WORCESTER—Baseball is the ultimate radio game and Joe Castiglione was one of the game’s ultimate voices.
The longtime Red Sox broadcaster, a 2024 inductee into the announcer’s wing of the Hall of Fame, appeared at Polar Park Saturday in the final edition of the Great Polar Park Writers Series.
He attracted a capacity crowd in the DCU Club and signed autographs for a long line of fans after he spoke.
While Castiglione’s mark was made as a broadcaster, he indeed qualifies as a writer. Castiglione is an author with two books to his credit—“I Saw It on the Radio with the Boston Red Sox” and “Can You Believe It?”— written in the aftermath of the Sox’s World Series victory in 2004.
He began doing Red Sox games in 1983 and retired last year. Through all those games, descriptions, highlights and heartbreaks, Castiglione’s most memorable call was the final out of the 2004 World Series.
He re-created it here Saturday for an appreciative crowd:
“The 1-0 pitch. Swing and a ground ball. Stabbed by Foulke. He has it. He underhands to first and the Red Sox are the World Champions. For the first time in 86 years the Red Sox have won baseball’s world championship.
“Can you believe it?!”
Castiglione had previously announced some Red Sox disappointment, or at least been on scene. He never saw the Mookie Wilson ground ball in 1986 — Castiglione was on the way back upstairs to the Shea Stadium radio booth but heard he crowd noise.
“I knew it was over,” he recalled, “but I didn’t know how it ended.”
Castiglione was on the air for Aaron Boone’s home run in 2003.
Considering those events, and the Red Sox’ long previous history of disappointment, when did Castiglione actually believe that Boston would win the World Series in 2004?
Game 4 was played in St. Louis and Boston led the series, 3 games to 0, going in. The Sox built an early 3-0 lead and the Cardinals could get nothing going as the game progressed.
In the middle of the seventh, Castiglione became a convert although a bit reluctantly.
“I remember going into the men’s room,” he recalled, “to put on my champagne clothes.” However, Castiglione added, “I didn’t want to jinx them.” But he changed clothes anyway and headed back to the broadcast booth to describe the climactic innings.
“You just want to describe the play as it happens,” he said, “and anticipate what are you gonna say with the last call….with the World Series, it can’t be trite…what am I gonna say…and you just have to let it play out.”
Castiglione wound up calling three more Red Sox World Series championships but will always be remembered for that first one in 86 years.
He grew up in Hamden, CT, as a Yankees fan. Castiglione graduated from Colgate where he did college radio then got work as a disc jockey at small commercial stations — the Brock Holt job description of doing a little bit of everything — including one at WDEW in Westfield where he was known as Joe Costa.
Castiglione broadcast his first baseball game there. It was Westfield High versus Holyoke High at McKenzie Field in Holyoke, a battle for the Western Mass. championship.
He eventually wound up in Youngstown, Ohio and practiced baseball play-by-play on a tape recorder in the cavernous and mostly empty Cleveland Municipal Stadium.
“Only the pigeons could hear us,” Castiglione said.
They must have liked what they heard. The Indians hired him in 1979, then future Commissioner Bud Selig brought him to Milwaukee in 1981. When Jon Miller left Boston after the 1982 season Castiglione was hired to replace him on the radio with no guarantees there would be a second season.
Or, for that matter, 41 more.
He survived the devasting ’86 World Series and the subsequently brutal season of 1987. In 1988 the Sox got off to a disappointing start. They fired manager John McNamara at the All-Star break and replaced him with Joe Morgan.
What followed has come to be known as Morgan’s Magic
“Other than the World Series championships,” Castiglione said, “the post All-Star, right after the break in ’88, is the most exciting time in my whole career with the Red Sox because my very close friend Joseph Michael Morgan took over as manager.”
Subsequently, Boston made the playoffs in 1988, 1990, 1995, 1998, 1999 and 2003 before finally reaching the World Series again. Starting with 2004, the Sox have played 19 World Series games. That gives Castiglione the franchise record for most World Series games called—by a lot.
Later in the event, fans got to ask him questions. Some were about his career. Some were about the game. One was about changes in the game.
The pitch clock is a positive.
“It should have happened 20 years ago,” Castiglione said. “I think we lost a generation of fans.”
The current generation of fans may be in danger, he added, because of the way offense has evolved.
“I wish they would stop striking out so much,” Castiglione said. “I love this Milwaukee Brewers team because they are so fundamentally sound. They don’t strike out, they run the bases, they catch the ball and they pitch. It’s refreshing.
“It’s not launch angles, and everything’s about velocity today…I’d like to see pitchers pitch more and not try to throw so hard—the art of pitching. I don’t think Greg Maddux could get signed today.”
One final question concerned his broadcasting future. Would he consider returning to Polar Park in the future to do some WooSox games?
“That would be fun,” Castiglione said to applause. “This is such a beautiful ballpark. It’s just amazing how it fits into the city.”
Polar Park — the best in Triple-A baseball.
Can you believe it?
Bill Ballou covered the Red Sox for the Worcester Telegram from 1997 through 2018. He has covered pro hockey in Worcester since 1994 and currently does a weekly column for the Worcester Red Sox. Ballou can be reached at vetgoalie@aol.com
