Can you believe it? Red Sox radio announcer Joe Castiglione gets call to Hall of Fame
Joe Castiglione was named this year’s winner of the Ford C. Frick Award Wednesday, sending him into the broadcaster’s wing of the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown.
Here’s a true story:
A couple of weeks back I spoke to Castiglione about having lunch with one of my relatives, a huge Castiglione fan since the broadcaster arrived in Boston in 1983. Naturally, Castiglione said yes —- that’s the way he is — and without looking at the calendar, we set the date for Dec. 6.
When Castiglione was in Worcester to host the WooSox Foundation dinner last weekend, it dawned on him that there was a conflict that Wednesday.
“I’ll be waiting to see if I get a phone call,” he said. So we postponed and it’s a good thing. Castiglione’s phone rang a little before lunch.
The broadaster spoke via a video conference shortly after getting that call.
“It was more stunning than anything,” he said of the moment. “I knew the call would come between 10:30 and 11:30 so it was a nervous time.”
Castiglione grew up in Hamden, Conn. and graduated from Colgate University. That is perhaps an hour’s drive from Cooperstown, so he was very familiar with the Hall of Fame even before he went into broadcasting.
Being enshrined there was something he never envisioned.
“It is really a ‘can you believe it’ moment,” he said. “You can never dream of these things. My first goal was to call major league baseball, then call a World Series, but it was not on my radar, to be honored by my peers.”
Castiglione is probably one of the last broadcasters whose name will be indelibly linked with one particular team. Initially, though, he wasn’t sure he would make it past 1983.
“I had a one-year agreement,” he recalled, “not even a contract until later in the season. I just wanted to get through to the next season. That first season was great — it was Yaz’ last season — but I never thought it would culminate in this geat award.”
Castiglione’s tentative entry into the Red Sox broadcast booth — the agreement, not a contract — is remarkably appropriate. It is fair to say that his best friend through the Red Sox years has been former manager Joe Morgan, and Morgan turned what was going to be a week of managing in 1988 into Morgan’s Magic and 3½ seasons as the team’s skipper.
The pals are driving to New Haven Thursday, by the way, to do some visiting and have lunch.
The day Morgan was fired in 1991, he and his wife Dorothy escaped the media throng in Walpole by driving to Castiglione’s home in Marshfield where his wife Jan consoled everyone with a pan of home made brownies.
Wednesday morning was an interesting, if tense one, in the Castiglione household.
He admitted he did not sleep well. Before the call came in, the family had a new refrigerator delivered, he rode the exercise bike and he “Sat and looked at the phone.”
When Hall of Fame vice-president of communications Jon Shestakofsy — who knew Castiglione from his days working in Red Sox public relations — called to deliver the news, Castiglione hit the wrong button on his phone and disconnected Shestakofsky.
Castiglione has called more than 6,000 Red Sox games and seen some of the team’s most thrilling triumphs and most devastating failures. He has interviewed 14 managers — Ralph Houk, John McNamara, Morgan, Butch Hobson, Kevin Kennedy, Jimy Williams, Joe Kerrigan, Grady Little, Terry Francona, Bobby Valentine, John Farrell, Torey Luvollo, Ron Roenicke and Alex Cora.
His legendary “Can You Believe Call” when the Sox finally won the World Series in 2004 was one he thought he might never make, then Boston won three more championships in a matter of 14 years.
Castiglione’s style is a mix of many other announcers, but there is no question he wants the Red Sox to win.
“It happens naturally, maybe by osmosis,” he said of that style. “I’ve had some great mentors — Mel Allen, Ken Coleman, Ernie Harwell, Bill O’Donnell. You take things from different individuals, but your style develops naturally ... people say they can tell who’s winning by the tone of my voice.”
Castiglione’s part of Red Sox history is more than just behind the microphone. He had a brief, but very successful career, as a batting coach.
On June 12, 2010, Castiglione talked with rookie Daniel Nava before the outfielder made his major league debut and advised him to swing as hard as he could at the first pitch he saw. Not much in the way of analytics there, but Nava was advised that he would never see another first pitch again.
Nava hit that first pitch for a grand slam.
Do you believe it?
—Contact Bill Ballou at sports@telegram.com. Follow him on X, formerly known as Twitter @BillBallouTG.
This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: Red Sox radio announcer Joe Castiglione wins Hall of Fame’s Frick Award
