Tony Massarotti reflects on first year in Red Sox NESN booth: ‘It was an experiment for everybody’

BOSTON — When Tony Massarotti first accepted a brand new function as a coloration analyst on NESN’s Crimson Sox broadcasts, he didn’t know if he’d take pleasure in getting again to the ballpark frequently. After a decade within the radio studio and away from baseball’s day-to-day grind, the favored 98.5 The Sports activities Hub host wasn’t certain precisely what returning to Fenway Park would really feel like.

With 75% of his first season within the sales space full, Massarotti has made a realization: He loves being across the ballpark, which was his skilled house for greater than a decade as a beat author after which columnist for each The Boston Herald and The Boston Globe. Studying a midseason scouting report on his broadcast work from the Globe’s Chad Finn final month made Massarotti understand precisely why he was having a lot enjoyable in his maiden voyage with NESN.

“The half that has shocked me is how a lot I benefit from the video games once more,” Massarotti mentioned on this week’s Fenway Rundown podcast. Like, I actually do just like the video games…. One of many issues (Finn) wrote was that (I) sound completely happy to on the ballpark once more. I believed, ‘Do I sound completely happy to be on the ballpark once more?’ I considered it and mentioned, ‘I assume I’m completely happy to be on the ballpark once more.’ It didn’t happen to me as a result of it simply feels pure to me. I like being there.

“Each time I’ve executed it, I really feel slightly extra comfy,” mentioned Massarotti, who was tapped to name 30-40 video games this yr as a part of NESN’s new analyst rotation. “The entire thing has nonetheless been a little bit of a shock to me. I don’t know if I’m absolutely, 100% over that. And for all I do know, they’re not going to ask me again subsequent yr, so who the hell is aware of? I believe it was a trial, or an experiment, for everyone. However from my standpoint, it has gone fairly nicely, I believe.”

Massarotti’s most important worries earlier than the season concerned logistics, and particularly, getting again into the routine of protecting baseball. Gamedays have differed relying on if he’s at house or on the highway and he nonetheless has needed to steadiness his common internet hosting duties on “Felger and Mazz” from 2 to six p.m. day by day. There was additionally the priority that after a decade on the radio, he would have hassle reining in his emotional facet and current as extra measured within the sales space. Shortly earlier than the season began, Massarotti obtained an electronic mail that put issues in perspective for him. A listener reached out to inform him that whereas followers have many decisions on radio and might flip the dial at any time, these tuning into Crimson Sox video games have NESN as their solely possibility.

“I considered that and mentioned, ‘He’s proper,’” Massarotti mentioned. “I’ve had one million individuals ask me what’s the largest distinction between doing the discuss present and doing the video games. The largest distinction is that there’s a recreation happening. The sport’s the story. The sport is the explanation persons are tuning in. Your job is admittedly simply to boost it.”

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Massarotti mentioned doing video games has not modified how he thinks in regards to the Crimson Sox, however has precipitated him to rethink how he communicates sure takes.

“The discuss present is completely totally different,” he mentioned. “I’ve needed to kind of strive to determine that steadiness and the place the best area is. Because the yr has gone on, I really feel like I’ve gotten extra comfy at letting the emotional me come out, for lack of a greater phrase. However I’d additionally argue there’s a profit to me being not so emotional on the discuss present on a regular basis, both. It’s quite a lot of ranting and raving.”

To date this season, nobody in uniform has pulled Massarotti apart to take challenge with something he has mentioned on air, both on 98.5 or the NESN broadcasts. He assumes that received’t at all times be the case. Early on, he appreciated how a number of Crimson Sox veterans, together with Wealthy Hill and Xander Bogaerts, went out of their solution to introduce themselves to him.

“I haven’t had any challenge or somebody who wished to hunt me out that I’ve needed to join with,” Massarotti mentioned. “Nevertheless it’s undoubtedly going to occur eventually and I don’t know the way it’s going to all go down.

“The gamers and the coaches and the supervisor, they’re not round loads,” he added, citing a serious distinction from his time protecting the group as a author. “I haven’t had anyone pull me apart and say, ‘Somebody’s actually pissed off at you’ or no matter. I haven’t had that. I don’t actually get to the ballpark in time for me to be within the clubhouse. I’ve spent a while in there, notably on highway journeys. I attempt to be round slightly extra. I attempt to sit within the dugout within the occasion anybody desires to say one thing.”

With Dennis Eckersley retiring after the season, there could be a possibility for Massarotti, together with fellow coloration analysts Kevin Youkilis and Kevin Millar, to tackle extra video games alongside play-by-play man Dave O’Brien. Whereas the exacts are nonetheless to be discovered, Massarotti would probably welcome that probability.

“I do like being again there, so the query is, how rather more or how a lot much less?” Massarotti mentioned. “And the way lengthy can it work if all people’s nonetheless enthusiastic about doing it?”

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