San Diego Padres News: Red Sox Announcer Orsillo Likely to Replace Dick Enberg

By Mark "Wisco" Whelan | Sep 28, 2015

Don Orsillo became the Red Sox television announcer in 2001. The Red Sox, who had gone 86 years without a World Series win, took home the championship in Orsillo’s fourth year.

Now, I’m not saying that bringing in Orsillo as the Padres play-by-play man means that the Padres will win the World Series in 2019.

But I’m not not saying that either.

After Dick Enberg announced that 2016 would be his final year, the Padres found in Orsillo a polished, experienced play-by-play man to join the Fox Sports San Diego broadcast team, according to Gordon Edes of ESPN.com. Once Enberg has retired after next season, Orsillo will likely become the Padres number-one guy.

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Major-league play-by-play jobs don’t come along every day. And like baseball manager positions, finding one with significant major league experience is highly desirable. Unlike managerial positions, though, which tend to turn over when teams have a bad season, announcer positions don’t turn over much. The best ones; the Vin Scullys, the Ted Leitners, the Jon Millers, seem to hang onto these positions for life.

So when you get a chance to scoop one up, it’s pretty great. And when it was announced on August 25 that Orsillo would not be going back to the Red Sox flagship station NESN, the Padres moved quickly to pursue him. Padres President and CEO Mike Dee, employed with the Red Sox from 2002-2009, is well-acquainted with Orsillo’s work.

Why is Orsillo, a Boston-area native, leaving his dream job announcing for his lifelong favorite team? Why didn’t NESN pick up the contract of the wildly popular announcer? According to the Boston Globe, one NESN executive wasn’t a fan, and when Orsillo took issue with a new policy requiring announcers to take a week off during baseball season, and make up the time later in the year, that signaled the beginning of the end. Orsillo’s contract was not picked up for next season.

But Boston’s loss is certainly San Diego’s gain. Orsillo’s polished style and sense of humor will be sure to please Padres fans. With a hat tip to Israel Fehr of Big League Stew, here’s a clip of the famous pizza-throwing incident that took place at Fenway Park, with Orsillo and broadcast teammate Jerry Remy providing the commentary.

According to Edes, the Padres will announce in a week or so that Orsillo has joined the broadcast team and will succeed Enberg. It’s likely that this announcement will not come until after Orsillo’s last broadcast with the Red Sox on October 4.

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