Boston Sports Media Watch

Jerry Remy, the “RemDog” is the color analyst for Red Sox games on NESN.

We’re a week late on this one, because if I had any sense of timing, Remy would’ve been in this space last week on Jerry Remy Day at Fenway Park.

After a playing career in the majors with the Angels and Red Sox, Remy began his broadcast career in the NESN booth alongside the late Ned Martin in 1988.

He’s had several other partners over the years, including Bob Kurtz, Sean McDonough, and currently Don Orsillo.

In addition to his NESN duties, Remy occasionally fills in on Red Sox broadcasts on the FOX network, and does a weekly segment on the Dennis and Callahan show on WEEI. He also oversees The Remy Report website.

Remy can be prone to silliness from time to time, and his increasingly raspy voice and cough sometimes take away from the brilliant skills he has in analyzing the game. Remy knows baseball, and he knows the Red Sox, and can oftentimes call a pitch or steal attempt before it happens.

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Popularity: 20% [?]

I did this story at Fang’s Bites yesterday, but it’s worthy of a mention here.

NESN’s Dennis Eckersley has been tapped by TBS do work the All-Star Game Selection Show this Sunday. He’ll work alongside host Ernie Johson, fellow Hall of Famer Cal Ripken, Jr., and Harold Reynolds, formerly of ESPN.

This is the press release from MLB.com:

TBS announced today the addition of two-time All-Star Harold Reynolds and six-time All-Star and 2004 Hall of Fame inductee Dennis Eckersley to its studio team for the network’s exclusive coverage of the MLB All-Star Game Selection Show presented by Chevy at 2 p.m. ET on Sunday, July 6. Reynolds and Eckersley will join TBS studio host and two-time Emmy® award-winner Ernie Johnson and TBS MLB studio analyst Cal Ripken, a 19-time All-Star, two-time All-Star Game MVP (1991, 2001) and 2007 Hall of Fame inductee. Immediately following the show TBS will air the Chicago Cubs @ St. Louis Cardinals at 3 p.m. ET, with Chip Caray (play-by-play) and Buck Martinez (analyst) calling the action.

“We are excited to add analysts to our studio show with the on-air credentials and on-field experience of the caliber of Harold and Dennis,” said Jeff Behnke, SVP and executive producer for Turner Sports. “We look forward to providing their insights and opinions as fans and players around the country learn who will be representing their teams in the 2008 MLB All-Star Game.”

During the telecast, TBS will exclusively reveal the All-Star Game starters elected by fan voting, as well as the player selections and manager picks to round out this year’s AL and NL squads. Throughout the hour-long telecast Reynolds, Eckersley and Ripken will provide in-depth review and analysis.

Reynolds, who currently serves as a baseball commentator for MLB.com and an analyst for SportsNet New York (SNY), played 12-seasons in the Major Leagues, spending time with the Seattle Mariners (1983-92), Baltimore Orioles (1993) and California Angels (1994). Along with his two All-Star appearances (1987 & 1988), Reynolds won three Gold Gloves (1988 - 1990), led the American League in steals with 60 in 1987 and received MLB’s Roberto Clemente Award (1991) for his community service work. Reynolds previously served as a studio analyst on ESPN’s Emmy® award-winning Baseball Tonight.

Eckersley currently serves as a studio analyst for select Boston Red Sox games on New England Sports Network (NESN). The AL 1992 Cy Young award and MVP winner, Eckersley enjoyed success as both a starter and reliever and is one of only two pitchers to have both a 20-win season (1978) and a 50-save season (1992) in a career. Affectionately known as “Eck,” the pitcher played 24 years in the big leagues for the Cleveland Indians (1975-77), Boston Red Sox (1978-84, 1998), Chicago Cubs (1984 - 86), Oakland Athletics (1987-95) and St. Louis Cardinals (1996-97), winning a World Series championship with the A’s in 1989.

TBS is the exclusive home of all four MLB Division Series as well as the 2008 American League Championship Series. This season the network launched Sunday MLB on TBS, featuring 26 consecutive Sunday afternoon match ups with Chip Caray providing play-by play, alongside analysts Ron Darling and Buck Martinez throughout the season.

Because of his candor in the NESN studio, Eck has become one of the most popular media personalities in the area based on the BSMW Approval Ratings.

Not only does this make TBS stronger in the studio, but it also gives the network a team that could rival or even surpass ESPN’s Baseball Tonight during the playoffs.

Popularity: 16% [?]

Consider yourself flashed…

Jayme Parker is a NESN reporter for SportsDesk. She’s been with the network since November of 1996.

She has worked as a freelance news writer for WCVB-TV Channel 5, WHDH-TV Channel 7 and WBZ-TV Channel 4 in Boston. Currently, Parker serves as a sideline reporter for Boston College football radio broadcasts.

Parker also has a master’s degree in broadcast journalism from Emerson College in Boston.

She has also filled in the flash booth at WEEI, where the opening line of this post is her trademark signoff.

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Popularity: 19% [?]

The Eck is up today…

After a Hall of Fame playing careerwith the Indians, Red Sox, Cubs, A’s and Cardinals, Dennis Eckersley began his broadcast career as a color analyst for the A’s TV broadcasts in 1999.

For the last several years Eckersley has been in the rotation of studio analysts for the Red Sox telecasts on NESN, and has consistently proven himself to be the most candid,  and also insightful of the group. On occasion he has also filled in during the game in the booth, either in place of Jerry Remy on the TV telecasts, and even a few times in the radio booth.

He’s developed his own unique lingo over the years, referring to pitches with “hair” or throwing “cheese.” He is not limited to just commenting on pitching however, as his knowledge of the game allows him to speak to all parts of the game.

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Popularity: 21% [?]

With Hazel Mae slated to exit NESN at the end of the month, we might be seeing a whole lot more of Kathryn Tappen on the network.

According to her official web site, Tappen has wanted to be a newscaster since the eighth grade. She has an athletic background, having competed in cross country and track and field for Rutgers University.

She broke onto the New England media scene in 2005 at NBC Channel 10 in Providence, Rhode Island, where she was the weekend sports anchor and sports reporter for the station.

In August 2006, she moved over to NESN, where she is the Boston Bruins studio host and serves as a weekend anchor and reporter for SportsDesk.

David Laurila did one of his RedSoxNation.net interviews with Tappen a while back.

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Popularity: 25% [?]

First Tina Cervasio and now Hazel Mae?

Say it ain’t so!

NESN announced today that Mae, host of SportsDesk, will leave the network at the end of the month.

In a statement released today, Mae said that it was simply time to move on. “After four incredible and exciting years at NESN, I’ve decided now was the right time for me to make this difficult decision to leave,” she said, adding that it was a “personal and professional privilege” to work at the station, and to be able to cover two World Series and a Super Bowl during her time here.

No future plans for Mae were mentioned in the release.

Mae joined NESN in August, 2004, and quickly became one of the more noteworthy sports media figures in town.

Popularity: 23% [?]

Not a bad weekend thus far for Boston sports fans.

Manny Ramirez hit the 500th home run of his career tonight in Baltimore. It was struck in the seventh inning, on the first pitch he saw from former teammate Chad Bradford. On NESN, Don Orsillo gave the call, and then he and Jerry Remy let the moment speak for itself.

Sean McAdam has an appreciation of Manny’s career and accomplishments on ESPN.com

Somewhere, Mike Adams was heard complaining that Manny watched the home run for too long and didn’t run the bases quickly enough.

Check the coverage as it is posted at RedSoxLinks.com

Popularity: 21% [?]

Announcer boy is up next.

Don Orsillo is the play-by-play man on NESN’s Red Sox telecasts, he’s done most of the games starting in 2001, and has done all of the local non-national broadcast games since the 2005 season.

Orsillo’s first game was Hideo Nomo’s no hitter in Baltimore in 2001, and he received some criticism for what was perceived as a lackluster call of the final out. He’s gotten some practice on calling no-hitters since that time, and his performance is well received overall in most quarters.

Orsillo’s NESN.com bio lists out his past experience:

Orsillo got his start as a baseball play-by-play announcer for the Pittsfield Mets of the New York-Penn League during the 1991 and 1992 seasons. In 1993, Orsillo moved to Binghamton, N.Y., to do play-by-play radio and television for the Binghamton Mets of the Double-A Eastern League. While with Binghamton, he had the opportunity to serve as a commentator for the nationally syndicated 1994 Double-A All-Star Game.

During the 1991-1996 hockey seasons, Orsillo was the play-by-play radio and television voice for the Springfield Indians/Falcons. He hosted “Inside the Indians,” a weekly live television talk show and was the analyst for the 1994 AHL All-Star Game.

Orsillo was awarded a local Emmy in 2003 as Outstanding Sports Broadcaster and in 2005 was named the Massachusetts Sportscaster of the Year.

During the 2007 postseason, he called games for TBS on their national broadcasts.

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Popularity: 25% [?]

Today we’ll focus on Jack Edwards, who just finished up his first full-time season doing play-by-play game for the Bruins on NESN.

Edward has had a long and varied career, working at places like WMUR-TV in Manchester, NH, WRKO radio, WCVB-TV and WHDH-TV in Boston, as well as doing work for ABC’s Wide World of Sports in the late 1980’s.

In 1991 he joined ESPN and remained there until 2003, where he was a SportsCenter anchor, and did play-by-play for the Little League World Series, NHL games and soccer.

He joined NESN in 2005 and primarily did the Bruins road games for the network. Last summer the network pushed Dale Arnold out and made Edwards the full time announcer for all the games.

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Popularity: 34% [?]

Bruins fans will not like this news. NESN has announced that Game 5 of the Bruins-Canadiens series will be moved to its NESNplus channel. This means that the game will be seen in Standard Definition, not in sparking clear HD.

This means that game 2 of the Red Sox-Yankees series will be on NESN HD on Thursday night. While NESN had been moving Red Sox games during conflicts with the Bruins-Habs series, the Red Sox-Yankees rivalry appears to take precedence.

Bruins fans in the BSMW forum are naturally up in arms over this and I can’t blame them. To find the NESNplus channel for your service provider, you can click here.

My sympathies to the Bruins fans.

Popularity: 26% [?]