Don Orsillo the play by play announce for the Boston Red Sox was terminated after the 2015 season. Orsillo created a great experience for all the fans who listened to his broadcast. Orsillo was terminated without reason which left fans upset and confused with the whole situation. The fans mentality is if it is not broke don't fix it. Why did they fire Orsillo if he has become such a fixture in the Red Sox experience? Nesn's poor business decision to fire Don Orsillo is going to lead to a decrease in Nesn's popularity.
Don Orsillo started with the Nesn in 2001 as one of the Red Sox's Broadcaster. His carreer consisted of calling Hideo Nomo's no hitter againest the Baltimore Orioles, Cal Ripken Jr's last game, all of 3 of Lowe, Buchholz, and Lester's no hitters, and not to mention 3 Championships. Orsillo extremely well known for his partnership with former Red Soxs Second Baseman Jerry Remy. Remy and Orsillo became a fixture in Red Soxs Baseball and the homes of ever Red Soxs fan.
Needless to say Orsillo is a fan favorite. So when Nesn announced in late August that they were terminating Orsillo's contract and that the 2015 season would be his last there was some very unhappy Red Sox fans. No one saw his termination coming. Their was no trigger event, Orsillo did not do anything to get fired. It was out of the blue and Nesn did not give any reasoning behind the decision. Nesn has said in the past that Orsillo is one of the best in his profession. Which has lead to a lot of confusion among fans because if Orsillo is the best so why fire the best. The only possible reason that Nesn hinted at was that they wanted a change, and they thought getting a new broadcaster would help them in the future.
Nesn did not realize how attached Red Sox Nation was to Orsillo. After the news of Orsillo's termination Red Soxs Fans took to Change.org and created a petition to get their beloved Orsillo back with their favorite team. The petiton https://www.change.org/p/john-henry-nesn-petition-to-keep-don-orsillo-at-nesn has a goal of reaching 75,000 fans to sign and they have about 63,000 signatures already. Nesn did not realize how upset the fans would be and it is going to effect them. Thats is not saying that they will lose views because fans will not protest, that would mean not watching their beloved Red Soxs however it makes Nesn have a bad reputation among the fans.
To add insult to injure Orsillo was quickly picked up by the Padre's as soon as it was announce that he would not be returning. It is going to tough seeing Orsillo working with the Padres and it was evident in the goodbye speech Orsillo gave during his last Red Sox Game. It was a hard speech to watch as it felt like you were losing someone in your family. Not only is it going to be tough for the fans but it is also going to difficult for the player.
At the end of Don's last Red Sox's Broadcast the players showed their love and respect to him. When the ninth inning was over and the fans were cheer for the Soxs the Sox were raising ther caps to Orsillo as he was filming his final minutes as one of the broadcaster of the Boston Red Soxs. Not many times do you see the players acknowledging a person that works behind the scenes. But as they raised their caps and waved in thanks to Orsillo you could tell he would be missed.
Nesn has made some pretty controversial decisions on would they keep around as broadcaster. It first started with the firing of one of the Boston Bruins broadcaster's Naoko Funayama. Funayama was not resigned at the displeasure of the New England Fans. Now they terminated Don, they do not realize that the fan will side with the broadcaster and with each and every decision Nesn makes they will lessen the amount fans like them.
Finn, Chad. "NESN Owes Us an Explanation on Don Orsillo." BostonGlobe.com. Boston Globe, 28 Aug. 2015. Web. 13 Oct. 2015.
As a big Red Sox Fan, I really enjoyed reading this post. Listening to Don and Jerry was one of my favorite parts when it comes to watching the Red Sox on TV. The decision to fire Orsillo definitely upset a lot of fans, including myself and my family. He was part of the Red Sox Nation and has been through so much with the team its going to be hard to see him go. I know a lot of fans are very upset with NESN's decision. Watching Red Sox games is not going to be the same without him.
ReplyDeleteThis was a great read for a big sports and Red Sox fan. I am still not sure about NESN's decision to do this, since I really haven't seen any reason to not keep him. He is entertaining and talented and I completely agree with your point of that NESN really doesn't understand that fans love Orsillo, since many announcers don't have that sort of impact.
ReplyDelete