Odd man out of broadcast booth
McDonough riled over loss of Red Sox job
It was a Friday afternoon last December, and Sean McDonough was sitting in a gymnasium in Ann
Amid the sound of bouncing balls and squealing sneakers, McDonough's pager began to beep.
''I didn't recognize the number," he said. ''When I called back, it was a newspaper reporter. He asked me about being dropped by the Red Sox. It was the first I'd heard of it. I was stunned."
Stunned but not wholly surprised, since New England Sports Network, in which the Red Sox hold an 80 percent interest, had marginalized McDonough, limiting him to fewer than 30 telecasts in each of the two previous seasons while handing the lion's share of play-by-play work to Don Orsillo.
Ten months later, McDonough still struggles with the idea that after 17 seasons with the Sox, he's no longer part of the team's broadcast lineup.
''I haven't watched a total of a half-hour of Sox telecasts all summer," McDonough said in mid-September as the pennant race heated up. ''Sometimes I'll click on the TV to get the score, but that's about all. The truth is, I miss it terribly."
But McDonough, who grew up on the South Shore and resides in Quincy, has a sweet deal at ESPN. From now through March, he travels the nation doing big-time college football and basketball, as well as the College World Series in June, part of a 12-month cycle that includes about 70 events and eases substantially in the summer, leaving plenty of time for golfing and fishing.
McDonough has returned to Fenway Park three times since being dropped from Red Sox telecasts, twice to do play-by-play of games for ESPN, and most recently, before a game in August, to collect a World Series championship ring the team awarded each of its 2004 broadcasters. McDonough used that occasion to try to clear the air with Sox officials over his dismissal.
''I met with Larry Lucchino and spent a while talking to Tom Werner about the way it ended," said McDonough, referring to the two executives who, along with principal owner John Henry, are the club's decision-makers. ''They were friendly, and Tom said that he wished that he'd handled it differently, not the decision to let me go, but the way it was done."
McDonough slipped out of the ballpark that night before the first pitch. He had a ring, but still no answers.
Why did NESN dump McDonough in favor of Orsillo?
Gary Roy, a spokesman for NESN, said the station does not comment on personnel matters. But strictly on performance, it's hard to figure. McDonough, 43, is a versatile talent who handled marquee assignments throughout the 1990s for CBS and ABC and now at ESPN. On Sox telecasts, McDonough brought depth and candor and paired with analyst Jerry Remy to form a tandem immensely popular among fans.
Orsillo, 36, conveys an air of geniality, but compared with McDonough, seems to lack passion. Is Edgar Renteria really this bad? It's the kind of question McDonough would invite on air and Orsillo would never touch.
Eric Christensen, founder of the Sons of Sam Horn website, a discussion board for members of Red Sox Nation, says fans have commiserated online over the loss of McDonough. ''People loved Sean," Christensen said. ''He wasn't afraid to be critical of the team. Even if he didn't come right out and say it, he could imply it with his tone.
''I think I can speak for everybody on the website and say that his passion reflected that of the biggest Sox fans."
McDonough concedes that his frank discussions of the sale of the Red Sox during his stint as talk show host on all-sports radio station WWZN (1510-AM) could have triggered his demise.
After the Henry group purchased the Red Sox in early 2002, McDonough publicly questioned whether the new ownership, after shelling out a record $700 million for the franchise, would be willing to spend the hefty sums needed to field a competitive team. He also speculated that Major League Baseball had rigged the sale so that Henry would prevail over other suitors.
It was tough talk from the mouth of a prospective employee, and the Sox new owner apparently listened closely. One afternoon on WWZN, as McDonough discussed the sale, Henry dropped by the studio unannounced to offer an on-air rebuttal. The new owner was friendly but firm, McDonough recalled.
Lucchino, in an interview last week, emphasized that the decision to drop McDonough was made by NESN.
''I don't recall that his comments on [WWZN] were any factor," he said, adding that financial considerations were the primary issue.
When his play-by-play contract expired after the 2002 season, McDonough said, NESN proposed a new deal that slashed his per-game pay by about 60 percent and reduced his workload from 77 games to 28. The pact covered three seasons, with the network holding the option on the final year.
By any measure, it was an invitation to leave, except that McDonough wouldn't go away, even after the New York Mets made a far more lucrative pitch, offering him in excess of $500,000 to do approximately 80 games on local television.
McDonough, Boston born and bred, couldn't bear the thought of moving to New York. He turned down the offer, spurning the advice of his late father, Will, the longtime Globe sports columnist.
''My dad told me over and over that I should go with the Mets," he said. ''He could see the handwriting on the wall. But my heart was in Boston. I couldn't pull the trigger, and eventually my dad said to me, 'Fine, you don't care about the money, don't go.' "
McDonough signed the NESN offer. A month later, his father died of heart failure. Four months after that, McDonough bailed out on his radio show, abandoning his quest to mount a serious challenge to all-sports heavyweight WEEI.
Last October, as the Red Sox charged toward their first championship in 86 years, McDonough honored a commitment made months earlier to attend a friend's wedding in Maui. When Keith Foulke tossed the ball to Doug Mientkiewicz to clinch the World Series, McDonough was poolside with a group of Sox fans, absorbing the moment. Even in the joy of victory, he said, he had a bad vibe about his future.
''I used to think that I was going to be like Ernie Harwell," McDonough said, referring to the Hall-of-Fame announcer who spent more than four decades as the voice of the Detroit Tigers. ''I thought I'd be with the Red Sox all my career. Really, it's the only play-by-play job I ever wanted."
