Keep At It, Sean-0!

Really enjoyed the excellent piece by Chad Finn on Sean McDonough in today's Boston Globe. Sean McDonough is part of the Red Sox identity for me and millions of other fans. I miss him on Red Sox broadcasts. Certainly I'm a big fan of Don Orsillo, but Sean McDonough really started it all. He was a complete departure from Ned Martin, who was also unceremoniously dismissed by the Red Sox brass. [I'll never forget that. Sitting in the Pisick's attic watching the final game of the year when Ned Martin was told before the bottom of the 8th that this would be his final broadcast. He stammered through shock, confusion, and sadness over the final few outs of the game.]

McDonough's dismissal was not as abrupt but I still don't understand it. I do know that in 2003 the Red Sox switched over their entire season to their cable network with the exception of Friday night games. I had a lucrative job as a bartender that year but I refused to pay for cable and took every Friday night off so I could watch the Sox. The rest of the games I heard on the radio or watched on the tv in the bar. That was a very meaningful commitment for me and it became more so when the ownership yanked (pun intended) all the games off broadcast tv in favor of cable. Acceptable business decision, completely amoral. Dan Shaugnessy wrote a great piece about all of the hospitals, nursing homes, and other fans that would be left in the dark by the decision. But the team got their way, all cable, no McDonough. As Chad Finn points out, many people don't think about it much these days. For me it was significant.

I watched a couple of the opening day games for the 2010 season last Spring. McDonough called the Cubs opener, when Zambrano got absolutely destroyed by the Braves and was out of the game in the 2nd inning. McDonough called a great game (making the call on Jason Heyward's first major league homerun), and was customarily hilarious in the process as he reminded Cubs fans that Big Z did not lose his cool as he got rocked, and if you were looking to any saving grace to his performance, that was it.

I've had the opportunity to meet Sean McDonough on a few different occasions and I can say that he is a very nice man and a good tipper. He seems to have a very good nature towards all that are around him. I know have no idea what happened between him and the ownership, but I'm glad he's getting a more high profile gig with ESPN.