I follow the Sox on Twitter. ZERO Tweets thanking Orsillo yesterday. They did of course put out a bunch thanking Larry Lucchino, who of course needs all the support he can get. Stay classy, Sox.
Report: This is Don Orsillo's last season
- Thread starter Corsi
- Start date
He does still have a week to go. Maybe, just maybe, they're saving the tearful goodbyes and on-air tributes for when he's actually done?
I mean, I don't want to be in the position of defending the team/NESN here, but I think the criticism over yesterday is a bit over the top.
I mean, I don't want to be in the position of defending the team/NESN here, but I think the criticism over yesterday is a bit over the top.
the1andonly3003 said:
They are incredibly stupid. He clearly has other options and is in demand but they think he'd stick around doing a lower profile job at 1/3 the salary? What is wrong with these people?
glennhoffmania said:
It comes off more like a calculated insult than a real offer.
Interesting to read that the Padres knew Don would be cut loose before Don did...and gratifying that they're going to help him get back and forth to see his kids. He'll land on his feet. But if NESN weren't the only place to see the games I wouldn't watch at all. Tone-deaf doesn't begin to cover it.
Red(s)HawksFan said:
Yesterday just looks so much more petty due to the juxtaposition of the Lucchino send-off. Why does an executive need a ceremony on the field? He's obviously done more in totality for the franchise than any announcer, but your fanbase doesn't care. They care about the team, and the experience of watching the team, and that's it. There's not going to be any nostalgia for the days when Lucchino was sitting in a luxury box, especially because he's not even really leaving!
This post says it perfectly:
tomdeplonty said:
Lots of people at the ballpark were holding pictures of Don's face on sticks. Whatever those things are called. I doubt NESN showed any images of that.
Here's a video of the NESN feed-- they come back from commercial and show everyone applauding, but don't show any of the tribute. Remy points out what everyone is clapping for, and you can see some of the players on the field applauding too. Later, you can also hear the fans chanting "Don Orsillo" and Remy makes sure to point that out on the air too. (Orsillo is actually the one who talks over the fans chanting his name.)
Here's a video of the NESN feed-- they come back from commercial and show everyone applauding, but don't show any of the tribute. Remy points out what everyone is clapping for, and you can see some of the players on the field applauding too. Later, you can also hear the fans chanting "Don Orsillo" and Remy makes sure to point that out on the air too. (Orsillo is actually the one who talks over the fans chanting his name.)
Sox just posted their little "Thank You Fans" video on their Facebook page. 600 or so comments and I'd say about 575 of them are trashing the crap out of them for what they've done to Orsillo. Tone deaf, out of touch, apathetic, ignorant, or the Red Sox as an organization plain just don't care about what their customers want. Disgusting.
My guess is that they will belatedly (and reluctantly) do something since public pressure has been there. Otherwise forget it. He'll just be lucky he gets out of town without a drug problem whisper campaign.Red(s)HawksFan said:
I mean, I am not losing sleep over Don Orsillo not calling games for the Sox next year -- but it truly is mindnumbing how badly a team like the Sox (and/or NESN), generally considered so PR sensitive, have continued to bungle this situation. Like, it's unfathomable to me.TomBrunansky23 said:
Sean McAdam said last week on 98.5 that the organization was shocked at the blowback from the decision and had absolutely no expectation it was coming. How is that possible?
Dave Stapleton said:
I can definitely see where they might be surprised that it has become the story it has, but that's only if they ignore the fact that it's a story because of how the whole thing has gone down rather than it being simply that Orsillo is being let go.
I don't think this gets nearly this much attention or "blowback" if the season had ended with no mention of it being Orsillo's last year, and then some time in November they issue a simple press release saying that Orsillo's contract expired, he's pursuing a new opportunity in San Diego, and NESN is bringing in Dave O'Brien to replace him. It'd be a story for a day or two, DO would make the media rounds (EEI, the Hub, CSN, etc) to "say goodbye", and that would be it. But because things leaked out early, they rushed awkwardly to squash the story by confirming it and have made misstep after misstep PR-wise ever since.
Red(s)HawksFan said:
I don't think this is totally true. Over 15 years, Orsillo has been the TV voice of the JWH/Championship era. He's been the guy for almost as long as the Sox have been reliably on TV every single night, for fuck's sake. They made it much, much worse than it had to be, but they clearly saw it as a routine change, and not an event in need of careful PR management. And according to Gordo's article, they were at this for months without seeing the iceberg in front of them. NESN is a media and marketing organization, there's no excuse for that piss-poor of a market/risk analysis.
NESN is the worst.
We banned showing the Red Sox ceremony cause we got our own!
Where's the guy from the coffee room? Get him working on a tribute ASAP!!
NESN has to be the worst staton of the 200 channels I have on cable and costs the most to Comcast. Any decision maker at that station shouldn't make more than minimum wage.
We banned showing the Red Sox ceremony cause we got our own!
Where's the guy from the coffee room? Get him working on a tribute ASAP!!
NESN has to be the worst staton of the 200 channels I have on cable and costs the most to Comcast. Any decision maker at that station shouldn't make more than minimum wage.
http://www.barstoolsports.com/boston/nesn-not-broadcasting-don-orsillos-tribute-video-is-the-most-nesn-thing-ever/
video of the tribute in attached link… Cant embed for some reason
video of the tribute in attached link… Cant embed for some reason
While I agree that there would have been less of an uproar in the offseason, I don't see how this ever could have been sold as "he's pursuing a new opportunity in San Diego." The Red Sox are still (despite recent on-field failures) one of the top handful of franchises in baseball in terms of fan interest. Furthermore, Orsillo is a native New Englander for whom this must have been a dream job. Unless they give him a huge amount more money, San Diego cannot be an upgrade and could never have been spun as such.Red(s)HawksFan said:
I had a dream last night that the Orsillo era ended the same way as it began - with a no-hitter. Was that Nomo no-no the season opener or home opener?
tims4wins said:
Second game of the 2001 season - in Baltimore.
http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/BAL/BAL200104040.shtml
Ah thanks. So perhaps the no-no will happen in the 2nd to last game on Saturday. You have been warned.
Dan Murfman said:
Not that I'm personally against the idea of Darling, but even as good as he is, would it fly amongst most of Red Sox Nation (meaning the fanbase that loves the RemDawg and all that entails)? Has there been an analyst on NESN that had zero ties to the team as a player? Gammons, of course, but he wasn't a player at all.
I know Darling has ties to the area and grew up a Sox fan, but is that enough for a parochial fan base? It's not like he's a colorful guy with personality, he's just a damn good analyst.
It would be interesting, for sure.
Yeah, a move to O'B and Darling is very much an appeal to the hardcore baseball fan end of the spectrum and a move away from the seemingly more-appealing-to-casual-fans approach of the Remy/Orsillo pairing. Who made the decidion to shift in this direction and why?
I could see them moving Remy to a studio role for the remainder of his contract if they're able to land Darling.
dirtynine said:
Rumor was when the Orsillo news broke that Remy's schedule was going to be cut back significantly, possibly only home games and not all of them at that. That they're supposedly pursuing a talent like Darling seems to lend credence to those rumors.
Darling does have some local ties. He grew up in Millbury (still has family there) and went to high school in Shrewsbury.
Harry Hooper said:
I dunno if this tracks as the most likely way that NESN management is looking at it. It more probably and simply breaks down into two steps
1) It's a ripe time to turn over the announce team to go with the New Era-ish feel that's gone on in the organization. That's the sort of fine-but-myopic logic that marketing types tend to spend their days dreaming up.
2) if they're going to change, they think DOB and Darling are the best, full stop, rather than aiming at any particular theme or demographic. That....actually makes sense. NESN can be an entry-level talent exporter for the lower-level positions (indeed, under Warner, that's what they're best suited for), but for the media faces of the franchise, it's the Red Sox dammit, so let's go Cadillac.
That's what ends up being kind of funny about this whole thing. I can totally see a pitch centered around "We're moving on from the Lucchino/Epstein spiritual era, we have some numbers that say we don't have the best announce team we could, so let's go spend big and create a new A team", that sounds reasonable and plausible. The genesis of the idea isn't horrific, but how they handled it is just turrible turrible turrible.
Red(s)HawksFan said:
Bob Tewksbury and Gary DiSarcina were studio analysts. Both local guys who never played for the Red Sox, like Darling. Unlike Darling, they have had jobs in the Red Sox organization (but maybe not until after they were analysts? - Not sure.)
Chad Finn @GlobeChadFinn 19s19 seconds ago
Chad Finn Retweeted Erik Proctor
There's nothing certain with any of this. But there has been talk of a reduced schedule or studio role for Remy.
Chad Finn Retweeted Erik Proctor
There's nothing certain with any of this. But there has been talk of a reduced schedule or studio role for Remy.
Where did this notion that Darling was good come from? Didn't we all absolutely loathe this guy when he was doing TBS playoff broadcasts? Did he get markedly better since then and learn to talk WAY WAY less?
Whoa. Darling is great. the Mets broadcast team overall is amongst the best and he is really, really good night after night.
Yeah, I don't remember any anti-Darling talk here. He is literally great. As much as I'm not enthusiastic about Orsillo leaving -- and the way it was handled especially -- the idea of DOB and Darling in the booth would be amazing.
I think this would be a great move. I'm not anti-Remy, but he isn't my favorite either. If he's already on the way out, Darling is a great replacement.
I love Remy, but he won't be around much longer regardless and without Orsillo it'll be different. If they can get Darling they should do it.