Voices of Summer: Ranking Baseball's 101 All-Time Best Announcers (65 page)

In 1988, Martin left free TV for cable. Replacing him, the balding Sean,
like Jon Miller, looked a decade older than his age (26). On a flight to Cleveland, players drank and quarreled. Only McDonough-the team Voice! aging
further-reported it on the air.

"I'm embarrassed to be part of the traveling party," he explained. "I mentioned it because it hurt the Sox."

"Next plane, Sean," said right fielder Dwight Evans, "skip a parachute."

The rookie feared a pink slip. Instead, team owner Jean Yawkey said,
"Keep up the good work"-more than McDonough wished for umpire Dale
Ford or second baseman Marty Barrett.

In June 1989, Wade Boggs was sued for $6 million. Among other things, exgirlfriend Margo Adams said, the hit machine covertly photographed mates
with other women. A "Mar-go!" road chant rose. Evans and the married
Boggs fought on the Sox bus.

One night, Dale Scott blew a call. Immediately Boston began needling
another Dale. "Ford [had] ejected a couple of players several weeks ago," Sean
said, "and it's obvious the Sox have bad feelings."

Ford, blaming him for a feud, refused to review the tape. "If this is you
how handle disputes on the field," McDonough jibed, "no wonder you have
problems."

A year later, dad Will ripped Barrett. "Sean, he can kiss my ass," Marty
said, visiting father's sins upon the son. "I laugh when I read comparisons
about you and Bob Costas. You're about as close to him as I am to Ryne
Sandberg."

McDonough flushed: "If that's supposed to be an insult, at least you know
how far away you are from Sandberg."

That week, he urged that Barrett be pinch-hit for. Next day, Marty's wife
phoned in a hissy-fit: "Why do you say these things?"

Imagine: aVoice knowing his team, game, and mind. Sean was uncontrite.
"You stand by your word."

A word soon turned on ESPN TV. McDonough began innocently:
"Here's Dwight Evans, one shit high of 2,300 hits."

Partner Ray Knight broke up. "I did say he was one hit shy of 2,300,
didn't I?" Sean hoped.

A man greeted him in Texas: "Do me a favor. Just call `one hit shy.'"

In 1992, McDonough, replacing Jack Buck, got CBS TV baseball. "[Executive producer] Ted Shaker called about my interest." Hanging up, "I didn't
want to act like a 10-year-old. But I jumped up so high I ... put a hole in the
ceiling." Next-year Series scoring was higher. In Game Four, "The Phillies
have taken the lead by a field goal, 10-7," Sean said. Game Six: Canada takes
the Series. "Well-hit down the left-field line! Way back! And gone! Joe Carter
with a three-run homer! The winners and still world champions! The Toronto
Blue Jays!"

Losing baseball, CBS gave McDonough the Olympics, Masters, U.S.
Open, college hoops, and pro/NCAA football. In 1999, he returned to ABC.
Sean also darned the Sox on localTV outlets 68, 56, 25, and twice 38 and 4.
"They keep changing flagships." Changeless: "It's the only thing I do where I
care who wins and loses."

The Sox made the 1995, 1998-99, and 2003 A.L. playoff. In 2004, they
proved that pigs fly, the earth is flat, and the cow jumps over the moon. "No
one expected it," McDonough said of Boston's first world title since 1918-or his firing six weeks later.

SEAN MCOONOUGH

"People say, `You have the job I'd love to have,"' McDonough said in early
2004. Joe Castiglione does, succeeding Jon Miller and Ken Coleman on Sox
radio in 1983 and 1990, respectively. He takes defeat hard. "My partner is sitting here," said Bob Starr, "looking like he's just been harpooned."

As a Connecticut Yankee, the oldest of eight children revered Mel Allen,
then attended Colgate, did Raiders football, and made his first trip to
Fenway. "A good year to change your loyalty," he said of 1967. No Evil
Empire could matchThe Impossible Dream.

Castiglione got an M.A. at Syracuse, spent a decade in Cleveland
news/sports, covered the Edmund Fitzgerald's sinking, and aired another
wreck, the Indians. He joined Milwaukee in 1981. "The Brewers win the
second half! The Brewers win the second half!" Joe said, like Russ Hodges.
Cheeseheads still chant it between bowling, brats, and beer.

In 1983, WPLM bought Sox radio. The sixties Colgate disc jockey"Give me the Rolling Stones, the Kinks, the Animals, and my favorite,
Motown Sounds"-found Coleman caught between Perry Como and Patti
Page. "Sort of like the Red Sox fan, likes things as they were."

On April 29, 1986, Roger Clemens Ks a bigs-record 20 Mariners. In the
second inning, Ken begins reading the Boston yearbook.

"How about this! Roger's favorite singer is Steve Nicks."

"Ken, I believe that's Stevie Nicks," said Castiglione.

"Well, I know him well. I call him Steve."

"Uh, Ken, Stevie is a girl."

That October, Joe was in the clubhouse, eying the Series trophy, when Bill
Buckner missed The Ball. Three days later, entering the manager's office, he
found a broken man. "Why me, Joe? I go to church," said John McNamara. "I
don't understand why this had to happen."

Castiglione outlived Game Six, Ken's exit, and a "feeling by some that
Ned Martin should still be on radio." Son Duke became a New York sportscaster. Clemens, Mo Vaughn, Alex Rodriguez, and Pedro Martinez came or
almost did, and went. Joe became the Jimmy Fund's liaison between the
charity and Sox players and staff.

Offseason, he teaches broadcasting at Northeastern University and
Franklin Pierce College, quoting a retired Jesuit priest, Boston College historian John Day, about bigs radio being an apostolate to shut-ins, the disabled, and elderly. "When he said that," mused Castiglione, "I knew I was
freeloading for life."

In 2004, Joe wrote Broadcast Rites and Sites, a travelogue of park, town, and
craft. It is not required course reading.The season of its publication is.

First, Boston swept the Division Series against Anaheim. NewYork then took a
3-0 game L.C.S. lead. As usual, the tide was out.The stars were misaligned.The
Almighty was aYankees fan. Amazingly, the Sox revived. David Ortiz evokedYaz
in '67. "And a little flare, center field! ... Here comes Johnny Damon with the
winning [ 5-4 14th inning] run!" partner Jerry Trupiano bayed in Game Five.
"And ... Ortiz has done it again! ... Another wild celebration at Fenway Park!"
Next game, Curt Schilling tugged at Superman's cape. A day later, the Townies
completed "the greatest victory in team history!" whooped Castiglione. "Move
over, Babe, the Red Sox are American League Champions!"

The Sox swept St. Louis in the Series, stunning a diaspora of the devoted
and the crazed. "One--oh pitch," Joe said as a lunar eclipse veiled Busch Stadium. "Swing and a ground ball! Stabbed by [reliever Keith] Foulke! He has
it! He underhands to first! And the Boston Red Sox are the world champions!
For the first time in 86 years the Red Sox have won baseball's world championship. Can you believe it?"

No, even now. "This is the biggest story in New England," said owner
John Henry, "since the Revolutionary War." MTV becomes PBS. Teresa Heinz
Kerry takes a vow of silence. Dick Cheney grows hair.

"Read, work, build a reputation," Professor Joe told students that offseason. "Then don't mislead."

Don't slight your predecessor. "You're inheriting a bequest."

Don't copy, either. "To thine own self be true," said Hamlet, who would
have prized the '04ers knowing how "the play's the thing."

JOE CASTIGLIONE

Desi Arnaz vowed to 'splain a thin' or two. Carmen Miranda's come-on was
a befruited head. "The Cisco Kid" made English elementary. Pancho: "Oh,
Cisco." Cisco: "Oh, Pancho." Broadcast Latinos were once prop, joke, or foil.

In baseball, Hispanics were rarer than teetotalers at 21. "Mostly we
didn't exist," said Jaime Jarrin, joining the Dodgers in 1959, his voice still
chilly, its edge unreceding. "Those who did were thought unAmerican. It's a
time you don't forget."

Buck Canel was unforgettable. The bigs' first Spanish-speaking Voice
began at the Staten Island Advance and French wire service Havas and News Agency France-Press. Later: NBC Radio "Gillette Cavalcade of Sports,"
1937-78 World Series throughout the Hemisphere, and 1942-78 Yanks
home games to and for Latins in New York.

"Buck was our Cortez," said Jarrin. Rafael "Felo" Ramirez followed on
Havana's Radio Salas, Puerto Rico, and Venezuela, and Caguas Natives,
Santurce Crabs, San Juan Senators, and Magallanges Navigators. Gillette's
co-host aired 31 Series, 43 All-Star Games, and 1993- N.L. expansion
Florida. "Estaaaaaan ganado los Maaaaaarlins!" Felo roars. "The Marlins
are winning!"

Rene Cardenas launched bigs (L.A. 1958-61 and 1982-98), Lone Star
(Houston 1962-77), and A.L. (Texas 1981) Spanish coverage, reaching as
many as 82 million people. Voices now list Julio Gonzalez, Hector Martinez,
Gustavo Moreno, Eduardo Ortega, and Ulpiano Villa not mainstream, but
no longer another orb's. Said Jaime: "It took [post-seventies] immigration for
baseball to wake up."

Almost every club struts a Spanish-speaking network. Hispanics forge the
U.S.'s fastest-growing minority, swelling beisbol's public between and beyond
the lines. "Without a doubt," said ESPN's Peter Gammons, "tomorrow lies as
much with Hispanics in the cities as with white suburbs of Ozzie and Harriet."
In Los Angeles, that meant going back to a future, say, of 172 5.

L.A. was an 18th-century Spanish colony. It again became one after Jaime,
born in Cayambe, Ecuador, attended Central University of Quito, studied
engineering, philosophy, letters, journalism, and broadcasting, and migrated
in 1955. "Southern California was mostly white and middle-class," said Jarrin,
becoming Pasadena Spanish KWKW sports and news director. The ex-Bums
arrived three years later. "Scully did English. I got Spanish."Vin still introduces
him on TV.

Scully made Cooperstown. At first, Jaime-to many, "La Voz de Oro," the
Golden Voice-couldn't make the booth. Wearing headphones, he translated
in-studio. "I was in awe," Vin said. "He'd immediately interpret me." Arriving
from Colombia, journalist Sandra Hernandez "listened to two things on the
radio": Spanish soaps and Jaime. "He was our evangelist," ferrying the
Dodgers-"Esquivadores"-to barrio, tract, and farm.

"I learned baseball slowly," he said, watching Cardenas in the Coliseum press box. "To be honest, at first I was a more of a newsman": John
F. Kennedy's 1963 funeral, Winston Churchill's 1965 memorial service,
and Pope John Paul II's 1979 U.S. visit. Once a gunman held a plane and 56 hostages on an airport tarmac until Jarrin arrived to negotiate his
surrender.

In 1973, L.A.'s Spanish Network began. Leaving studio, Jarrin went live.
"Better than four walls," he said of Dodger Stadium's five tiers, flowing lawn,
and palm trees. "Finally! First class," moving uptown, if not upstairs.

"La pelota viene como una mariposa": The ball moved like a butterfly.

"Es el momento del matador, el momento de la verdad" preceded a 3-2 sacksfull pitch: to Jaime, the bullfighter's moment of birth, in a game of life or
death.

Ultimately, Hispanics totaled 35 percent of team attendance. The demographic ground was shifting under baseball's feet, though the sport seemed
oblivious at the time.

In 1981, rookie Fernando Valenzuela's debut blanked Houston. Soon the San
Fernando Valley seemed to signify his name.

By May 20, No. 34 had four shutouts, 0.20 ERA, and .348 batting
average. Hispanics jammed the Ravine. "The [legal and illegal] flood had
begun. Our network was growing. The kicker was Fernandomania," said
Jaime, doubling as translator.

On June 4, 1990, Ramon Martinez K'd 18 Braves to tie Sandy Koufax.
Later, Dennis Martinez hurled Dodger Stadium's first rival perfect game.
"On the field, you saw Hispanic names."When would you, above?

In 1997, Colombian Edgar Renteria's Game Seven hit won the Series.
"An Hispanic hits it," said Jaime. "Another calls it. Our [Latina Broadasting
Company] audience of 35 million heard it." Next year, 35 Hispanics did the
majors: eight had, a decade earlier. Jarrin entered Cooperstown-"the third
Hispanic [Canel '85 and Ramirez '01 ] and maybe the greatest in exposure to
U.S. Latins," said then-official Bruce Markusen, himself Puerto Rican.