by Jerry Remy
Dave O’Brien
Dave and I did our first game in spring training and we both felt very comfortable with each other right out of the gate. I think that’s important. When you look at O’Brien, he’s done so many sports. He’s done soccer, basketball, football, and of course baseball. He’s done major events. He’s a guy who is used to working with a lot of analysts in a lot of different sports. I always feel that the play-by-play guy is the professional in the booth and that I am the amateur. I knew that I was getting a professional broadcaster. I didn’t feel the transition was going to be all that difficult. Quite frankly, it was pretty smooth right from the beginning.
Everyone I’ve worked with has had a different style and personality. I feel it’s my responsibility to adjust to them because as I said, they’re the professionals in the booth. So whatever style they have, I feel like it is my responsibility to adjust to them. That’s not taking pressure off myself, that’s just saying that’s my job. These guys went to school for this, they’re professional broadcasters. I’m an ex-baseball player. So I just feel like whichever guy was in there, from Ned to Dave, I’ve had to adjust to their style. Actually, you can take Ned out because I didn’t have a clue of what I was doing. But from Kurtz on, I had to really adjust to whatever their style was.
I will say this about Dave and this is the truth: he’s probably the most prepared guy that I’ve ever worked with going into a game. He spends a couple of hours in the booth prior to each game preparing for it. He has little anecdotes on every player. His scorecards are unbelievable to look at because there’s so much info written on it. I’ll say that from everybody I’ve worked with, his preparation is second to none. It’s been tough on Dave because I’ve been in and out of the booth because of my illnesses, so he’s had to adjust to different color analysts. Hopefully I’ll get back in there in 2019 and do about 90 games with him and that will make it easier on both of us. I guess it’s normal that the more you work together, the more comfortable you are with each other. I am looking forward to working with him for many years to come.
Dave has been so supportive of me during my health issues. He’s checked in on me regularly and always has asked if there was anything he could do for me and that he awaits my quick return from the latest setback. He’s been great.
The Crew
The major part of a successful broadcast, in my opinion, are the people who work behind the scenes who never get the credit that the people in front of the microphones get. But without these people there would be no show.
We’re very fortunate in Boston to have a tremendous group, both present and past. I have incredible respect for the job that they do. I think one of the things that people don’t know are the hours that they put into every broadcast, and how many times a crisis happens in the satellite truck and how quickly they get things fixed. We always seem to get on the air even under the toughest conditions.
Sometimes we get into a town at 4:30 in the morning and the crew has to get there by 10:00 in the morning to set up. A lot of times they’ve done games with a minimum of two or three hours sleep before going to set up the truck for a series. They’re really important to me and I feel like we’ve got about the best group you could possibly have.
Leading off among this group is Mike Narracci, who is our director. Mike and I have been together for so long now we’re like a second baseman and shortstop playing together. He seems to know where I’m going to go with certain things, certain replays. He’s the veteran in the truck as far as directing goes, and of all the people who I have to work with from the truck, I think he and I have to be in sync probably more than anyone else. To get the right shot, to get the right call on a play or describing something that may be happening, he’s thinking along the same lines as I am. I have tremendous respect for him and we’ve been good friends for many years.
Jeff Mitchell is our producer. He’s a guy who’s been around a long, long time; he used to do Mets games with Ralph Kiner and Tim McCarver. They brought him in here a couple of years ago as a veteran guy to lead some younger people in the truck and try to teach them the right way of doing things. While he’s our producer, he also sometimes directs. He’s responsible for running the show from the open until the close of the game. He’s a guy who has seen just about everything in baseball and TV. He’s a good teacher for the younger group.
One thing I’ve respected about NESN is that they’ve always developed young talent in the trucks and expose them to veteran guys like Narracci and Mitchell, and they develop a whole new set of professionals. One of them is Dan Aspen, who performs both producing and directing. He’s going to be a star. There’s no question about that. He’s very young but he’s very attentive. He’s inquisitive. He wants to know about baseball. He wants to learn about it and he’s a guy with a bright, bright future.
What I’ve come to find is that the talented young people behind the scenes often get so much experience and get so good at what they do that they move on to bigger positions. They constantly get offered big roles at other networks and many of them end up leaving. A lot of time frustration sets in with some of the younger people, because they feel they could be doing more. I understand their frustration but also understand that they’re getting tremendous experience that will serve them well as they move on to bigger things. I can see that Dan Aspen has grown over the years. He’s a true pro and I’m proud to work with him.
Another talented person we have in the truck is Amy Johnson, who is absolutely terrific. She’s also in the same position as Dan, where she’s doing some producing. She just loads me with information before and during the broadcast. She’s right on top of things all the time. When an important stat comes up in a game or a stat from maybe a year ago or two years ago, she’s right in my ear with it. I have that information available. She pays attention to detail and, more importantly, what’s going on in the game. She’s another rising star at NESN.
Another tremendous talent is Steve Garabedian, a long-time employee at NESN in different roles, who joined our broadcast team this year. I call them “our” team because we are a team. With any of these pieces missing, you don’t have the same broadcast. You get so used to being with these people that they’re not only coworkers, they’re friends.
The time we spend together on planes and the time we spend together before games and after games, it’s like a small little family that’s a traveling road show. Steve is always up in the booth prior to the ballgame making sure everything’s okay with us. He’s feeding us our copy for reads, which we have a load of at NESN, and that takes up an awful lot of time. His role is very important, because the promotions, ads, etc., are very important to the bottom line.
Those mentioned are really our premier group that travels and does most of the games. They try to split up some of the producing and some of the directing to try to give everyone flexibility in the truck.
But I need to mention our audio guy, who is so important. People don’t think about audio but it’s different for every single analyst or play-by-play guy. Everyone likes their audio different and Peter Grenier is a master at knowing what you like. I absolutely drive him crazy because I’m someone who likes my audio very loud. I love a lot of crowd sound because it makes me feel like I’m part of the crowd. He gets the sound level exactly where I want it. A lot of times we don’t even have to do a pretest because I know it’s going to be right on target once the game starts.
The other thing I love about him is that he’s a big Beatles fan. He plays guitar in a rock band on the side. One day we were killing some time up in the booth before the game and he brought his guitar in and we were trying to tape a version of “Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)” and he actually did a very good job on the guitar. I didn’t do so well on the vocals so it never made air but that’s one thing that we have in common. He does all kinds of other audio work for the Celtics and Bruins as well. He’s working all the time. He’s certai
nly one of my favorites.
Guys from the past who have really helped me but are no longer with NESN are people quite frankly I’ll never forget. Russ Kenn was a producer in the Sean McDonough and Don Orsillo era. He was so level-headed and calm. One thing you don’t like when you’re doing a game is a lot of screaming and yelling coming out of the truck, and he was a guy that got his point across very well but in a low tone. It meant something when he said something. You got exactly what he was talking about and when he had a beef he’d let you know but in a pleasant way. He was an incredible help for me.
John Wilson was our director at that time. It was hilarious because John and Sean were very close friends but when that game started, boy, they’d go at it, head to head. It was unbelievable. Sean would be yelling at him, he’d be yelling at Sean. John was funny because he had no patience for bad baseball. We would come on the air and if the first pitch of the game wasn’t a strike, he’d get in my ear and say, “Here we go!” It was fun to work with those guys. They were really important during my development as a broadcaster.
Of course, our camera crew at Fenway is the best in the business. They don’t miss anything. I said in my anniversary speech to celebrate my 30th season as a broadcaster, “When you walk by a camera guy at Fenway Park, you should really thank them because we get the best shots of anybody in baseball.” I really believe that. They’re out there in the elements and it’s freezing cold in the spring and it’s hot in the summer, then cold again in the fall. But these guys don’t give an inch. They’re the best and I love being around them. I love the opportunity to sit down at dinner with them and talk a little bit about things other than baseball.
It’s just a nice feeling to be in a group where you feel like you’re part of a family that has been together for so long and works so closely together. It’s a comfort level that you enjoy knowing that these people have your back.
I’ve always said that I don’t think in 31 years I’ve ever had a harsh word with anyone in the truck. I just don’t believe in that. I’m proud of that and I treat those people, I hope, with the most respect that I could possibly treat anyone with. In my opinion, they work so hard and they just don’t get the credit that they deserve. Their names are always recognized at the end of the show, but they deserve more than that because they’re invaluable to what we do.
Another aspect of the audio is the work that the audio folks do with our sideline reporter, Guerin Austin. Mark Wilcox is generally either in the booth with us or with Guerin on the sidelines, running around as she’s getting interviews and making sure her audio’s working. Chris Naccini usually replaces Peter when he’s not there. Those guys are also big Beatles fans. Sometimes if we’re in the booth together before a game, they’ll put some Beatles music on the computer and we’ll sing.
When we finish a game at the end of a series, that camera crew has to break down all the gear. That’s another two hours of work after the game is over that nobody knows about.
Of course, there’s also the on-air talent.
Tom Caron, our pre- and postgame host and a former sideline reporter for us, is simply the best. And he’s a good friend of mine. He’s so versatile. He holds together those shows incredibly well. He’s multi-talented. He can do anything. If he has to fill in to do play-by-play for a game, he can do that. He’s done games on radio. He does incredible interviews prior to games live from the field. He was an excellent sideline reporter. Even these days, he’ll occasionally fill in for Guerin and it’s like he never left that job.
Tom works so well with a number of postgame analysts. He gets to know their personalities. You’ve got to know what they’re willing to talk about and how they talk about things. He does a fabulous job at that and bringing out the best in each guest.
I have a tremendous amount of respect for Tom. He’s been a fixture at NESN for a long time. I think it’s like a second home for him. He’s a workaholic. You ask him a question, he’s got the answer.
We’ve had a few sideline reporters during my years in the booth. It’s a very, very difficult job because they’re the ones who are in the clubhouse prior to the game, getting sound they can put together for a pregame show. They’re the ones who have to come up with ideas for segments during the broadcast that are relevant to the game. They’re the ones who have to go in and deal with players, win or lose, after the game and get sound for the postgame show and for other shows that we have on NESN.
Our current reporter, Guerin Austin, has come a long way in a few years. You can see the improvement over the last three or four years that she’s been with us. You can see that her comfort level is much higher now than it was early in her career, which is understandable.
One thing that Guerin and I have in common is we both like to dance. We have had some videos from the booth where we’ll be humming or singing a song, then all of a sudden, we’ll break out in a dance and she takes a picture of it and puts it on Twitter. It’s crazy stuff like that. We do a lot of singing and a lot of dancing in the booth.
We had Jenny Dell for a while and she eventually married third baseman Will Middlebrooks. She was also very good, very smooth on the air. For those reporters, it’s like “3, 2, 1, you’re on the air!” right in the middle of a game and they’ve got to get out their information very, very quickly so we can get back to the action. Jenny always made her reports relevant to what was going on in the game or with the team.
We also had Hazel Mae for a while, who’s gone back to Toronto and is a superstar up there. She was very popular in Boston, went to MLB Network and then back to Sportsnet in Toronto, where she’s a huge star and covers the Blue Jays. Hazel was a pro and had a tremendous way about her on the air that made her a favorite here. She did great interviews and presented them in a very entertaining way. Again, she was great at her job, which is why she received so many national offers.
I loved Tina Cervasio. She had that New York accent. She pulled no punches. She was great. She was New York tough. There was no pushing Tina around at all. She’s gone on to New York to have a very good career. We get a chance to see her every once in a while when we’re at Yankee Stadium. She’ll pop in to say hello and it’s always good to see her. She was another reporter who had a good sense for news and what was pertinent at the time. She wanted to tackle bigger, tougher stories. That was in her DNA and that was really a huge trait of hers that really stuck out. Her interviews were always well thought out and she asked good questions. She knew baseball and that really came out immediately.
You just knew from the outset that Heidi Watney was going to be a superstar. She’s at MLB Network now and she can do whatever she wants. She’s that good. When Heidi first came in, I think that she had an awful lot to learn but she picked it up very quickly. While it’s a job that doesn’t seem to have a long shelf life, it was obvious that other networks were looking at her and following her work with the hopes that they could hire her away. Heidi has been very successful and is now married with a baby and working.
It’s always fun to see where these young people have gone and what they’ve become. When you’re doing the job in Boston and you’re young and you’re new to the business, it’s tough because everybody gets criticized. It takes a while to settle in and grow that thick skin that you need. I think when their ability to put on a good hit or a good interview comes together, they gain more confidence.
I also think it’s important that they learn the game. The way they learn the game is by being around the players, listening to what we have to say on TV, working with the producer and the director of the show, and really learning the game of baseball. That’s probably the toughest part for them. Knowing the ins and outs, the proper language to use, how to ask a question after a game. There’s nothing more boring than someone who asks the same questions in every interview after a game. Every situation is different, and I think it takes a while for them to feel that comfort level where they can spread their wings a l
ittle bit and jump out and ask the question that needs to be asked.
I think that’s always an incredible learning experience for someone who’s new, especially coming into this market, because you’re here one day and there’s already somebody criticizing you. I’m just thankful I’ve been able to meet and work with so many amazing and talented people.
13. Remy Inc.
People always want to know how I got started on all the marketing and business ventures I participate in. It was by pure luck really. I remember when the old regime—John Harrington was the CEO—came to me back in 2002 and said they were having a Wally the Green Monster bean bag giveaway. But they were concerned that because it was on a school day and they didn’t know what kind of a crowd they were going to get. So, they asked me to push this promotion for the kids in school. If we got more than 25,000 people in the stands, my reward was to get a free dinner.
That’s pretty much what started it.
Every day I’d build up that Wally’s day was coming up and you get a miniature Green Monster and all this stuff. Of course, at that time it wasn’t very well-received at Fenway at all. They had never seen a mascot there, you know? And the first time Wally appeared he got booed. I wasn’t crazy about it myself when Wally debuted on April 13, 1997. I didn’t think it fit Boston.
