Bruce Allen, who writes the Boston Sports Media Watch site, makes some good points about Jerry Remy returning to the Red Sox broadcast booth in the wake of his son being charged for murdering his girlfriend.
Allen writes:
Both Remy and NESN are fooling themselves if they think things will be able to just go back to normal. This isn’t going away. It’s going to be a very high profile case. There will be updates, both through the media, and to Remy personally. If something more comes out during the day, will Remy be able to go to the park that night and banter with Orsillo like everything is OK?
And…
It’s going to be impossible for many viewers to listen to Remy this season without thinking of his family situation. It’s not fair, but when he jokes around and engages in his banter with Orsillo, some are going to object to that. At least one member of the Martel family has already said it will be tough to hear Remy in the booth.
Allen believes NESN should have made this decision, not Remy:
I often hear from viewers who say that Remy’s performance in the booth isn’t what it once was. It’s hard to argue that. Couple that with the health and emotional issues, and now this, it just doesn’t seem like this is the right move, for Remy or for NESN. He wanted to quit before, when those issues were fresh. Can he plow through this unaffected? I have serious doubts.
Indeed, it is a difficult situation in Boston. Despite what Remy said yesterday, there appears to be much more that will happen with this story.
If tons of folks are writing NESN and saying they won’t watch if Remy broadcasts, then it’s a problem — but I doubt they are. History shows that news/sports watchers separate the person from the game. Fans didn’t stop watching NBA broadcasts with Marv Albert, fans’ problems with Andy Reid had everything to do with the results on the field and nothing to do with the problems of his sons, fans don’t look at Tom Skilling and say, “hey, his SOB brother shut the lights off in California.” What Jerry Remy’s son did was a terrible tragedy and a horrible act of violence. And yet it has no bearing on Jerry Remy’s ability to comment on a game.
Now, if he’s truly doing a horrible job at commenting on a game, that’s reason enough to let him go. But he’s become a beloved institution in New England, much like many Chicago baseball announcers whose best days were years behind them or never arrived — do you fire beloved institutions? When it comes to baseball, WGN has consistently said “no.”