Dave O’Brien used to have a pre-game ritual. Every day, the veteran play-by-play man would take some time to walk around batting practice, briefly pulling players aside to field anecdotes for that night’s broadcast. The conversations enriched the telecast, allowing O’Brien to inform viewers about their favorite players’ idiosyncrasies or habits.
But in a COVID season, those conversations happen with much less frequency. While there are now fans in the stands, media members are still dealing with severely restricted access. Press conferences are conducted via Zoom; the clubhouse remains closed. Make no mistake: O’Brien is thrilled to be back calling games inside of a raucous Fenway Park. But he still feels like a significant portion of the job is missing.
“It feels like a door is closed. And it’s not a door I wanted shut,” he told WEEI.com. “I feel like there’s so much of the richness of the broadcast that we’re missing by not being able to walk into the clubhouse, to grab Xander Bogaerts for two minutes and ask about ‘what are you doing to get out of this skid?,” or “what about the great play you made last night?’ Those conversations, and a million others, we can’t have.”
It’s been 18 months since the first COVID lockdowns were ordered, and since then, we’ve only regained a rough semblance of normalcy. The same applies to pro sports, where athletes are still largely being shielded in their own bubbles. The NFL, for example, is still closing its locker rooms to independent media — despite the fact that 95% of players are vaccinated.
For sports broadcasters, one of the more pertinent questions is whether they’ll be able to travel with the team again. When the Red Sox are on the road, O’Brien and his partner are calling the game from Fenway. Not a single regional sports network has sent its announce team to away games this summer.
That’s resulted in some grumbling from veteran broadcasters, including the Yankees’ radio duo of John Sterling and Suzyn Waldman, who infamously complained about calling games from a monitor after Sterling had mistaken a replay for live action.
Fortunately, O’Brien hasn’t experienced those kind of mishaps. Once the game begins, he says he’s able to get lost in the moment and call the action, regardless of the setting. But announcing games from hundreds or thousands miles away just isn’t the same.
“It’s really sterile,” he said. “Once your head is in the game, it’s in the game, and working with Dennis Eckersley, for example, the conversation is so free-flowing and so much fun, we really enjoy doing the game whatever the environment. But it’s not how I was raised. I realize we’ve had to do it in order to put the games on the air. I just hope that’s not going to be our future.”
O’Brien first started calling MLB games in 1990, when he was part of the Braves’ broadcast team. Over the last 30 years, he’s seen a lot of changes in the business, and called pretty much everything imaginable: MLB, NFL, college football, college basketball, the FIFA World Cup. The Massachusetts native joined the Red Sox Radio Network in 2007, before moving over to NESN for the 2016 campaign.
At this point, O’Brien estimates he’s worked with at least 350 different partners, and he’s added to the list this summer. NESN is using multiple analysts to help fill Jerry Remy’s role, including Ellis Burks, who’s new to the broadcast booth.
When working with novice announcers, O’Brien says he tries to play to their strengths. But the key is making sure the broadcast doesn’t sound like an extended interview. The best announce teams engage in free-flowing conversation.
“I try to appeal to and bring out that end of their expertise when they’re really young at this,” O’Brien said. “In Ellis’ case, that’s in the batter’s box. That’s playing center field. I try to steer it that way with the tee-ups, whether they’re obvious or not. You don’t want it to sound like an interview, but teeing up their strengths is where I start.”
From there, hopefully the analyst’s personality begins to shine. That’s when the broadcast magic really starts.
“With any luck, and kind of a stroke of lightning, the personality comes out, too,” O’Brien said. “You get to the heart of what someone is really like — what they were like as players, but also what they were like as people. I think the audience wants to know that, too. They want to feel like they know you and who you are.”
For all of this season’s challenges, it’s still been a dramatic improvement over 2020, when the Red Sox limped to a last-place finish in front of an empty Fenway. The team is winning, and the crowd is back. When Fenway is roaring, O'Brien experiences bliss.
“I use that line that Keith Richards said about Charle Watts: ‘The bed that I lie on,’” O’Brien said. “For announcers, the bed that we lie on is the sound of the crowd. And it's a huge miss when you can’t be there to hear that sound, because it requires no words. The crowd is so much better than anything we can say. I long for it.”
-------------------
Mac Jones the radio star: Forget about how Mac Jones will perform when he starts his first NFL game Sunday. The real question is, how did the rookie fare in his first Patriots’ Monday interview?
After spending his collegiate career playing under Nick Saban, it’s apparent Jones has mastered the art of saying very little. He also sounds very young. Tom Brady is the most decorated quarterback ever and Cam Newton, for all of his struggles last season, is still a former MVP.
Jones, meanwhile, is 23 years old.
But that doesn’t mean Jones’ weekly interviews are lost causes. His anecdote about his girlfriend running routes for him was great, and frankly, pretty cute! Earlier this year, I spoke with several reporters who covered Jones at Alabama. They all said he was charming and affable, even if not always the most forthcoming.
Patriots get the third team: The CBS team of Kevin Harlan, Trent Green and Melanie Collins will call Patriots-Dolphins Sunday. The trio slots in as the network’s third announce team, behind Jim Nantz and Tony Romo and Ian Eagle and Charles Davis.
What does that mean? For all of the excitement over Jones and the Patriots’ record free agency spending spree, they’re still coming off a 7-9 season. As it stands today, they’re just not in the top tier of the AFC.
Weird Edelman analysis: Julian Edelman made his debut this week on “Inside the NFL,” and offered some bizarre analysis about the Patriots. The beloved wideout predicted New England would win the game on the strength of … undrafted rookie Quinn Nordin.
That take is like dropping a pass in the Super Bowl. Not the best TV debut for Jules.
