Joe Castiglione makes another call: advocating for Will Flemming to take his place on Red Sox broadcasts
“He’s got the cachet, he’s got the pedigree, and he’s got the experience for six years now. And he understands the culture and the passion here.”
When Joe Castiglione called his first game as the Red Sox’ radio play-by-play voice April 5, 1983, three future Hall of Famers were in the home lineup (Carl Yastrzemski, Jim Rice, and Wade Boggs), and another took the mound as the starting pitcher (Dennis Eckersley).
As it turned out, there was one in the broadcast booth, too, that day (a 7-1 loss to the Blue Jays, if you’re scoring at home), with Castiglione receiving the 2024 Ford C. Frick Award from the Hall of Fame, the highest honor for a baseball broadcaster.
We ought to be able to say that there were two.
It remains a shameful oversight that Ken Coleman — Castiglione’s partner in the booth from 1983-89 and mentor — has not been honored by the Hall of Fame. The same goes for Ned Martin.
I didn’t intend to lead off the inning with a digression here. But Castiglione’s graciousness during and after announcing during Sunday’s broadcast that this, his 42d season, would be his last, was accompanied by a fitting bit of symmetry.
Just as Coleman supported him more than four decades ago, Castiglione has been quick to advocate for his current primary broadcast partner, Will Flemming, as his de facto successor.
Castiglione made a point to praise Flemming’s fit as a Red Sox voice in his Hall of Fame speech in July. He mentioned it to colleague Peter Abraham Sunday.
And, unprompted at the end of a phone call Monday afternoon, he said again that Flemming, with whom he has worked with for six years, would be a more than worthy choice as the franchise’s next lead radio voice.
“I’m certainly pulling for Will to get the job,’’ said Castiglione. “He’s got the cachet, he’s got the pedigree, and he’s got the experience for six years now. And he understands the culture and the passion here. That’s a big part of it, too.”
Reached later Monday, Flemming said: “That means the world to me. I’ve always just tried to live up to the standard that he sets. So the fact that he says that and believes that is a pretty powerful thing.”
Flemming is on a one-year contract after a complicated offseason after the 2023 season in which he was a candidate for White Sox and Tigers television openings.
His contract status is in part due to some moving pieces with the Red Sox radio broadcast. WEEI and parent company Audacy extended their rights deal with the team through the 2028 season back in October 2021, and games will remain on the WEEI flagship and its network of other stations around New England for the foreseeable future.
But according to industry sources — the beginning of that extension signed three years ago — the announcers will be employees of the Red Sox (rather than Audacy/WEEI) starting in 2025.
While their hiring will be a joint decision between the team and the station, it is the opportunity for the team to put their stamp on the broadcast, especially with Castiglione stepping down.
It would not be a complete surprise to see some of the analysts on NESN’s television broadcasts become contributors to the radio team. (Lou Merloni already is part of both broadcasts.)
Tyler Murray, the Worcester WooSox broadcaster who filled in on some Red Sox games the past couple of years, was recently named the radio voice of the New York Knicks, so he will not be in the mix.
The announcement of the new broadcast team will be made in the offseason, so there is plenty more time to look ahead.
The rest of this Red Sox season — 12 games, barring a miracle that allows them to slip into the postseason — is for looking back, while also savoring the final innings of Castiglione’s time with the Red Sox.
He sounded like a truly fulfilled person Friday, someone at ease with the decision and grateful for the baseball life he has lived.
Castiglione said he and his wife, Jan, had been talking about when he might retire for the last couple of years, since he signed his last contract, and that it was a “mutual, family decision.”
He said he began giving the Red Sox hints that this season might be his farewell back in June, “and I think after Cooperstown I really solidified the decision,’’ he said.
“With something like that, you sort of reach the pinnacle. I mean, I still love the games day to day but I’ve accomplished what I never thought was possible.”
“And sometimes, you can stay too long,’’ he said, noting that at 77 years old, he still feels like he has his fastball. “Vin Scully once said he stayed too long. I read it somewhere, but I mean certainly you never would have known it.”
Scully, perhaps the best and most beloved baseball play-by-play voice of all time, called Dodgers games for 67 seasons, from 1950 through 2016, retiring at age 88.
“It was funny, we were at Dodger Stadium when the Dodgers announced he was coming back for his 65th year,’’ said Castliglone. “So I went into his booth to congratulate him. I think I had 31 years with the Red Sox at the time, and he said, ‘Oh, thank you. You can do it too.’
He laughs. “Then I realized that if I did that long, I’d have to go until I was around 100 years old.”
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