How’s the Red Sox primary play-by-play guy doing?
NESN and the Red Sox are inseparable. This is true not only on the balance sheet, with both entities rolling up to John Henry’s Fenway Sports Group (though Jeremy Jacobs’ Delaware North also owns 20% of the network), but in each of our homes. The Red Sox game is the meal and NESN is the chef. So how’s the chef doing?
Today, we begin a multi-part examination of Red Sox broadcasts, starting with the star of the show, the play-by-play man.
Dave O’Brien
If I could describe Dave O’Brien as a broadcaster in one word, it would be “underwhelming.” He’s professional, he has experience, and he checks all the basic boxes of a play-by-play guy, but he’s not going to give you anything more than that. Unfortunately, this makes him exactly the wrong person to be the lead man in the booth during this era of Red Sox baseball, which has also been, in a word, underwhelming.
If the team on the field was competing for the World Series every year instead of sitting at home in October for the fifth time in the last six years, this would be a different situation. O’Brien could work as a blend into the background Jim Nantz kind of broadcaster if the product on the field was scintillating, but that’s just not what we have here. Instead, the Red Sox and NESN have stacked an underwhelming play-by-play man on top of an underwhelming on-field product, and the result has suffocated regional buzz around the team.
If ownership isn’t willing to pay to put a competitive team on the field anymore, it would serve them well as a cheaper alternative to pay and buy out O’Brien’s contract and put a different voice on the broadcast each night. At least there would be a fresh reason to tune in.
— Matthew Gross
A baseball broadcast is many different things, including a TV show, a news program, and an extended conversation in your living room, like a little cocktail party. All of these things need to be interesting at a minimum and, particularly in the case of a cocktail party, it also helps if they’re fun. Now ask yourself this: if you went to a cocktail party hoping to have an interesting and fun evening and the last three primary NESN play-by-play announcers were there, is there any chance in hell that Dave O’Brien would be the one you would want to talk to first instead of Sean McDonough or Don Orsillo?
— Dan Secatore
A lot of play-by-play announcers are interchangeable. Or very close to being so. Dave O’Brien is probably a tad over replacement level. His biggest failing is the Red Sox sided with Jerry Remy, in poor health, over one of the few announcers who elevates the game in Don Orsillo.
— Mike Carlucci
This one comes courtesy of my Mom actually, and I think it describes OB to a tee: You walk up to an ice cream counter and see flavors as far as the eye can see and. . . you pick Vanilla. No disrespect to those who love it, but that’s what I think of Dave O’Brien. Is he palatable? Sure. But he’s far from the most exciting choice on the menu.
— Jake Reiser
My complaint about OB is that he’s not on-point enough to lead a play-by-play broadcast. Please don’t get me wrong: I love a good anecdote (I said a good anecdote), and a live broadcast will almost certainly contain unexpected moments where you’ll need to fill dead air. Cue the anecdote! But I have two main issues with how OB works them in:
- He gets wrapped up in describing something else at the expense of the on-field moment. Please interrupt yourself and give us the play-by-play as it occurs! That’s actually what you’re here for.
- Second, the chit-chat sometimes gets so far off-topic that it Drives. Me. Insane.
I’m not saying that he initiates it (I mostly blame Kevin Youkilis) but OB indulges it. A more skilled broadcaster might deftly guide the discussion back to the field, but not OB! That’s how we were recently “entertained” by learning how many times the men in the NESN booth get up at night to pee. Yuck. And what does that have to do with anything?
On a more regular basis, he indulges Youk in railing against players (usually batters and their home run trot, but sometimes pitchers too) showing emotion. This topic is old and they sound old when they inevitably circle back here. I find his style hard to take and would welcome a fresh voice and style in the booth.
— Maura McGurk
I have a hard time getting worked up about O’Brien anymore. If he was a particularly rigid glove that needed a lot of breaking in simply to be useable, we’ve gotten to the point where he is. The one nice thing I’ll say about him is that he’s appropriately and genuinely deferential to his rotating guest co-hosts rather than using them to puff himself up. I’m not sure he’s an acquired taste, but I can stomach him without a second thought. It took a while, but we made it.
— Bryan Joiner
Mike Monaco
Mike Monaco is rising rockstar in the industry and it’s only a matter of time until somebody makes him an offer that reflects that. In addition to being a super sub on NESN, he also works for ESPN and has experience calling everything from football to basketball to hockey and more. Most recently, he was calling games for the Little League World Series earlier this summer, and again doing a great job!
Monaco is young (born in 1993), passionate, well researched, entertaining, experienced (he also called PawSox games in 2017) and local. With his engaging style, he also represents NESN’s best chance to atone for the disastrous Don Orsillo departure that’s left the broadcast in a slowly decaying state ever since.
Simply put, Monaco should be the lead Red Sox play-by-play man for the next generation, and 2025 would be the perfect time to bring him in just as the new wave of prospects hits the majors. It would signal a real attempt by the club to turn the page and enter into a new era, which is something this franchise desperately needs. If they don’t take action soon, I’m afraid this golden opportunity to make things better in the booth will slip away.
— Matthew Gross
If NESN needed to pick an internal candidate for a new play-by-play guy, Monaco would be far and away the best candidate. If NESN needed to pick ANY candidate for a new play-by-play guy, Monaco would still be my favorite candidate. Anyone can be immensely knowledgeable and learn about the club they’re covering. But Monaco is steeped in it. It also takes personality to be on the air and be good at it. I want to be cooking in the kitchen with the game on in the other room and know just by the inflection of the commentator’s call whether I need to run in and see what’s going on. Monaco knows how to do that in spades. I’m always excited when he jumps in for the odd series or two and would love to hear him a lot more often.
— Jake Reiser
I haven’t really watched enough Monaco games to form a stronger opinion than “seems good.” But I also wouldn’t be opposed to the idea of investing in someone young who could hold down the gig for a long time. Monaco has a good feel for play calling and banter in my limited experience and paired with a good color commentator or three over several decades and you might have a new Don Orsillo. Which should be the goal.
— Mike Carlucci
I just want him to change the pronunciation of his last name so it’s the same as the Principality. Pronounced correctly, Mike Monaco is one bad-ass name.
— Dan Secatore