Some Things I Think I Think: On Don Orsillo's return and his legacy in Boston (2024)

* Don Orsillo is a native New Englander and without any prompting, still vividly remembers his first trip to Fenway Park in 1978. As a student at nearby Northeastern, he attended Red Sox games regularly and worked as an intern to his mentor, Joe Castiglione.

From 2001-2015, Orsillo was the TV voice of the Red Sox on NESN and his career here is fondly remembered. In Boston this weekend with the visiting San Diego Padres for whom he now works, he estimated that a walk to lunch near his Back Bay hotel Friday resulted in more than 30 people stopping him and asking for a photo.

“I’m amazed by it,” said Orsillo of the lingering bond with Red Sox fans. “I truly am. I thought having been gone for nine years that there wouldn’t be many people who remembered. But as I said in my last game here, someone asked how I wanted to be remembered and I said, ‘Being remembered at all is enough for me.’ That’s how I felt then; that’s how I feel in 2024.

“I believe to this day that the broadcaster’s role is that of a family member. You truly become a family member. You’re on, in their livings rooms every night, every day. Or you’re on in the background while they’re doing something. You’re their voice of summer. The bond that people have with broadcasters is why I got into this business in the first place.”

Orsillo described walking into Fenway for only the second time since he left in 2015 “like walking into the home you grow up in as a kid. It’s that kind of feel. There are a lot of the same faces still here.”

But those faces are ballpark employees or people in the media; not a single player remains from 2015, his final season. He recalls Alex Cora, Andrew Bailey and Jason Varitek — but as players whose games he broadcast, not from their current roles.

And despite his long association with the Sox, he feels no divided loyalty whatsoever this weekend.

“I believe when you’re fired from a team, you lose your allegiance to that team as far as caring whether they win or lose,” he said. “That was part of the deal: If I’m out, so are they. I can’t be a fan of someone who’s not a fan of mine. You’re going to like someone who despises you or replaces you? I couldn’t do it. My allegiance had to end, especially where I went to another franchise, where I am invested. That fandom ended. Now, my love for the Bruins, Celtics and Patriots has not changed — they didn’t fire me.”

Orsillo readily admitted that he misses seeing his longtime partner Jerry Remy and that “it is weird to walk around these (Fenway) halls and not see him here. But I have closure with that and I know he’s here with me now.”

The firing of Orsillo alienated the fan base and backfired into one of the worst PR mistakes the Red Sox have made in recent history. Sadly, the Red Sox chose not to honor or spotlight Orsillo in his return to Fenway this weekend, despite his long association to the franchise and his role as the play-by-play voice of three World Series championship teams.

* For all the carping, the Linus Ullmark trade was a solid one for the Bruins. In addition to a first-round pick, which the Bruins didn’t have, the deal brought a bottom-six forward with some toughness (Mark Kastelic). It also landed them a veteran goalie, Joonas Korpisalo.

True, Korpisalo had an off-year with Ottawa, and in a perfect world, the Senators would have retained half of his annual salary going forward instead of just one-quarter of it. But the B’s were unlikely to go into next season with Brandon Bussi as their only backup to Jeremy Swayman; figure they would have spent close to $2 million on that veteran netminder. Instead, they’re on the hook for $3 million.

The fact that Ullmark had just one year of control left limited the return the Bruins could obtain. Don Sweeney wasn’t operating with any leverage. If you want to level any criticism his way, it’s that Sweeney should have dealt Ullmark last summer instead of this one.

* What does it say about the level of basketball talent that most experts believe unless you have a lottery pick, you’re not likely to get a player of impact in the NBA draft. The sport has grown exponentially across the world, but somehow, there are less than a dozen players in the world who can make teams appreciably better?

* The indignation of college baseball coach Jim Schlossnagle was a bit much last week. Schlossnagle wagged his finger at a reporter who has the gall to ask him if the rumors were true — that Schlossnagle was leaving Texas A&M for rival Texas. He called the reporter “selfish” for asking the questions minutes after A&M suffered a season-ending loss in the finals of the College World Series.

Turns out, the coach was on the move after all and days later, Schlossnagle was shamed into a pubic apology, but even that rang hollow. He said: “I wish I could have answered that better. But in the moment.....all I could think about was our players.” Of course, Schlossnagle had every opportunity to answer the question honestly the first time; no one made him get all huffy. And spare me his concern for his players, since he had already cut a deal with Texas and knew he’d be leaving.

Coaches like Schlossnagle are why no one should ever criticize the transfer portal. If coaches can move to improve their own situations, the same option needs to be made available to the players.

* At the halfway point of the season, the Red Sox had one fewer win than the Atlanta Braves, which is something that I didn’t see coming before the year began.

* I’m not one to place too much weight on oddsmakers or projections, but the fact that ESPN has the Patriots to be in line for the No. 1 pick again next year surely doesn’t signal much optimism for the upcoming season.

* The Red Sox need to do a better job informing fans in the ballpark when there’s a rain delay. The decision to suspend Wednesday’s game was made well before any public announcement, and fans, at least those who were protected by the ballpark roof, remained in their seats far longer than was necessary. For the record, I don’t believe that this is done to ensure additional beer and other concession sales — nobody was buying anything on the flooded concourse areas. But a better and faster delivery of information is required.

* It was 45 years ago this week that we lost Lowell George, whose distinctive growl and sublime slide guitar magic have been dearly missed ever since.

* The Bruins need help at center. That much is obvious. But here’s hoping that, when free agency opens Monday, they don’t spend No. 1 center money on a No. 2 center like Elias Lindholm. But Steven Stamkos, even at 34? Sign me up.

* RIP to the great Orlando Cepeda, the Red Sox’ first DH and a Hall of Famer. In 1973, his lone season in Boston, Cepeda’s knees were so bad, it’s a wonder he could walk, much less run. But he still hit 20 homers and batted .289.