The Best Rainout Ever
Can you believe it? My unexpected, unforgettable evening with longtime Boston Red Sox (and now Hall of Fame) radio broadcaster Joe Castiglione.
Sixteen summers ago in the Windy City, a Thursday night game in August pitting my Boston Red Sox against the Chicago White Sox got washed out by steady rainfall.
At first, this was a disappointment to me and my buddy/fellow baseball zealot, Phil DiMarzio. Since 2000 or so, we’ve had an almost-annual tradition of taking in ballgames together—the perfect vehicle for catching up on life and diving into any number of tangents.
On this particular night, too, we were looking forward to connecting briefly with Glenn Geffner. In addition to being a friend and college roommate, Glenn was in what would prove to be his final year in the Red Sox radio booth before a 15-year tenure on the radio with the Miami Marlins.
But just as the night appeared to be going down the drain, a rainbow emerged: With the evening now freed up, Glenn invited us to join him and his radio partner, Joe Castiglione, for dinner.
When Joe became the Red Sox announcer in 1983, I was 14. Not long thereafter, I took pride in learning that Joe had moved to my hometown, Marshfield. Though our paths never crossed in person, his warm, easy-going, unaffected delivery—“the voice of summer in New England,” as MLB.com writer Ian Browne put it—became a welcome addition to my life.
I didn’t hear him call games much after moving to Chicago in 1990, but on trips to visit family, hearing Joe’s play-by-play would transport me back to my teen years. Over the years, perhaps most notably when the Red Sox won their first World Series in 86 years in 2004, Joe developed a signature phrase during times of high drama: “Can you believe it?”
On that August 2007 evening, the rhetorical question fit right in with my state of mind as the four of us took the CTA Red Line to Chicago’s River North neighborhood. (We’d given up on hailing a cab amid the throngs walking away from U.S. Cellular Field.)
As Phil reminded me a few days ago, while on the train Joe kept one of his hands in his pocket to avoid displaying his World Series ring to other passengers. (Joe wryly observed that he wouldn’t have worn it if he knew he’d be taking public transportation.)
Hunkering down for a meal at Dublin’s Bar & Grill, I tried to restrain myself from peppering Joe too aggressively with a million questions. So did Phil, though we still covered myriad topics, from landmark locations and other Marshfield memories to Joe’s and Glenn’s anecdotes about Major League ballplayers and other characters in the industry.
Here's Phil’s recollection:
“Mr. Castiglione (I can hardly bring myself to calling him Joe), being close to my age, was thoroughly familiar with the White Sox of our youth. He spoke of Aparicio, Fox, Pierce, Wynn and others, including the Yankee greats of that era. His knowledge of players old and new was beyond encyclopedic. In general, I remember most how humble and genuinely nice they both were.”
As for my recollection, a pair of qualities stood out to me: Joe’s candor and class. Those traits are not natural bedfellows. People who speak frankly tend to do it with rough edges, and I have found those who exude classiness are often relatively tight-lipped.
Somehow, Joe straddled the divide with ease.
On controversial topics (such as the proliferation of performance-enhancing steroids that had only recently gained traction in the national discourse), Joe was refreshingly candid as he offered insights and opinions that would never make it into any nine-inning broadcast.
Meanwhile, he still came across as he does on the radio: down-to-earth, earnest, and, of course, passionate about baseball. As we parted ways, Phil snapped this photo:
This past week, I knew Joe was one of 10 finalists for the 48th annual Ford C. Frick Award for Broadcasting Excellence—the fourth such time he’s been on the verge of joining the Baseball Hall of Fame. But I didn’t plan my Wednesday around announcement of the winner.
That’s why, instead of learning of Joe’s selection from a media outlet, it was—fittingly, perfectly—Phil who tipped me off with an e-mail.
“The news triggers memories of that evening we spent with him years ago following the rainout,” Phil wrote. “It is good to know he is a nice person in addition to being a great announcer.”
That sentiment echoes what so many others are sharing, including Glenn. I’ll let him have the last word here, drawing from his Substack, View From the Bleachers.
In his column Thursday, Glenn noted that he’s had the distinction of working alongside three Hall of Famers during his broadcasting career: Jerry Coleman in San Diego, Dave Van Horne in Miami and, of course, Castiglione.
“The thing that stands out to me is that beyond Jerry, Dave and Joe’s greatness on the air,” Glenn wrote, “is their genuine goodness off the air.”1
Enhancing the evening’s memory is the knowledge that the Red Sox went on to win the World Series two months later, a four-game sweep of the Colorado Rockies. Since then, Boston has won two more World Series, in 2013 and 2018—so Joe’s hand can fit only one more, for the thumb. (Wow, it really felt good to write this footnote!)
What a trenchant observation about candor and class. I suppose projection of both is unusual because candor is, unfortunately, often fueled by ego.
Right after that is also well done -- you make it clear that it wasn't that performance-enhancing drugs had only recently gained a foothold, but that public discussion of them was recent. That is accurate to the point in time. It would have been lazy but natural not to make the effort to phrase that so precisely.
I always wondered what is the criterion for "broadcast excellence"? In contrast, I have some idea what the criterion is for "baseball" excellence (just think Willie Mays ... on the other hand if that was so there would only be one player - Willie - in the HOF). Likewise, for "broadcast excellence" I always think of Vin Scully. But if that was so - like Willie - there would only be one broadcaster in the HOF. So I wonder. What is the criterion?