Just like nearly everything else that happened at Fenway Park this season, the Boston Red Sox handled the firing of longtime broadcaster Don Orsillo poorly. Aggrieved fans took to the Internet with a Change.org petition that racked up that has more than 62,000 electronic signatures. The team’s response was more or less a shrug (except for the part where Red Sox officials reportedly asked Orsillo to lie and say he was stepping down instead of being fired; that was some proactive damage control).
But no one thought Orsillo would be out of a job for long — well-regarded announcers with 15 years of broadcasting experience seldom are — and on Wednesday, the San Diego Padres announced that Orsillo had agreed on a multi-year deal to join their Fox Sports San Diego broadcast team.
“We are excited to add Don to our broadcast lineup,” Padres President and chief executive Mike Dee, a former Red Sox executive, said in a statement. “Over his 15 years broadcasting Major League Baseball, Don has established himself as one of the premier play-by-play men in the game. We look forward to both his fun-loving personality and outstanding play-calling ability resonating with Padres fans during what we expect will be a very long career in San Diego.”
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Orsillo will be eased into the Padres’ television booth as Dick Enberg — the broadcasting legend who has called San Diego’s games on TV for the past six seasons — heads off into the sunset. Enberg, 80, announced last week that next season would be his last. In 2016, he’ll call fewer than the 120 games he worked this season, with Orsillo handling the rest.
Orsillo also will handle some radio broadcasts for the Padres next season before taking over the full-time television role in 2017.
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