Given how it ended for Orsillo here, and his lingering disappointment about how it went down even with all the success he’s found in San Diego, it’s understandable fans would suspect the Red Sox were being petty. But it bears noting that Orsillo was a significant part of NESN’s hour-long tribute program to Remy. It’s not as if they are treating him as persona non grata.
Ultimately, the Red Sox should have found a way to show his video, which was roughly 30 seconds long. Sean McDonough, the play-by-play voice alongside Remy from 1988 through 2004 (in a smaller role later on) and the one who tagged him with the “RemDawg” persona, spoke at the ceremony. There should have been a way to let Orsillo acknowledge his late friend, too. And Orsillo should have waited to air his grievance for another day or two. It detracted from what was a remarkable ceremony, which included the return of many of Remy’s teammates from his playing days, including Carl Yastrzemski, Fred Lynn, Dwight Evans, and his old double-play partner, Rick Burleson, as well as NESN’s Jim Rice and Dennis Eckersley.