NESN viewers have heard a different and younger-sounding voice calling Red Sox games this week. Cohasset native Mike Monaco is spelling Dave O’Brien and his silky baritone for the first leg of the Red Sox’s road trip, broadcasting all three games against the Tigers.
He’s been back at NESN’s Watertown studios with Dennis Eckersley, and sounds at ease.
“I was a kid growing up that loved whatever sport was in season,” Monaco told Steve Buckley of The Athletic. “I’m still like that. And I’m enjoying this.”
At 28 years old, Monaco is one of the youngest broadcasters calling MLB games. But don’t confuse his age with lack of experience. Since graduating Notre Dame in 2015, he’s announced an array of college football and basketball games, and done the Cape Cod League and Pawtucket Red Sox. He’s worked at ESPN full-time since 2019.
This year, he’ll primarily work ACC football and basketball. Monaco will also be part of ESPN’s crew doing the Little League World Series later this month.
His debut in the NESN booth came at the end of the 2019 campaign, when he called a pair of games in the finale against Baltimore.
“I found out roughly a month before that I was going to be one of the guys filling in on the Red Sox, and that was kind of hard for me to comprehend,” Monaco said. “I had never met Jerry (Remy) before that day. I’m going in there nervous, and he says, ‘You do your thing, and we’ll work around you.’ And Eck was just Eck, his normal, easygoing self, saying, ‘Hey, we’re gonna have a bunch of fun.’”
Monaco says there were a lot of tweets critiquing his work that weekend, with one user asking who “let the 12-year-old in the broadcast booth” (I can relate).
A quick perusal through Twitter shows Monaco is impressing Red Sox fans this time around. “Mike Monaco is great as the play by play guy in the booth, keep him in there full-time,” wrote one viewer.
Added another: “I need Mike Monaco announcing way more Sox games.”
The Red Sox have a long tradition of local guys working play-by-play. Sean McDonough, Don Orsillo and O’Brien are all Massachusetts natives.
Maybe Monaco will be next on that list someday. He’s making a good impression.
