Don Orsillo Biography

American sportscaster (born 1968)Baseball player

Don Orsillo (born December 16, 1968) is an American sportscaster who is the play-by-play announcer for the San Diego Padres as well as for MLB on TBS. Orsillo was the television voice of the Boston Red Sox on NESN from 2001 to 2015. He was then hired by the Padres to replace broadcaster Dick Enberg upon his retirement at the end of the 2016 season.

Early life and career

Orsillo was born in Melrose, M*achusetts, where he often dreamed of being a broadcaster for the Red Sox. He moved to and grew up in Madison, New Hampshire, and was educated at John H. Fuller Elementary School. At the age of 12 he attended Kennett Junior High School in nearby Conway, New Hampshire. Don's family moved west just before high school. He is a 1987 graduate of Miraleste High School in Rancho Palos Verdes, California, where he played on the Marauder basketball and baseball teams.

Orsillo graduated from Northeastern University with a degree in Communication Studies. While at Northeastern, he interned under Red Sox radio voice Joe Castiglione.

Before doing Major League Baseball games, he worked in the minor leagues announcing Pawtucket Red Sox games on the radio from 1996 to 2000, having previously done games for some of the New York Mets minor league affiliates.

Boston Red Sox

Orsillo was NESN's play-by-play man from the beginning of the 2001 season (his first game included a no-hitter thrown by then Red Sox pitcher Hideo Nomo against the Baltimore Orioles). He also called Cal Ripken Jr.'s final game, as well as the no-hitters thrown by young Sox pitchers Clay Buchholz and Jon Lester in 2007 and 2008, respectively. Orsillo originally only called the team's games which aired on NESN, with longtime Red Sox announcer Sean McDonough taking Orsillo's place alongside former Red Sox second baseman Jerry Remy for games which aired on local stations WFXT (2001 and 2002) and WSBK-TV (2003 and 2004). For the 2005 season, Orsillo did games on both NESN and WSBK, working with Remy.

Starting in 2006, NESN took over all Red Sox local telecasts, and until 2015, Orsillo worked with color commentator Jerry Remy. In 2009, Remy was out for the season due to health problems, and Orsillo worked with various color commentators, including Dennis Eckersley, Nick Cafardo, Sean Casey, Dave Roberts and Frank Viola. He was sometimes referred to by fans as "announcer boy," after he was given that nickname by Red Sox pitcher Tim Wakefield in a NESN commercial.

On August 25, 2015, NESN controversially announced that Orsillo would no longer call Red Sox games following the 2015 season, and would be replaced in 2016 by Dave O'Brien, who had called games for the Red Sox Radio Network since 2007.

The Red Sox and NESN were further criticized in 2022 when Orsillo was not included in an April 20 tribute ceremony at Fenway Park for longtime broadcast partner Remy, who died the previous October. Red Sox officials claimed his absence was due to his obligations to the Padres, but Orsillo responded on Twitter that he had submitted a video tribute that the Red Sox ultimately opted not to include in the ceremony.

San Diego Padres

Orsillo joined the San Diego Padres for 2016, to be the successor of Dick Enberg upon his retirement after that season. During the 2016 season, Orsillo worked select Padres games for television and radio broadcasts.

Other announcing duties

In addition to his Red Sox duties, Orsillo has called the Beanpot hockey tournament and Boston College Eagles men's basketball on NESN. He was also the play-by-play announcer for Providence College men's basketball for Cox Sports. Orsillo has also called Big East basketball for the Big East Network which is run by ESPN Regional Television. He was also a Springfield Falcons (AHL) broadcaster and voice of the Falcons from 1994 to 1996.

From 2007 to 2013, Orsillo was one of the voices of the Major League Baseball Division Series on TBS. He was one of four play-by-play men to work each of the years TBS had exclusive rights to the Division Series. His first call was the 2007 National League wild card playoff between the Colorado Rockies and San Diego Padres, with Joe Simpson serving as his color man. After working with Harold Reynolds in the 2008 Division Series, Orsillo had Buck Martinez as his color commentator. His most recent Division Series *ignment was the 2013 series between the Detroit Tigers and the Oakland Athletics. As recently as 2017, Orsillo has been calling select Sunday afternoon regular season games for TBS. Also in 2017, he began calling select Saturday afternoon regular season games for Fox and FS1.

In 2018, Orsillo returned to calling playoff action, calling the entirety of the 2018 ALDS between the Astros and the Indians alongside *yst Dennis Eckersley. This was due to Ernie Johnson being unable to work the games following a diagnosis of blood clots in both of Johnson's legs. When Johnson was given his studio hosting duties back, Orsillo became a permanent member of the postseason team in 2020, working alongside *yst Jeff Francoeur until 2022, when he was replaced by Bob Costas.

Personal life

Don Orsillo previously lived in Smithfield, Rhode Island. Orsillo currently lives in Coronado, California, with his wife Kathy Maguire Orsillo.

References

External links

San Diego Padres broadcasters

Culture

The Kid from Left Field
An American Journey
Pitch
Gallagher Square
San Diego Chicken
San Diego Padres (PCL)
Swinging Friar
Trevor Time
Rally Goose

Lore

"Oh, doctor!"
1984 NLCS Game 4
Padres-Braves bean-brawl
Roseanne Barr sings national anthem
Padres Paradise Series
2007 NL Wild Card tie-breaker game
MLB China Series
MLB Mexico City Series

Rivalries

Los Angeles Dodgers

Key personnel

Chairman: vacant
General Manager: A. J. Preller
Manager: Mike Shildt

League pennants (2)

1984
1998

Division *les (5)

1984
1996
1998
2005
2006

Wild card berths (2)

2020
2022

Minor league affiliates

Player overview
Triple-A: El Paso Chihuahuas
Double-A: San Antonio Missions
High-A: Fort Wayne TinCaps
Single-A: Lake Elsinore Storm
Rookie: ACL Padres
DSL Padres Brown
DSL Padres Gold

BroadcastingLore

Curse of the Bambino
Cy Young's perfect game
Slaughter's Mad Dash
1948 AL tie-breaker game
The Impossible Dream
Carlton Fisk waves it fair
1978 AL East tie-breaker game
Bill Buckner's error
"Idiots" break the curse
MLB *an Opening Series 2008
2011 Major League Baseball wild card chase
Boston Strong
2019 MLB London Series

Rivalries

New York Yankees
Tampa Bay Rays

Administration

Owners: Fenway Sports Group
- John W. Henry
- Tom Werner
President and CEO: Sam Kennedy
Executive Vice President of Baseball Operations: Brian O'Halloran
Chief Baseball Officer: Craig Breslow
General Manager: TBA
Manager: Alex Cora

World Series championships (9)

1903
1912
1915
1916
1918
2004
2007
2013
2018

American League pennants (14)

1903
1904
1912
1915
1916
1918
1946
1967
1975
1986
2004
2007
2013
2018

Division championships (10)

1975
1986
1988
1990
1995
2007
2013
2016
2017
2018

Wild card berths (8)

1998
1999
2003
2004
2005
2008
2009
2021

Minor league affiliates

Triple-A
- Worcester Red Sox
Double-A
- Portland Sea Dogs
High-A
- Greenville Drive
Single-A
- Salem Red Sox
Rookie
- FCL Red Sox
- DSL Red Sox

Broadcasting

Category
Commons

Color commentators

Ron Darling
Jeff Francoeur

Studio hosts

Bob Costas
Marc Fein
Ernie Johnson Jr.
Keith Olbermann
Lauren Shehadi
Casey Stern
Matt Winer

Studio *ysts

Curtis Granderson
Pedro Martínez
Jimmy Rollins

Field reporters

Alex Chappell
Kelly Crull
Lauren Shehadi
Matt Winer

Lore televised
by TurnerAL Championship Series

2008
2010
2012
2014
2016
2018
2020
2022
2024
2026
2028

NL Championship Series

2007
2009
2011
2013
2015
2017
2019
2021
2023
2025
2027

AL Division Series

2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
2016
2018
2020
2022
2024
2026
2028

NL Division Series

2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
2015
2017
2019
2021
2023
2025
2027

AL Wild Card Round

2012
2013
2014
2016
2018
2020

NL Wild Card Round

2012
2013
2015
2017
2019
2021

Commentators

All-Star Game
ALCS
ALDS
NLCS
NLDS
World Series
Game of the Week
Prime time

Color
commentators

Eric Karros
A. J. Pierzynski
John Smoltz
Tom Verducci
Adam Wainwright
Dontrelle Willis

Guest
commentators

Bret Boone
David Cone
Terry Francona
Luis Gonzalez
Ozzie Guillén
Al Leiter
David Ortiz
A. J. Pierzynski
Lou Piniella
Jimmy Rollins
Nick Swisher

Field reporters

Jon Morosi
Tom Rinaldi
Ken Rosenthal

Studio hosts

Kevin Burkhardt
Mike Hill
Chris Myers
Jenny Taft

Studio
*ysts

Terry Collins
Derek Jeter
Eric Karros
David Ortiz
A. J. Pierzynski
Alex Rodriguez
Mark Sweeney
Nick Swisher
Dontrelle Willis

LoreWorld Series

1996
1998
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
2015
2016
2017
2018
2019
2020
2021
2022
2022
2023
2024
2025
2026
2027
2028

AL Championship Series

1997
1999
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2009
2011
2013
2015
2017
2019
2021
2023

NL Championship Series

1996
1998
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2008
2010
2012
2014
2016
2018
2020
2022

AL Division Series

1996
1997
1998
1999
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2015
2017
2019
2021
2023

NL Division Series

1996
1998
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2014
2016
2018
2020
2022

All-Star Game

1997
1999
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
2015
2016
2017
2018
2019
2020
2021
2022
2023
2024
2025
2026
2027
2028

World Baseball Cl*ic

2023

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