If These Walls Could Talk

by Jerry Remy

  I came in the clubhouse a couple weeks later and he couldn’t have been nicer. He came up to me and he shook my hand at a time when I had just gotten out of the hospital. He was a totally different person. He asked me how I was feeling and all that stuff, and since that day, we’ve been great. Every single day he’ll say hi to me, even on days he pitches.

  You don’t know what players are going through. That’s part of the deal. You’ve got to respect how they’re feeling and things they’re dealing with. You don’t know if there’s an issue on the field or at home. You don’t know what makes guys tick or why they’re in certain moods on certain days. If a guy tells me he doesn’t want to talk, that’s fine. It doesn’t bother me. It’s just that I’d like to know if I’ve done something that’s wrong. I want to know that.

  But in terms of wacky, nobody was crazier than Manny Ramirez. It was mostly fun-loving stuff, but it did turn ugly when he attacked our traveling secretary Jack McCormick in the clubhouse when Jack couldn’t accommodate a last-minute order of several tickets for the game that night. Players come in early in the afternoon and give Jack their ticket orders for the game. He is usually able to accommodate everybody except when the order is late and there are more tickets ordered than allotted per player. That was the scenario that night. Jack told Manny politely that he couldn’t accommodate the late order. Manny got mad and he took a swing at Jack. It was completely uncalled for. And that was one of the incidents that got Manny traded to the Dodgers in late July of 2008.

  Manny, of course, had a great two months with the Dodgers and led them to the playoffs. That’s not surprising because Manny was one of the greatest hitters of his generation. He could hit for average and power. He knew how to manipulate the bat. He was a hitting clinic, really. He’s a hitter all youngsters should watch because he did it right. And it was rare that Manny would have rage like he did that day with Jack. He was usually a happy-go-lucky guy who often acted and reacted like a child.

  He also worked harder than anyone on the team, which was a side of Manny that a lot of fans didn’t see. And because he was pretty much not participating with the media, nobody really got to know him. I know he confided in David Ortiz and Pedro Martinez. I know Johnny Damon was able to get to him. But for the most part, Manny stayed to himself.

  Damon was another funny guy. He was an outstanding player on the field. He could run and play the outfield well. He was a clutch hitter who showed power from the leadoff spot. One thing he couldn’t do well was throw, but that didn’t come into play too often.

  He was a team leader. Johnny talked to the media almost every night and he took the pressure off of his teammates. He would discuss the game every night with the press whether he did anything significant or not.

  He and Kevin Millar also kept things loose in the clubhouse on those 2003 and 2004 teams. He admitted that before some games he and Millar would do shots of Jack Daniel’s.

  “What we had was one small Gatorade cup with a little Jack Daniel’s in it,” Millar told ESPN.com. “We passed it around and everyone symbolically drank out of the same cup because we are a team.”

  That’s why I’ve often said the 2004 team was my favorite.

  12. My Broadcast Partners

  Getting into TV was totally by accident. I was released by the Red Sox in April of 1986 when my knees could no longer hold up. I had 11 operations on my left knee, and back then we just didn’t have the advanced orthopedic procedures that we have today, ones that might have saved my career or at least extended it for a couple of years. I had one year left on my contract, so the team and I sat down and tried to figure out what I could for the $485,000 I had left on my deal. I decided to go to work as a coach at Double-A New Britain. I only did the games where they were home. I was getting my feet wet as a coach. The following year, I had interest in managing. I was looking to get the Pawtucket job because it was closer to home. I felt as though I was capable of doing the job. But I never had that opportunity. They had Ed Nottle as their manager and they decided to stay with him. So I decided to take the year off. That was 1987, the year after the Red Sox went to the World Series. That was incredibly tough for me because I had played with some of those guys. Not to be a part of it was tough on me.

  While I was off for the year, my agent, Jerry Kapstein, had talked to Claiborne about the possibility of broadcasting, and that’s how I got the interview set up. I had multiple interviews but honestly broadcasting was never on my radar screen. I always thought I was going to be a coach or a manager as time went on. It actually ended up being the best thing that ever happened for me because had I gone on to coach or manage, I’d have been fired nine times by now.

  To get the broadcasting job with the Red Sox was pretty incredible…until I started it. I hated it because I didn’t know what I was doing. I’ll never forget our first game. It was in Winter Haven, Florida, in spring training of 1988, and we had a damn rain delay right at the beginning. I was so nervous. We had Joe Giulotti of the Boston Herald come in for an interview and Ned basically did the whole interview. I remember the next day, Jim Baker, who was writing for the Herald at the time as the TV critic, just ripped me after the game saying, “They’d been better off hiring Joe Giulotti than Remy.” So, I was off to a rough start. In those days, they used to have the TV writers, Baker and Jack Craig of the Boston Globe, write twice a week. So I used to dread getting up in the morning and picking up the newspapers on those days and seeing how bad I was going to get roasted.

  They were right—I was absolutely not good at all. I couldn’t get my baseball knowledge across because I just didn’t understand TV. Once that started to mix, once I got comfortable with people talking into your earpiece, replays, how to represent the replay, how to anticipate what might happen next, I got better. But that took a long time. I honestly thought about quitting after the year because I thought this wasn’t for me. I wanted to go back to try and get a job coaching. But my wife, Phoebe, convinced me to give it a little bit more time to see what happens, so I gave it another year. Even after the second year, I didn’t feel really comfortable. But I started to see some improvement and so did the people I worked with.

  We just kept at it. Back then, there were not tapes being played for me, there were no simulator games, there was nothing. It was just go on the air and figure it out. I didn’t think it would be that difficult and then all of a sudden we were live and I was like, holy shit, I don’t know what I’m doing. I didn’t know how many outs there were, I didn’t know what the score was. It was horrible. It was not a pleasant first couple of years. But then, like I said, when I got used to how TV works, that’s when I got more comfortable bringing out baseball and the knowledge that I had from the game which was very clear in my head because I had just finished playing.

  It wouldn’t have surprised me if they had fired me. I probably wouldn’t have cared because I wasn’t in love with what I was doing. I was always kind of a perfectionist and when you’re not good at something, you don’t feel good about doing it. Fortunately, in those days we were only doing 81 games, because the other half was on Channel 38 with Sean McDonough and Bob Montgomery.

  Ned Martin

  I needed a lot of help when I first got into the broadcasting business. I had no idea what I was doing, and I needed someone to hold my hand for a while and teach me everything.

  That man was Ned Martin.

  I remember getting interviewed by him when I came over to the Red Sox after being traded from the Angels on December 8, 1977. It was a big a thrill for me to be on Red Sox Radio with Ned Martin.

  What can I say? Ned was great. He was the perfect guy for me to get into this business with because I had no experience. He was so laid-back. He was really a radio guy who was forced into TV. But he was in on the discussions about who NESN and the Red Sox were going to hire next and it looked like it came down to Mike Andrews and me. I think what helped me was the fact that I was current, an
d I was from New England. The drawback was that I had absolutely no TV experience. Apparently, it didn’t seem to bother them or Ned. Mike was a great guy. He was another former Red Sox second baseman who played on that great 1967 team. The fact Mike didn’t get the job was not a deterrent for his career. Things turned out great for him as he became the executive director of the Jimmy Fund and helped raise millions of dollars for kids with cancer. So, you can understand the high regard I hold him in, given my situation.

  Ned broadcast Red Sox on radio and TV from 1961 to 1992. His voice was so soothing. He just had the perfect pipes to be a baseball announcer. He had the amazing ability to tell the story of the game. He reminded me of Dodgers great Vin Scully in that way. And I’m breaking in with a guy like that? I was like the opposite. Maybe that’s why we hit it off.

  I remember we had a meeting with NESN’s Bob Whitelaw, who was doing the hiring at the time. It was myself, Ned, Whitelaw, and John Claiborne, who was in charge of NESN. The interview seemed to go well, and I don’t know how much input Ned had, but I got the job. It was great to be with a guy like him because nothing rattled him. The one thing he’d get on me about was butchering the English language, partly because he was so eloquent. I’d get this kick in the leg under the table. Half the time, I didn’t know what the heck he was doing. I didn’t know what I had said to deserve it, but it must have been some phrase I had used incorrectly. But we got along great. He let me learn on my own and learn from my own mistakes, of which there were plenty. I didn’t understand TV, but I understood baseball. At first, I couldn’t match the two together. That took time, probably a couple of years.

  Ned and I traveled together a lot. But I always seemed to lose Ned at the airport. He’d have a couple of pops and we’d go out to dinner, and then when it was time to get to the gate I can’t find Ned, he’s walking to the wrong gate. He was a character but I loved him. He was so good to me when he could’ve been rough on me. Had I broken in with someone else, it would’ve been impossible. But he was so patient and so good that it helped me stay in the game. I think it would’ve ended differently had it been somebody else.

  It got a little bit difficult the last couple of seasons, as he was aging a little bit and he was getting ready to put it away. But he made some amazing calls in his time in Boston. He covered Carl Yastrzemski’s entire Hall of Fame career. He called Yaz’s 3,000th hit. He called Carlton Fisk’s homer in Game 6 of the 1975 World Series. He called Roger Clemens’ first 20-strikeout game against Seattle on April 29, 1986. And he did everything with such flair and class. I couldn’t think of anybody better to learn on the job with.

  Bob Kurtz

  Bob was one of the nicest guys that I’ve ever met in my life. He didn’t have a mean bone in him. He had been our in-studio host for the pre- and postgame shows for a few years, but he was given the unenviable task of replacing the great Ned Martin. Bob did that in 1992 and stayed around until 2000.

  He was a very talented announcer in many different ways, in baseball and also in hockey. We had a terrific relationship. He was one of those guys who would rush to everything. Like you get into the game and then he’d rub his hands together and say, “Okay, let’s get this over with,” like he couldn’t wait for everything to pop up. He was good. He didn’t last a long, long time because he got an opportunity to go back to Minnesota Wild hockey radio broadcasts. I think his wife also wanted to go back there.

  By that time, I felt more comfortable about myself in the booth. He’d have been another great guy to break in with because he was that type of personality. But the time Bob got here, I felt like I was on track of being decent and I had put all the pieces together TV-wise and baseball-wise. I think my broadcasting had improved quite a bit. I guess there was a comfort level that we had between us that I think was very productive and very positive.

  Sean McDonough

  So then came McDonough, the absolute perfect match for me at that time in my career. The guy is absolutely brilliant, with a photographic memory. He would come in and look at the notes and read them one time and put them aside. Then he would be able to rattle stuff off word for word. It was incredible. I’ve never seen anything like it in my life. What he did for me was challenge me and bring out my personality.

  He knew the game because he spent time broadcasting in the minor leagues with the Triple-A Syracuse Chiefs, which was an affiliate of the Toronto Blue Jays. When you’re in the minor leagues, you’re always around the coaches, the manager, it’s a very small community. The announcers who come from the minor leagues really have a tendency to know quite a bit about baseball because they spend time around those people.

  He challenged you very quickly. If you didn’t agree with something he said, he’d let you know, and you could have a legitimate discussion about it. He realized I had a dry sense of humor. He brought that out of me. He gave me the popular “RemDawg” nickname. It was the first nickname I’d had since being called “Scoot” as a player. He kept calling me that and it stuck. Soon everyone would call me “RemDawg.” I really enjoyed working with him. He was pretty special.

  I think it really hurt him when he and the Red Sox parted ways, because his dream had always been to do Red Sox baseball. He was crushed by it. I was crushed by it, because I lost an incredible broadcast partner.

  To show you how bright he was—I’m an avid watcher of the soap opera Days of Our Lives. So one day the actress Kristian Alfonso, who’s from Easton, was at the ballpark. I couldn’t believe it. I said, “Look, there’s Hope Brady from Days of Our Lives.” Sean knew nothing about it. So, I started to explain to him what her role on the show was and how at that particular time there was a villain coming after her. Then the camera crew found a guy who looked like a villain in the bleachers.

  Sean went back and forth with me and it was almost like he’d been watching it his whole life. I couldn’t believe the stuff he was coming up with. We finally got her on camera in the booth after we asked her if she’d come on with us and she was more than gracious. We told her I watched the show and we talked about it for a few minutes. By the time it was over, it’s like Sean had been watching it for 30 years. It was amazing to me how he could do stuff like that. So yeah, I can’t say enough about him. He was so smart.

  I’ve been able to stay in touch with him and we’ve run into each other once in a while. I text him every now and then and call him. We don’t overdo it. When I get sick, he is always sending me messages, wishing me well and praying for me. It makes you feel good that somebody you have worked with really cares about you. But he’s like that, so it comes as no surprise. He’s gone on to a great national career. He’s one of the youngest to call a World Series game. The Joe Carter call in the 1993 World Series is a classic. But that’s Sean. Everything he does, he does it top-notch. It just comes so naturally to him. He was born to do it.

  Don Orsillo

  One of the biggest problems for Don at the beginning is that he was being compared to Sean, and I thought he did sound a lot like him. But they were two totally different personalities. Don was the worrywart. He was bothered by the McDonough comparisons. I kept trying to tell him, “Don’t worry about it, it takes time.” Change anywhere takes time but especially so in Boston.

  I’ll tell you the truth, I feel partially responsible for getting him the job. They filled in with Bob Rodgers, who had done our pregame shows. Don came up to the booth one day and he asked, “Is this job available next year?” I told him I didn’t know. I’d never met him before because he was in Pawtucket doing the games on TV and radio there. I remember him sitting right on the steps, right near where I sit in the booth. I kept that in the back of my mind and I went to management and I said, “I see this kid from Pawtucket who has tremendous interest in the job. Maybe you can give him a listen before the season is over.”

  They did, and they liked what they heard. They liked him so much they hired him. And I’m so happy they did. He was an absolu
te joy to work with. We clicked so well. It took us I would say two or three years to get real comfortable with each other. We came to find out that we had similar personalities and we liked the same type of humor. We were similar in many, many ways. We went through a lot of off-field life problems together. We became very good friends. When you work with somebody for 15 years, you’re going to become close.

  The game was obviously the No. 1 priority. But when the games were out of hand and something funny happened, we kind of picked up on it. Now, some people hated that, but some people loved it. That was the type of personalities we had. It’s amazing when you go to a baseball game, there’s so much downtime that things happen in the stands that all of a sudden are funny. We had a good time laughing. As I said, maybe it wasn’t everyone’s cup of tea but I think a lot of people really enjoyed that.

  Two things that I’ll never forget about Don. We did a pizza throw skit that just went on and on. And it was one of the funniest things we ever did. This poor guy was going after a foul ball near the left-field corner on April 16, 2007, and he went for the ball and spilled beer all over himself. But there was a guy a few seats down who threw a slice of pizza at him. We just found this really funny and we went on and on about it and we couldn’t stop laughing. But the funniest one was when I lost my tooth during a broadcast on July 2, 2014. I was just talking, and I lost my tooth. Don comes out with pliers and hammers and screwdrivers and stuff like that. I thought that was pretty funny. Also, one time I embarrassed him because he used to carry this bag with him that had all kind of stuff in it. He had everything in there. I made him unpack his bag on TV and people thought it was hilarious. He had everything from Band-Aids to work stuff to cosmetics, combs, all kinds of crap.

  We created a bond after working together for so long. It was very difficult the day we found out that he was leaving. When you’re with somebody for so long, it’s like a marriage and it’s hard when it breaks up. But in this business, you’ve got to adapt and you kind of move on quickly. It took him no time at all to get a new job. I never thought he would have a problem. People ask me if I tried to save his job, but the answer is that was way beyond my control. I was kind of in shock, like most people were. But no, I never went to anyone about that because I didn’t feel it was my position to do so. They had already made a decision and I just didn’t feel it was the right thing for me to get involved in. I think he understands that. So now he thrives in San Diego. I saw one poll over there that said he and Mark Grant have an 87 percent popular rating, so that’s a good thing.