The Olympics... and beyond

So, the news broke today that longtime NESN play-by-play man Don Orsillo, who grew up just down the road from where I live today, was not returning for the 2016 Red Sox season. This came as a shock to most of the people in New England. When Orsillo came around 15 years ago, he stepped into the shoes of a beloved local figure in Sean McDonough. There was a period of adjustment for Red Sox fans, but Orsillo's easy-going nature and his great sense of humor, along with his skills as a play-by-play guy, won over fans pretty quickly. He bonded with Jerry Remy, the longtime NESN analyst and over the last 15 years they have developed a fantastic give and take that makes watching Red Sox games easy, even when the team is in the tank, which sadly over the last few years has been more often than not. Additionally, Orsillo has adjusted pretty well to curveballs thrown his way over the course of the last few years. When Remy was dealing with illness, Orsillo worked with many different partner...

I can't stress how happy I was to hear Joe Castiglione back on my radio and Don Orsillo and Jerry Remy back on my television yesterday. I was a bit disappointed that Dave O'Brien was away from the radio booth, but I was happy that the powers that be at WEEI put Lou Merloni on the broadcast with Joe instead of Rob Bradford. Bradford makes me want to turn the radio off. But that's a whole other story. Here are a few observations from what is one of my favorite days of the year. Hanley Ramirez will be the American League MVP. After that performance, nothing will go wrong for the rest of the year and he'll finish with 83 homers and 210 RBIs. He won't drop a single ball in left field and will learn to play the wall better than anyone since Yaz. Dustin Pedroia will finish second in the AL MVP voting, falling short of his teammate by three votes. He will finish with only 78 homers and 190 RBIs and will beat himself up throughout the offseason for slacking off. Clay Buc...

Most of what I write about in my work days is sports related, but today I am taking a trip back in time, back 29 years ago to Jan. 28, 1986. Back then, I was a kid, not the old man I have grown into now. I was a student at E.G. Sherburne School in Pelham, NH. A testament to how long ago that was is the simple fact that the school doesn't exist anymore. The building converted to other uses years ago. Jan. 28, 1986 started out as a day for celebration, particularly for the state of New Hampshire. It was the day that New Hampshire teacher Christa McAuliffe was boarding the space shuttle and heading into space. Much had been made of Christa winning the chance to become the first teacher in space and the buildup was fantastic across the state of New Hampshire. As home to the first American in space, Alan Shepard, New Hampshire had a pre-existing connection to the space program, but this was something new. This was a new generation of individuals getting inthralled at the idea of the s...