![]() ![]() Will Flemming, Maurer’s partner from 2015 through 2018, was promoted by the Red Sox ahead of the 2019 season. Jeff Levering was there for two years before Milwaukee hired him in 2015. Bob Socci was with the PawSox for half a season before becoming the Patriots’ radio announcer in 2013. Like Jageler, Aaron Goldsmith spent a season at McCoy before being called up by the Mariners in 2013. Dave Jageler spent one season in Pawtucket before being hired by the Nationals in 2006. Orsillo (1996-2000) was hired by the Red Sox for the 2001 season the two announcers who replaced him, Dave Flemming and Andy Freed, were hired by the Giants in 2004 and the Devil Rays in 2005, respectively. It wasn’t until more than a decade after Cohen, however, that Pawtucket would send its second broadcaster to the majors in Don Orsillo - and that’s when the job started morphing into that so-called golden ticket. Frick award, presented by the Hall of Fame. He’s now in his 33rd year calling New York’s games, and he’s been nominated for the Ford C. Cohen, whom Pawtucket hired out of Durham, spent two years at McCoy Stadium before being hired by the Mets. The PawSox first struck gold with Gary Cohen, their second-ever radio broadcaster back in the late 1980s. “You’re in the same market as a major-league club, and if people are going to listen, you’ve got to have a high-quality sound,” Tamburro said. The radio broadcast was a branding and promotional opportunity, Tamburro said - one a team playing 45 miles away from a lodestar major-league franchise required. “And then it got to the point where we couldn’t afford not to put them on the air, you know?” It started with a commitment to the radio broadcast in the mid-1980s from Mondor and Tamburro, then the owner and team president, respectively.Īt first, “Ben and I couldn’t afford to put the games on the air,” Tamburro said. “This job gets you to the major leagues,” Maurer (2014-present) said. “Whenever that job comes open,” said Dan Hoard (2006-2011), who now serves as the radio broadcaster for the Cincinnati Bengals, “you know the most talented want-to-be major-league announcers in the country are going to apply for it.” “It’s a very nice lineage, and it goes back to Ben Mondor and Mike Tamburro and the value they placed on having really strong broadcasters.” “We’re a bit like USC with running backs here,” general manager Dan Rea said. The rest of the minor leagues combined - what had until this year been 260 affiliated teams, including the other 29 Triple-A franchises - sent 20. In the last 20 years, the Pawtucket Red Sox sent nine broadcasters to either the major leagues or the NFL. “You know the day you get into the industry,” Josh Maurer said, “you want to get to Pawtucket.” It’s not clear when McCoy Stadium will be occupied again by a professional baseball team, if ever.Īnd if the PawSox really are gone for good, then in some ways, this room may well be a part of their legacy. ![]() The PawSox are no more, the franchise relocated 40 miles up the road to Worcester, Mass, where the WooSox began play this week. McCoy Stadium is empty this summer, for the first time in 52 years. Here, at the corner of Division Street and Columbus Avenue, was where every fresh-faced just-out-of-college hopeful at the Winter Meetings wanted to be one day. This, however, was long the jewel of minor-league broadcasting. And that overstuffed bookcase has been leaning more and more each year. Its occupants had to jam a thin piece of wood underneath the window each night to prevent its abrupt closure. Sure, the dusty tower fan that keeps it cool on those rare 90-degree days in the Ocean State is too loud to use during the actual game. ![]() Sitting at the top of the stadium, in a structure designed like a large beige shipping container, is the Pawtucket Red Sox broadcast booth. ![]() But perhaps the franchise’s proudest lineage emerged not from the diamond, but from McCoy Stadium’s most unglamorous room. ![]()
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