The Red Sox honored the late great Jerry Remy with a touching tribute Wednesday night at Fenway Park. Despite the club remembering Remy, who died in October of last year, a lot of fans were wondering why his longtime play-by-play partner at NESN, Don Orsillo, wasn’t in attendance.
After the Sox 6-1 loss to the Blue Jays, Orsillo, who is now working for the San Diego Padres, sent a message on Twitter claiming that franchise had offered him the opportunity to do a video message for Remy before being notified by the club and NESN that his video would not be needed anymore. He also attached a copy of a script that he planned to used.
Many folks in the media were trying to make sense of why the Red Sox excluded their former broadcaster, including Merloni and Fauria of WEEI who claim that it may have been a miscommunication between the two parties rather than the franchise not wanting Orsillo to have any part of the ceremony.
“It’s almost like the Red Sox did this on purpose because they don’t like Don Orsillo and it really wasn’t done that way at all. I think both sides made a mistake,” Lou Merloni said on-air Thursday. “I think the people that put the event together spent so much time, they were so close to the event itself and they felt like they had it nailed, this is what we’re doing. Then it was like, what about the video and they’re like hey, we aren’t doing those videos. They should’ve sent it and put it up in the second inning.”
While Merloni believes both parties are at fault, he wondered why Orsillo, despite his duties covering the Padres, wouldn’t just take a night off and come to Fenway to honor his friend while also taking issue with Orsillo turning Remy’s night into why he wasn’t in Boston.
“I do wonder, the Padres didn’t play today and I don’t know what Donny O has going on but I was surprised he didn’t take a night off and come to Fenway,” Merloni said. “I love Donny O but he should’ve done what he did last night. Now we are talking about Don Orsillo being snubbed and we are not talking about the event you had for a guy everybody absolutely loves in Jerry Remy. He should’ve sent a statement, he should’ve sent the video, he should’ve maybe came out on Monday and talked about being snubbed. I understand he’s not happy, but he should’ve waited.”
While some fans came to Orsillo’s defense, including former NESN sideline report Hedi Watney, others like current ACC Network director/producer and former NESN producer Russ Keen made it exactly known how he feels about Orsillo’s tweet.
Pam Keen, the club’s vice president of community, alumni and player relations explained the situation in a lengthy tweet, alleging the the franchise had no intent on leaving their former play-by-play man out of the ceremonies.
“Unfortunately, he didn’t come,” Kenn wrote. “As the ceremony was coming together and the pieces were falling into place, we thought video messages might not fit. In retrospect, maybe we should have had him record something to see where it could fall. As time ran out, we did not ask him for a video, and he didn’t record or send one. There was never any intent to leave him out of our tribute.”
After the event, the Sox went into a bit of damage control and had team president Sam Kennedy on The Greg Hill Show to explain the situation.
“At one point, there was discussion early on in the planning about doing some video tributes from people, but as we got into the planning, we pivoted to one all-encompassing — it was pretty moving and emotional video tribute that included his former colleagues and teammates, including Don, of course, and others,” Kennedy said, per WEEI.com. “I thought it was a really well-done video. In person, we had Tom Caron do the MC’ing, he did a great job, and Bob Stanley and Sean McDonough were able to be there in person, and they spoke live and did a great job, and represented the feelings I think we all had and have about Jerry.”
Remy died on Oct. 30, 2021, after a long battle with lung cancer. He was 68.
