It's Night Side with Dan Ray w Bzy Constance video.
Welcome back everyone. Sorry about that glitch. We had a problem with one of our lines. As you know, I'm broadcasting remotely. There's nothing wrong with the equipment that I have set up here. We have switched lines and Rob is going to make management aware of that. We've been on this line for years now and has never been a problem. And as soon as we switched lines, we were back. I apologize to the guest last hour. We will get Kimberly, my girl back from back on in
the next few days. But I am now delighted and honored to have on Nightside a guy who I've been a big fan of for a long time. And thank all of you know I like baseball and I listened to a lot of Red Sox games, pull for the Red Sox for a lot of reasons that you folks understand. The great joke A stick leone joins us, Joe, welcome to Nightside. How are you, my friend?
Thank Dan, great to be with you. About three days in the retirement here.
So house in bid to be retired. I'm pretty good, pretty.
Comfortable answer text and emails and cards and letters and it's it's gotta be nice. And the Red Sex is still keeping me on as an ambassador of sorts and maybe even filling in in a game or two. But I'll still be around the ballpark, but not on a regular basis.
Oh man, I'll tell you, uh, you've had the dream job. Most Red Sox fans think if they could trade places with Joe Castiglione. What I want to do is give folks an opportunity. You're gonna stick with us till about nine thirty.
Uh.
And if folks would like to call in and say hello, remember where they were at one point, maybe when they were listening to you, either in the backyard or in the car, and the Red Sox did something great. They're more than welcome to share a memory. They they all know the number six, one, seven, two, four, ten thirty.
My first question is you're a hand in Connecticut guy originally and went to Syracuse, uh and and have spent the vastment you worked for the UK, Cleveland Indians baseball, Milwaukee Brewers baseball, just for you know, two or three years early in your career forty two years.
Has anyone ever been the radio voice of the Red Sox for that length of time. We've had great broadcasters, you.
Know, Kurt Goudi and Ned Martin and of course yourself.
But I can't remember anyone who even comes near to forty two years.
Well, Ned Martin had thirty two years Dan and Ken Coleman had twenty, interrupted by four or five years when he went to Cincinnati, so I guess it was ten years more than that. And yeah, I'd probably seen more Red Sox games than anybody because the owners didn't go on the road.
I got to ask you this question, and I'll be very curious, and you probably have been asked this question before, but.
Do you remember, at some point in everyone's life in New England they make the journey to the mecca Fenway Park. How old were you when you first walked into that ballpark.
I first walked into Fenway when I was nineteen, Actually I was twenty. I was twenty was the oh ok, it was August of nineteen sixty seven. I may not have to tell you the truth. I went to the Yankee Stadium as a kids.
Well, the New York at a little closer right.
And soccasion Aliche Stadium and even the Polo Grounds. But my first Fenway was nineteen sixty seven, and I actually sat on the wooden benches in the center field bleachers to watch the Red Sox play the Washington Senators in August of that year.
Wow, do you remember the result of the game or anything that was memorable about about that game?
Sixty seven?
Obviously the Red Sox were playing pretty good baseball in sixty In August of sixty seven.
Yeah, I possible dream and the entire region was fired up. I was working that summer as a senior at Kolga University. I was at wde W and Westfield, Massachusetts, and for some reason we carried Yankee games, which made no sense in the Stringfield market. But I came in that particular game. I looked it up, so I do remember that Karli Stretsky had a home run and that Washington won it.
And I later rediscovered that a good friend of mine, Hank Allen, the older brother of Dick Allen, to the double in the ninth inning to win it for Washington.
I think he's a a trivia question. They say, you know what, two brothers have combined the most home runs in Major League Baseball, And obviously Hank Hank well you're talking Richie Hank Aarons. But did you say Hank Aaron's brother. Is that who you are?
Yeah, Hank and Tommy Era. I think Tommy gets thirteen. Yeah it's seven fifty five.
But together they had seven sixty eight. And I'm sure. And so he was playing for the Senators at that.
Point, Yes, yes, Washington Senators. He sided with it pays, just like Dick Allen did and had a younger brother, Ronnie Allen, whom I knew when I worked in Youngstown, Ohio, who had one hit in the big leagues. I think he was one for twelve or one for thirteen and hit was a home run.
Well, you know, it's funny. I was really rooting for this young guy, Mickey Gasper.
You know he's oh yeah, and I think you were too.
I was watching the listening to the game on Sunday, and he's still looking for that first hit. I know he hit the ball, hit a bunch of line drives, but right at people. So what was it like, Joe, I know a little bit about baseball, don't know nearly as much as you know about baseball, obviously because of all that.
You've done over the years. But how was it traveling with a team.
And I don't know if in all the forty two years if you were always on the charter or at different times you weren't. But you get to know these guys and you can't help but start to pull for people you know. At the same time, you got to call the ball game. How tough is that to have friendships? You know, your friendships met with guys on every teams get traded and all that. Then how tough is it to call the game and maintain some modicum of objectivity.
Well, I think you have to realize Daniel reporter first and foremost, and you have to describe what happens and to be forth right about it, because if you don't have the trust of your audience, you have nothing. So you really need that credibility. And if a guy makes an error, I mean, you got to say it, or he doesn't cover first base and it costs this team. You have to point those things out. And yeah, you don't know every player as well as you know the other.
But I think that I think I was able to separate it for the most part, even though I certainly had my personal favor which guys I knew better than others, but travel with the team was It was almost always on the charter. Although you don't really see a lot of players on the planes because there was one section. The broadcasters are in another section, and the manager and the coaches are in the third section. But you do get to know them around the batty cage, in the
clubhouse and in the dugouts. So it is something that you have to just be objective about, really, or you lose your audience.
And also people I don't think appreciate the schedule. You know, people think you got the winters off, but during the season you got an extra any game. Of course, extra any games have been shortened a little bit because of the new ghost runner rule. But in the old days, You're gonna have a fourteen to fifteen exhibition game in Seattle and have to fly across the country, and yet maybe the next night I'll be back.
At the ballpark.
The travel note is tough for the players, but it's also tough for the broadcasters.
Well, it is, especially when you get home at five am. The last couple of years I cut back the ninety games. I tried to avoid those night games on getaway when you come home and get home at five, because you know, when you're you're young, the player's age, you can sleep most of the day. At this age, the body clock goes off. You try to live with those then it is it is difficult.
When did you decide you wanted to be a broadcaster when you you know, I know that you WoT Colgate and did you also do some academics at Syracuse?
I did a master's program one year at Syracuse, and I worked there my first TV job at Channel three. But I decided to be a broadcaster probably when I was about ten, because at that stage I knew I wasn't good enough to be a player. So that's best thing.
Yeah. No, But you also are in the Baseball Hall of Fame, and of course that has that's the ultimate honor, which you know, I mean there's some great baseball players, some great baseball players who can only go to the Hall of Fame as a visitor. You go there as
a member real quickly. That has to have been, you know, the achievement of a lifetime, the thrill of a lifetime to think that you're there in the Hall with the baseball immortals, not only the guys you covered, but the men on whose shoulders this game was built from the late eighties, the late eighteen.
Hundreds through the first half of the twentieth century.
What does it feel like to be a Hall of Fame Baseball Hall of Fame member?
That has to be We're not technically in the Hall of Fame. We win the Broadcast Award, but we have certainly plots in the Hall of Fame, not where the players are, but in a different section along with the baseball riders who have their own.
But you're still in the building. You're still in the building, Hey, Bill, You're still You're still in the building, you know.
I mean, we're not going to make any of those distinctions on this show, that's.
For sure, thank you.
Yeah.
But to think that your grandchildren, your great grandchildren, your great great grandchildren will always know that, you know, whatever your nickname, Pops, Pops or Papa or whatever, they can go to Cooperstown and they can look up and say, yeah, you know, that's one of my ancestors.
That's a forever thing. Joe. I mean, I don't know if you ever thought about it.
That way, well, not really. You really underscore it there, I think. And it makes me feel great because you would try to achieve this, and I was a forty eighth recipient. The first was my broadcast hero as a kid, Male Alan, the voice of the Yankees. Actually he and Red Barbera went in the first year in nineteen seventy eight. And so many of my good friends have been inducted, like Ernie Harwell or the Tigers. Primarily it was a
great manner of mine. Others have not yet been elected who certainly deserve it, like my men are in Boston, Ken Coleman, certainly, Ned Martin, I certainly have the credentials and they still have a chance to get in when one of the years the vote is for pre expansion. So I think that that could happen. But it really is a great thrill, and I never thought it would happen. I mean, you don't get into this thinking of Hall of Fame or personal honors. You get into because you
love baseball and you love broadcasting. But it really was a great thrill, and it was maybe the five most outstanding days of my life, other than the wedding and the birth of my kids. Because you get there and they roll out the right carpet for you. The president of the Hall of Fame. Josh Rowitch was there the greatest at the door, and every time you turned around, there was a Hall of Famer at your elbow. And
they were also welcoming. The players really were welcoming, those who have been in for many years, and those who were elected enshrine this past year. One of the great calls I got was December, about two weeks after I found out I was elected, and we're in between my granddaughter's basketball games and I see five one three number. I know it's Cincinnati, but I didn't the call. I didn't pick it up. They went to voicemail was Johnny Bench. So I called Johnny back and he said, and Johnny's
taken on this role himself. He said, just if this a Hall of Famer calling me, I want to welcome you to Cooper's town. And he does that with players, he does that with the writers. So he's taken that role on and by that made you feel so great.
Johnny Bench is a great guy. I've had the opportunity to be in his company. And he played for the wrong team in terms of the Red so the Reds, but a class act is his son went to school up here at Boston university as a kid, was about six foot eight and I think had real operations to be a sportscaster. Really nice, nice young guy, that's for sure. One other quick thing, you called basketball NBA games, which I did not know in nineteen seventy nine. I think
I could call baseball again. Baseball not as well as you, but basketball has got to be tough to call.
Well, it was TV, so that was a lot easier. The tough thing was our team one fifteen and lost sixty seven.
Yeah, okay, no rings that year, Joe, I want to take a quick break. I got a bunch of folks who would like to call and just speak to you before we'll let you go. At nine thirty, my guest is Joe Costiglion, Hall of Fame broadcaster forty two years he was. He's the voice of Summer in New England. Because I on ty you how many times you're on the road and you're listening on the car radio or in your backyard listening just to the to the pace
of a baseball game. There's there's nothing better and more relaxing than listening to a pace for a baseball game, particularly one that's being done by Joe Castiglion.
We'll be back with.
Joe and a few callers if you like to try to get in. There's still a couple of lines at six one, seven nine three, one ten thirty. The main line is full up, so try six one seven nine three one ten thirty. Coming back on night Side.
Now, back to Dan Ray live from the Window World night Side Studios. I'MBZ News Radio.
My guest is broadcasting Hall of Famer Joke Isstig Leon Voice radio voice of the Boston Red Sox for over four decades, forty four years. Joe, you've got the lines lit up. We're going to try to move as many people as quickly as I can. We have Idaho, Rhode Island, and Minnesota. So let's start with Laurie and Idaho. Laurie, you're on with jokestigle on.
Go right ahead, Laurie, I joke. As you know, there is an honor of my lifetime just to talk to you. So thanks for thank you. Lry. I got to get bio on my bucket list. Well, I've been out here for about three years and the thanks to that satellite service that we have now suspended their channels, I listened to every single game with you calling it obviously because I can get the home radio broadcast. Well, thank you
very much. I appreciate it. And yeah, it really has opened up a new world for us, expanded the audience greatly.
By the way, Joe, and she takes her passion for the Red Sox with her across the continent.
Go ahead, Laurie. Didn't mean to interrupt.
No, that's okay. Just even when I was in the Boston area, I'd still listen to the radio. If it were the playoffs, if we made it, I'd have the TV on with no sound. But so just thank you, thank you for being as they say, the soundtrack, and I just do have one little for all the great soundbites you have. You have a new favorite of mine which happened this year when you were in the booth.
Was trying to have done it, I think, and the relief picture came in and kind of got lit up for the first three batters, and he said, wow, boozers getting hammered out there. John couldn't stop laughing, and I didn't realize what I said until he started laughing. I do remember it clearly.
Great, dear you boys, that's a funny story. That's a funny story.
Thanks. Yeah, that's awesome. Thank you, gentlemen.
Bye, all right, Laurie, talk to you soon.
Let me go to Arthur in Providence, Rhode Island. Arthur, you're on with a great joke. Go ahead, Arthur.
Hi, good evening, Dan. Thanks for having Joe on. Joe, it's an honored us to speak with you. Always listened to the radio, load TV, and I just wanted to get your thoughts on You're welcome. I wanted to get your thoughts on how social media has a change since you affected the game, since you've first started. I don't know how much social media has affected other than more
information out there, some of it not always true. But I think the Internet has certainly affected it because there's so much more information out there, and we can look things up and get answers to questions that you know, used to be barroom arguments, we can settle them right away. So I think the proliferation of information has been the biggest change, and for the most part it's very good. But again, you have to filter and real and research
what's true and what may not be. Great question I got, Hey, Thank.
You, Thank you.
Ar A lot of people listen on the radio, and some of my listeners are blind, and the radio means even more to than one of them is Glenn and Bright and Glenn, you're next one.
Nice I with chocus a hi job. This is a pleasure. I'm seventy one years old, I'm blind to live alone, and I don't have a computer. And I've noticed that the station you're on a bust and no longer carries play offfs in World Series twenty nineteen was the last and baseball.
Let's let's not talk about other stations on WBZ, please, Glenn, no one know.
I didn't got a question for you, got a question for Joe. Go ahead.
Don't get me juding what's going on with baseball and radio because I don't have other ways to hear baseball.
I mean, in the series, always think that people people who are elderly, are disabled or blind, and that's a it's an important part of our audience. And I think baseball is still the same on radio for the most part. The networks are there. There's more coverage really with US Shadow right XM. The reason that the young lady could hear US in Idaho, and it's still a primary source, especially in New England, because New England is so rural
in some areas, certainly not always the case. It's metropolitan too, but I think it's an important part of it. And we try to think of our radio listeners all walks of life, and I think that's very, very important. And you can drive anywhere in New England and here are games.
Absolutely, Glenn, thank you. I got to keep rolling because they got a couple more folks. I want to sneak in, buddy. We'll talk soon. Okay, be well, I got your message the other day.
Thank you, Glenn. Let me go to vic in St. Paul. I assume that's Minnesota.
That's Minnesota, Dan, Joe, could you please talk about your memories of your days in Cleveland, especially filling in on the sports line for Pete Franklin, and your memories of the leyton NEB. Chandler as well, two great friends of mine. Pete like what I filled in for because he knew I didn't want that job on a permanent basis. I wanted to do play by play. He always told me
he should be a play by play guy. But in those days, anything to make a living, including work in the all night shift on the news desk at the NBC I want To TV station. But Pete was a great character. I think he was the first sports radio talk show host anywhere, and he did it at first a smaller station in Cleveland than he went to the fifty thousand Water and eventually went to San Francisco and New York. But a great guy who had his own style, and that Chandler was a very close friend of mine.
We both started out doing weekend sports in Cleveland, me at Channel three, Channel five, and we'd always compare notes, and you know, we were always on the back end of the news that they needed extra time, they'd cut us and we wouldn't get the camera. Then we wanted because he was always had the first crack at it, and you know that's the way TV works sometimes. But he was a very good friend of my were lost and far too young.
Good question, Vic, how did you know Joe was going to be with us tonight?
Well, I listened to your show on the iHeartRadio app.
Well, thank you very much. What I was hoping you were going to say, but thank you very much and free to call it any night.
Joe, did you do all five hours of Peach Show? When you filled in for him. I did if there were no game on the night. I remember most was I went to the ballpark by the night off. I was called the last moment, and I went down to the park at the old Municipal Stadium, and that night Lenny Barker pitched a perfect game, the only perfect game
I've ever seen. And I went back to the station and did the postgame show after that Peach Show, and that was that was quite a thrill because that was probably the only one I've ever seen.
Right back, Joe, there was one that you came close to. And I was sitting there that night behind the Yankee on deck circle when Musina, just before nine to eleven, the sun not the Sunday before, but about ten days before nine to eleven, was twenty six up and twenty six down, and never saw Musina. Uh as effected a great pitcher, obviously, and uh Carl Everett blooped a little bloop into into left field and broke up knowing no hitter but a perfect home.
Oh yeah.
In September of two thousand and one, just before our world change, Hey, Vic, thank you very much for the call. I want to get at least one more in Okay, thank you if you called some night on any any topic.
You know, Joe, I thought that maybe guy Manila.
Who started you know, sports talk here at WBZ way back in the sixties. But if your guy beat him, then I'm going to stand corrected on that one.
Well, I know the guy was a pioneer and I used to listen to him whenever I get to the Boston area. He was great, and he might have been right around the same time as Pete Sue Pete, he called himself, and they were They were certainly both pioneers. But a quick story about your listener in Saint Paul, our Joe Morgan, Joseph Michael Morgan, our manager, great storyteller, and when he played in the American Association, the Louisville and Atlanta and others. Uh, they would have morning and
afternoon doubleheaders in Minnesota Saint Paul. They played Minnesota in the morning and Saint Paul in the afternoon. They piled into the cab going to the ballpark in Minnesota and uh Nicolette Park, I think it was called. And they get out of the cab and they tell the cabby, uh, they wouldn't pay him, and said We'll catch you in Saint Paul. So that was the favorite Joe Morgan quote.
Catch it, Sat Paul. Let me get one more.
Wither the ball Paul, Joe Morgan.
Yeah, oh god, my goodness. Yeah. Let me go to another.
Joe.
Joe is in Lynn, Joe, I'm going to get you in here, go right ahead, Joe.
Great, Joe, glad to meet you.
I'm seventy seven years old and I'm blind too. I've noticed that the play by play has changed. I used to hear Mel Allen. He would say up on the pictures mounds for the socks in the every time a ball would he would say who threw it? And you know, he had a way of letting you know, how do I say who threw it, what team it was?
On everything. I've noticed that it's changed, and maybe you can comment on and make sure your predecessors, because we as blind people need to know everything as much as you can. As I called video description for the games, because I love baseball and I remember Mel Allen in Philadelphia. I'm from Philadelphia and New Jersey. He was excellent.
Always try to paint the word picture Joe as best we can and describe every play as that happens, and h you know, we do what They get some commercials in there during the course of the action, and that's always tricky to fit it in, but I think we try to do that as much as we can sometimes, you know, the pace of the game. Every game is different at the pace because it's the only game where
defense controls the ball. The picture controls the ball. So yeah, I know you have to you haven't had a way of doing.
Hold on, Joey, please, Joe and Lynn, let Joe Castig finish the answer to your question.
Glad Joe, Yeah, but I think you're right. I mean, Mel was the greatest and he really painted that word picture and he was my hero. Try to model myself after his style.
Well you, you and hell are the same in the same location. Joe and Lynn, thank you very much for your call.
Joke.
I promised i'd let you go by nine thirty and I broke my promise. It's nine thirty five. Okay, Thank you so much. Say hello to our good mutual friend Steve Fryer. I think we're both blessed to have him in our corner.
If you get my draft, I do, yes, he's been wonderful to me, and I know he's been to so many broadcasts. We cherish his friendship.
Yeah, and I guess he was there.
He and Susan might have been at the ballpark on Sunday for your for your curtain call, if you will, U and I watch. I watched it all real closely on TV, and I wanted to have you on the show. And you ever wanted to sit in some night, you know, if you get tired this winter or whatever, you get a little answers, We're always available.
Thanks job all right, Well, we love we love to listen to you, Dan and watch you on TV for many years and and it's it's a thrill to be on with you right.
Back at you. I'm totally on it. Thanks Joe.
Please say hi to Mississ Castiglione into all the Castiglians, including your song. Who's doing such a great job at Channel five. I enjoy watching this, all right, Joe, talk soon, have a good one. All right, we're gonna stick with this theme. Uh And if you're on the line, loved to talk to you. Who was your favorite broadcaster and tell us your Joe castigli Own's story. I hate to break a good conversation, so I'd like to just talk.
A little bit of baseball.
I know baseball is over for the year, but I'd like to talk a little bit of baseball right after the news here.
It's no longer the bottom of the hour. I stole extra five minutes.
From jokistig Leo, and so I get everybody in six one, seven, two, five, four, ten thirty six, one seven, nine, three, one ten thirty let's talk some baseball coming back on the other side.
It's Night Side with Dan Ray Boston's news radio.
So baseball is over for the Red Sox, and by the way, I just want them again.
Thank Joe Castiglion.
I mean, the enthusiasm, the passion that he has for the game comes through during the interview, also comes through.
Uh.
Forty two years here in Boston, and he was very fortunate to work for the same organization, you know, one of the original Major League Baseball teams for forty two years. And he did a tremendous job, a tremendous job. And I know there are people who try to imitate him. You know, you'll be at a bar and someone who try to imitate Joe Castiglio, and there's only one.
Uh, let's get to some folks here and we'll talk a little baseball. We'll yeah, we're going to change topics at ten o'clock. We got about seventeen minutes. Let's have some fun. Baseball season may be over for the Red Sox, but they'll still be playing for another month in other cities around around the country.
Joe and Dorchester. Hi, Joe, how are you?
Good Bye?
Dan?
Thanks for let me speak to you, and thanks again to Joe, of course, a lot of his work.
Unbelievably want able gentlemen, Do I right ahead?
Yeah?
Uh, what I wanted to talk about. It's a baseball story, but it's also a little piece of history. Do you remember the year in the playoffs? Yeah? Can you hear me?
I can hear you perfectly, right ahead, I can.
Hear you good.
Uh.
Do you remember the year and baseball playoffs in San Francisco when they had the earthquake?
Yeah?
And I just want to say that I always admired Al Michaels as a broadcaster. He's very enjoyable, he was knowledgeable. He was working with Tim I believe was Tim McCarver that night, and he made the transition in that moment from being a sports broadcaster too. He was the network anchor on the ground covering a natural disaster, and he did it with grace, professionalism. He was calm. He was sitting in a booth weaving together all the feeds that a network anchor would have if he were covering a
presidential election or a war. The guy was brilliant. Why they didn't make him an anchor that night, I don't know, but so I always wanted to by half to him. So it's a baseball story, but it's also a little piece of history. So al Michaels right at the top of the list as far as prodster.
Was a great It was a great piece of history. And you remember the big earthquake. The big one was the earthquake that hit San Francisco near the turn of the century that destroyed large portions of the city. And so when you're watching a ballgame, it was not during the game when the earthquake struck. It was before the game, and obviously people were in the ballpark ready to watch a baseball game, and they had no idea, you know,
what was going on. Obviously they knew it was an earthquake, and they certainly in San Francisco were aware of it, and I just looked it up here. This earthquake, it killed sixty three people, and people forget, you know, because no one died at the ballpark, but it killed sixty three people and there were thirty eight hundred people who
were injured in about six billion dollars in damage. And it really brought home what an earthquake really was like because it occurred in a city where a World Series game was going on.
So great reminder, right, thanks for the whole world was looking in on it.
You know, they came for a ball game and on earthquake broke out. Who knows?
You got it? You got it, hey, Joe, great story.
I wish you could have got through earlier and reminisced with them with another Joe Joeistiglell.
Thanks Joe, appreciate it very much.
Thank you, Dan, have a great night.
Let me go too from Joe and Deutsches. They're going to go to Sean and Fitchburg. Shawn, you were next on NIGHTSAG go right.
Ahead, Hey man, thanks for taking my call. I've always been a fan of Joke Tostick all these years, but I'd like to bring up a story about my favorite broadcast.
In Ned Martin.
Sure, I loved watching him for years. His style, his grace, his signature phrase mercy, which is very catchy, but an interesting tragic thing I want to bring up real quick. In two thousand and two, Ted Williams had passed away. In July two thousand and two, my sister and I and my nephew decided to go on to the memorial that the Red Trocks were having it way.
Pack was okay, yes, I was.
Yeah, yeah, that was a great uh like the great festivities. And I noticed Ned Martin there and uh, he was walking around. He finally came over and we talked to him for a minute or two and got his autograph and it was great to see him, and he was delightful. And about fifteen minutes later he was walking around where we were sitting, and he just seemed out of sorts. He seemed confused. I told my sister maybe he's looking for his family and the stands or whatever. And anyways,
we left that that was that was that. And the next morning she called me and said he had passed away that night.
Yeah, I believe. I believe he passed away at the airport if I'm not mistaken.
Yeah, so it was interesting that we were talking to him and that was his last day on earth. So he was my favorite broadcaster, Yeah, along with Joe and the Red Sox.
Yeah, great memory.
You know what I remember about that night was they it was about seven o'clock, seven point thirty or maybe it was a quarter of eight, and darkness was about to settle over the ballpark and they brought the lights up really low, and they they they had many of Ted Williams's teammates, Bobby door and and my friend Ed Let and they were all introduced and they walked out in you know, civilian clothes. There was no wearing a baseball uniforms. But it was very I thought, a very
majestic tribute to Ted Williams. And I remember being at the ballpark that night, and it was it was not a ticketed event. Anybody could have gone, and it meant a lot to be there. I'm glad to know you were there as well, Sean. I appreciate your call so much. Thank you very much.
Thank you a great night.
Okay, same right back at you.
Take a quick break, get a couple more in here before we got to break away. At ten o'clock, coming back on nights Side.
Now back to Dan Ray from the Window World night Side Studios on w b Z, the news radio.
Talking a little baseball here on a Thursday night, four days after the Red Sox season of twenty twenty four ended.
Let me go to John and Blackstone. John, you were next on Nightside.
Welcome Dan, Thank you very much, it's great to be here. Thank you for taking my call. I just wanted to acknowledge that Joe costigleone and the great work that he did, especially in identifying and you know, helping prop up the minor leagues. I was the radio voice of the Lowell Spinners for ten years.
Oh and I've been to many Spinners games.
Absolutely. I know we've talked in the past before, Yes, And you know, Joe was always great in acknowledging the miners and there were so many great calls him for him over the years. And I remember the Johnny Damon Grand Slam in New York that put the Red Sox over the top in Game seven and two thousand and three.
But that was the proverbial dagger in the heart, wasn't it.
Yeah, sure was it, sure was. And that was magical and Joe was a part of so many great calls. He was a great influence on me during my time in Lowell, and I'm sorry I missed him, but I'm happy to have the opportunity to share these thoughts with you.
And John, You've got that great set of pipes.
What are you doing now? You're still in the.
Business, Well, baseball not so much. I lost the spinner's job because of the COVID pandemic. But I'm actually I'm actually doing UMass Lowell hockey now. So after nineteen years at Merrimack, I'd moved on to Lowell and it's great to still have those opportunities the river Hawks, right, yes, indeed, yes, all right, have.
A great season, okay, and get a couple of those guys up to the NHL.
The Bruins could use them.
Okay, Thanks Josh, and I appreciate it. Thanks so much.
Keep in touch, will you please? I recognize the voice that I recognize the face. Please keep in touch.
Thanks John, I sure well. Thanks Dan about it?
You soon look good?
Anight, let me go to Steve and me Steve, you're next the nights. I got to wrap it up here fairly quickly. Steve, how are you tonight?
All right, I'll be quick for you. Can you believe it? Catchphrase?
Oh?
I know.
When I spoke with him yesterday, I invoked that catchphrase. I hope you just thrilled them with me.
You two would definitely Boston's iconic men. You've been a big fixture of the city, so we respect both of you. And you and I and Joe and everybody else just loves baseball and box scores. So I tried to get in to talk to Joe, but I wasn't able to. But this is my baby, I'm calling. I'd like to hear that audio.
You bet you're going to get deep, boss. I think we've had one of the first time calls tonight.
I think that Vic and Minneapolis was the first time CALLO though I thought he might have been a fan of joke Joe Instiglione, but she was obviously. But he also said he listens. So Steve, do me a favorite comeback soon, Okay? I want to make time call her a third and a fifth and a tenth time caller. Thanks Steve.
Where abouts in Mayo? Walk are you at? Where are you up in Maye?
Well, I'm in Prepool that's where I live. I originally from Western Maine. I told you Tangwy is two towns away from me. He's from Mexico and I'm from Dicksfield, Maine, Gary Tangley. So I have texted you the post game so that Dan, thank.
You for having Joe on.
He's a pleasure and you are also.
You know, Steve, Steve, I appreciate that whole lot.
I guess i'd like to end this hour and thank you very much with a quote about the great and glorious game of baseball, the baseball writings of Art Bartley Giamatti, the former president of Yale. He wrote a poem, a story, not a poem, the green Fields of the Mind, and Joe always ended the season reading, uh, this excerpt from The green Fields of the Mind. And I would like to do it again in Joe's honor tonight. So I don't know if he's still listening, but this is in
honor of Joke Astiglion. There's no way I can do it as well as he did. But this was the thoughts of the great bart Giamatti. It breaks your heart. It is designed to break your heart. The game begins in the spring, when everything else begins again, and it blossoms in the summer, filling the afternoons and evenings, and then as soon as the chill rains come, it stops.
It leaves you to face the fall alone. You count on it, rely on it to buffer the passage of time, to keep the memory of sunshine and high sky is alive. And just then, when the days are all twilight, when you need it most, it stops. It stopped for the Red Sox on Sundays.
Joe's career as the voice of the radio voice of the Boston Red Sox ended, but of forty two glorious years.
So glad he joined us tonight. I hope we can get it to come in. Maybe some come in and do an hour with us over the winter, in the midst of the winter when all of us are beginning to think about baseball anew because the good thing about baseball is that even when it stops in the fall, you know that come February, that Fenway Park Red Sox baseball truck will drive to Florida and it will be spring here in New England.
Be back right after the ten o'clock news on Nightside