Opening Day marked the beginning of Don Orsillo’s 11th season as Padres television play-by-play voice, which means … well, what it means he’s been the former Red Sox television play-by-play voice for a long time now.
He’s come back to Fenway Park several times since he was staggered on Aug. 18, 2015 — yes, he remembers the precise date — when then-network president/CEO Sean McGrail informed him that after 15 seasons in the NESN booth, he would not be offered a new contract.
Returning to Fenway, which he is currently doing with the Padres in town for a three-game set, is not a new thing anymore. But many of the faces at his former workplace are new, at least to him. There are more players on the Padres (one, Xander Bogaerts) who played for the Red Sox when Orsillo was calling their games than there are on the current Boston roster (none, though manager Alex Cora and coaches Jason Varitek and Andrew Bailey were active players during Orsillo’s tenure).
Still, no matter how much time passes and how much changes, coming back to the city will always be a homecoming for the Northeastern graduate. Red Sox fans make sure of that.
“Here we sit, 11 years later, and I’m walking around [Thursday] by the Pru, and people are still coming up to me to say hello and wish me well,” said Orsillo, who said his youngest daughter drove up from Rhode Island to hang out with him. “As I said in my last game calling the Red Sox, ‘How do you want to be remembered? To be remembered at all means a lot to me.’ That people remember me and Jerry [Remy, the Red Sox’ primary color analyst and partner in hijinks during Orsillo’s tenure] so fondly is very humbling.”
Orsillo landed a six-year deal with the Padres almost immediately after word broke late in that 2015 season that he would not be back with the Red Sox. He acknowledges now that he had some concerns about how he would be received.
“I was taking over for Dick Enberg, a national broadcasting legend and Hall of Famer,” he said. “I was wondering, ‘Are they going to accept me?’ They don’t know me. I’m a guy that had been with one organization for 20 years, five in the minors [calling Triple-A Pawtucket games], and 15 here. I didn’t know anything else, and they didn’t know me.
“I’m grateful that it has gone amazingly well. They’ve embraced me and my partner, who was here before me.”
Don Orsillo’s DNA:
⚾️ 🐐
⚾️🐐
🎙
🎙⚾️
🎙 ⚾️
🎙 ⚾️
🎙 ⚾️
🎙 ⚾️
🎙⚾️
⚾️
⚾️ 🐐
⚾️ 🐐
⚾️ 🐐
⚾️ 🐐
⚾️ 🐐
⚾️🐐
🎙
🎙 ⚾️ pic.twitter.com/GcC3XGs111
— San Diego Padres (@Padres) May 26, 2019
That partner is Mark “Mudcat” Grant, a gregarious former pitcher for six teams in eight big league seasons. With the Orsillo/Grant duo in the booth, the Padres’ television broadcast was voted best regional-network broadcast in baseball last year in Awful Announcing’s annual poll.
“I think what we do is very similar to what Jerry and I did,” said Orsillo. “Mudcat’s philosophy is the same as Jerry’s. We’re going to have fun.
“Local broadcasts, in my estimation, are different from national broadcasts. When I’ve done games for TBS or Fox, my act is not the same. I’m representing both teams. I’m more straightforward. Local is different. You’re on in people’s living rooms every night, 162 games for six months. You can’t be annoying, but you’ve got to be yourself and show some personality and have a good time.”
It’s clear that Orsillo is having a good time in San Diego.
“I’m doing one of two things when I’m not on TV,” he said. “I’m fishing, or I’m cooking.”
This is confirmed by his Instagram feed, which sometimes looks like it is run by a food influencer.
“I enjoy the area and all it has to offer so much,” he said. “The ballpark, the fans.”
He notes that the Padres have had just one rainout in his 11 years in San Diego.
His happiness in his California circumstances sparks a question, and an answer that may not have seemed plausible 11 years ago.
Did it all work out for the best?
“Um … yeah, in some ways,“ he said. “I don’t want to say they did me a favor or anything, because the Red Sox were my dream job. But as far as a Plan B, yeah, it’s been wonderful.”
. . .
Word that the Patriots will be the featured team on HBO’s “Hard Knocks” for the first time in the program’s history during 2027 training camp made me wonder: Which team of the Bill Belichick era would you have most wanted to see on the show, which has been around since 2001? I think it has to be the 2007 Patriots, with the arrival of Randy Moss and Wes Welker. A sleeper pick? Training camp 2010, when Moss, Welker, Julian Edelman, and rookies Rob Gronkowski and Aaron Hernandez were all part of Tom Brady’s pass-catching group … A revival of “This Week in Baseball,” but on X.com? You know what, I think I’ll just stick with watching the classic episodes from the 1970s and ‘80s on YouTube. How about that, indeed.
Chad Finn can be reached at chad.finn@globe.com.