about him.
Very glad for Joe. His voice is definitely a part of the fabric of summertime for me.
Very glad for Joe. His voice is definitely a part of the fabric of summertime for me.
Congratulations! I weirdly feel that this belongs to all of us who've enjoyed him so much over the years. He's so superior to the NESN broadcasters we've had to endure lately that I happily listen to him while watching the game, even if I've never been clever enough to sync up sound and picture properly.
Echoing everyone else but this is terrific news! Joe is very well deserving of this honor. Thank you for a lifetime of memories Joe!!
Always a treat to listen to Joe if there's a day game on and I can't watch at work. Well deserved.
His voice has been the soundtrack of New England baseball for decades. Awesome news and greatly deserved.
I might add that I'm thrilled that this happened while he's still an active broadcaster and still going strong. He deserves the in person accolades and congratulations that he'll surely get from his peers in the coming season.
In his prime, and he's perhaps a few years beyond that now, no broadcaster did a better job of letting you know what it felt like to be in the ballpark with him. Home or road, Joe always had nuance and detail at his fingertips that conveyed not only what was happening, but what it felt like as it was happening. It was, and is, a rare gift, and only a select few are blessed with it, and work at it to strengthen it.
Well deserved reward for a long career engaged with skill and expertise.
Well deserved reward for a long career engaged with skill and expertise.
Fun fact, Joe Castig (my Dad always called him Joey C The Big Cheese) was a fraternity brother with my Dad at Colgate. My sister also went to Colgate and she got him to sign a copy of his book for him. Always enjoyed listening to his call when I subscribed to MLB audio back in the day when I first joined SoSH. Yes, I played in the Sandbox at one point in time.
I grew up in Oregon, my dad had grown up outside Boston so I i was always a Red Sox fan (when I was little I remember going up to Seattle to watch the Red Sox, something I do to this day). In 1997 I started college in New England, that re-ignited my love for the Red Sox, so I signed up for MLBAudio the first summer I was back home in Oregon. I listened to him call games pretty much every afternoon. I still put on the radio broadcast version of MLBtv about half the time. Very deserving.
Shaun - I will never understand why Ned never won this except to say he was not a self-promoter.
When Radio-TV was split up in 1972, Channel 4 took Coleman because Ken knew how to schmooze advertisers, Ned couldn't care less.
Ned Martin and Jim Woods gave us 5 wonderful years on the radio - (1974-1978)
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m3hEj1HzSMA
I am thrilled that Joe won it this year.
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Well said, and I too am thrilled that Joe won it. Perhaps Ned and Possum will win it one of these years as well.
Agree %1000 regarding Martin, Woods and Coleman. Nedly and Possum will always be my favorite broadcast duo. They clearly deserve this honor.
Congratulations to Joe Castiglione for this richly deserved honor. Delighted for him.
@jacklamabe65
When you look back at Red Sox broadcasting history it is fascinating.
In 1946 Tom Yawkey made a handshake deal to move the Red Sox to WHDH 850 which was owned by the Boston Herald-Traveler. The station had moved its transmitter to Needham and built 3 towers that were the tallest man-made structures in New England at the time. ( they are still there today)
https://www.fybush.com/sites/2004/site-040604.html
TV came along 2 years later and both the Braves and Red Sox used Channels 4 and 7 but the Red Sox made it clear that if WHDH got a TV license they would move there and that was the case from 1958-1971.
If you are older than 60 you remember this intro
View: https://soundcloud.com/tsj56/whdh-radio-sox-intro-pre-1966
WHDH-TV lost its license in 1972 and became WCVB and things got complicated.
WBZ-TV took over the Red Sox with Ken Coleman and Johnny Pesky
View: https://youtu.be/GSxXyPqYeQM?t=12
Ned Martin stayed with WHDH-AM and was paired with John MacLean - John had a drinking problem and Ned told WHDH he was going to quit, the station then hired Dave Martin ( no relation)
Then in 1974, WHDH hired Jim Woods to work with Ned. Their chemistry was so good you would hope for a rain delay just to hear them swap stories.
A year later in 1975, the new owners of WHDH-AM changed the format from MOR ( Middle of the Road ) to a soft Top-40 and that enraged a listener by the name of Thomas Austin Yawkey. The handshake deal with WHDH was over and Red Sox radio would move to a new outlet for the 1975 postseason that was WMEX 1510 who happily agreed to switch format to MOR and offered Jess Cain a king's ransom to move as well as Cain HATED the music he was now forced to play. WHDH then offered Cain the largest contract for any DJ in the US to stay and he did.
Martin and Woods were then retained by WMEX which would rebrand as WITS. The bigger issue was the nighttime signal of WMEX/WITS was to be kind horrific and the station was forced to buy airtime on WWEL-FM in Medord and WPLM-FM in Plymouth.
Martin and Woods resented that they were now forced to do numerous commercial drop-ins and it came to a head in 1977 with a promotion called the Home Run Inning where a listener could win a Plymouth Volare if matched to a Sox batter who hit a home run. Woods usually did the inning and Ned would kid him that I never get to give away a car..............On June 17, 1977 Woods informs Ned that the FIRST INNING would be the Home Run Inning to give Ned a chance to give away a car. Catfish Hunter was pitching for the Yankees so what could go wrong
Ned and Jim were fired by WITS 24 hours after the Bucky Dent game. Luckily for Ned, Dick Stockton left TV38 for CBS after 1978 and WSBK hired him to work with Harrelson. WITS then hired Ken Coleman and Rico Petrocelli for the 79 season. Ken was desperate for a job back in Boston after TV38 hired Stockton in 1975. Rico was a disaster and was replaced the following year by Jon Miller.
WITS went belly-up in 1982 and the radio rights then went to WPLM in Plymouth. Miller had an offer to go to Baltimore which he wound up accepting but he wanted to stay in Boston but WPLM hired Castiglione who was friends with Ken's son in Cleveland.
Joe got to call that moment in St Louis. Curt Gowdy lived long enough to hear it, Ned Martin and Ken Coleman did not.
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z6_1Tb6wJHE
When you look back at Red Sox broadcasting history it is fascinating.
In 1946 Tom Yawkey made a handshake deal to move the Red Sox to WHDH 850 which was owned by the Boston Herald-Traveler. The station had moved its transmitter to Needham and built 3 towers that were the tallest man-made structures in New England at the time. ( they are still there today)
https://www.fybush.com/sites/2004/site-040604.html
TV came along 2 years later and both the Braves and Red Sox used Channels 4 and 7 but the Red Sox made it clear that if WHDH got a TV license they would move there and that was the case from 1958-1971.
If you are older than 60 you remember this intro
View: https://soundcloud.com/tsj56/whdh-radio-sox-intro-pre-1966
WHDH-TV lost its license in 1972 and became WCVB and things got complicated.
WBZ-TV took over the Red Sox with Ken Coleman and Johnny Pesky
View: https://youtu.be/GSxXyPqYeQM?t=12
Ned Martin stayed with WHDH-AM and was paired with John MacLean - John had a drinking problem and Ned told WHDH he was going to quit, the station then hired Dave Martin ( no relation)
Then in 1974, WHDH hired Jim Woods to work with Ned. Their chemistry was so good you would hope for a rain delay just to hear them swap stories.
A year later in 1975, the new owners of WHDH-AM changed the format from MOR ( Middle of the Road ) to a soft Top-40 and that enraged a listener by the name of Thomas Austin Yawkey. The handshake deal with WHDH was over and Red Sox radio would move to a new outlet for the 1975 postseason that was WMEX 1510 who happily agreed to switch format to MOR and offered Jess Cain a king's ransom to move as well as Cain HATED the music he was now forced to play. WHDH then offered Cain the largest contract for any DJ in the US to stay and he did.
Martin and Woods were then retained by WMEX which would rebrand as WITS. The bigger issue was the nighttime signal of WMEX/WITS was to be kind horrific and the station was forced to buy airtime on WWEL-FM in Medord and WPLM-FM in Plymouth.
Martin and Woods resented that they were now forced to do numerous commercial drop-ins and it came to a head in 1977 with a promotion called the Home Run Inning where a listener could win a Plymouth Volare if matched to a Sox batter who hit a home run. Woods usually did the inning and Ned would kid him that I never get to give away a car..............On June 17, 1977 Woods informs Ned that the FIRST INNING would be the Home Run Inning to give Ned a chance to give away a car. Catfish Hunter was pitching for the Yankees so what could go wrong
After that the promotion was modified to only one homer in an inning would count.
Ned and Jim were fired by WITS 24 hours after the Bucky Dent game. Luckily for Ned, Dick Stockton left TV38 for CBS after 1978 and WSBK hired him to work with Harrelson. WITS then hired Ken Coleman and Rico Petrocelli for the 79 season. Ken was desperate for a job back in Boston after TV38 hired Stockton in 1975. Rico was a disaster and was replaced the following year by Jon Miller.
WITS went belly-up in 1982 and the radio rights then went to WPLM in Plymouth. Miller had an offer to go to Baltimore which he wound up accepting but he wanted to stay in Boston but WPLM hired Castiglione who was friends with Ken's son in Cleveland.
Joe got to call that moment in St Louis. Curt Gowdy lived long enough to hear it, Ned Martin and Ken Coleman did not.
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z6_1Tb6wJHE
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Dopes - this should be its own thread - a history of Red Sox broadcasting with links. Well done, Sir!
I recall a story in Northeastern's alumni magazine about Don Orsillo getting introduced to sports broadcasting via a class Castiglione taught at Northeastern. There will be a significant hole in the local broadcast world when Castiglione decides to drop the mike for the last time.
But so classy, in his understated way.
Joe was definitely the soundtrack to my teens and twenties. I've moved on, physically and spiritually, from the time when the Sox game every day was the most important thing in my day, but I have that imprint in my bones.
Last summer, I was visiting my family in Connecticut. My daughter, 12 at the time, and I started on the drive from my brother's to my mom's - two miles. A short detour to Dairy Queen turned into a long drive around town until past midnight. I showed her this and that and told her how, on nights when I didn't have anything to do, or anyone to hang out with, I would just drive around in my '77 Impala listening to the Sox game. I flipped the game on. We arrived in the middle of Joe describing the aftermath of a passed ball. My daughter, a softball catcher, was rapt in listening to Joe tell the story of the ball caroming off the backstop, the catcher failing to pick it up cleanly as it ran away from him, the runner from first taking the turn at second and the little cat and mouse moment over whether he could try for third.
It was a nice time to reflect on just how much I'd enjoyed Joe's company on some pretty desolate nights when I didn't speak to a soul, and how full my life was with this great kid thirty years later, and that for everything else I've botched in life, I did something right when my firstborn chose to be a catcher.