Sox’s Castiglione once a Yanks fan

BANGOR – It might shock you to know, especially 22 years after the New Haven, Conn., native first sat down in the broadcast booth to call his first Boston Red Sox game, but Joe Castiglione has a confession to make.

“I was a Yankees fan. I grew up closer to New York than Boston, so I used to listen to the Yankees games all the time,” said Castiglione. “I’m not at all a Yankees fan anymore. Not since I was a little kid. I respect them and their organization, but I’m a Red Sox fan now.”

Castiglione, who ventured to Bangor two weeks ago with radio broadcast partner Jerry Trupiano for a “Hot Stove Session” on the Red Sox at the Bangor Civic Center, said it wasn’t as difficult as you might expect to exchange his pinstripes for red stockings.

“I was with the Cleveland Indians for awhile and covered the Pirates and the Milwaukee Brewers, so you acclimate to where you are,” he said. “But it was very easy to go away from being a Yankee fan, especially with [owner George] Steinbrenner taking over as the boss.”

The 56-year-old Castiglione has been steering himself toward the broadcast booth for the better part of 46 years.

“As soon as I knew I wasn’t good enough to be a ballplayer, which I found out at about age 10, this seemed like the next best thing, so I set my sights on doing it,” said Castiglione, who noted that his generation was likely the first to really plan a career in broadcasting.

“We didn’t really have any blueprints. The guys a generation ahead of me got into it by accident and learned it as they went,” he added. “I used to have my own fungo games in the backyard and did my own announcing. Mel Allen was my hero. I still think he’s the best.”

Castiglione got his start as an undergraduate student at Colgate University, where he called Red Raiders’ football and basketball games in between working as a radio disc jockey. That’s where he met one of his first major influences.

“I met Bill O’Donnell, who was an announcer for the Orioles, back then. He helped me a lot,” he said. “And Ken Coleman was really a mentor. He brought me to Boston to work with him.”

This season should be a lot easier for the Colgate graduate. After enduring years of jabs and teasing by Trupiano, Ned Martin, and other announcers such as Sean McDonough about his alma mater, Castiglione now has bragging rights, thanks to Colgate’s 15-1 season and finish as the nation’s No. 2 football team in Division I-AA.

“After winning 15 straight last year, no one could get on me about that,” Castiglione said with a laugh. “We’re very proud about that. I even increased my donation this year.”

Castiglione’s first professional job was calling Colgate football games.

“I also did news around the New Haven area in the summer,” he recalled. “I was 18 when I started out, but my first baseball job was when I was 32. I worked part-time for six years before my football job and another nine years full time before I got my first baseball job.”

The Boston South Shore resident also was a news anchor on various television stations from 1970 through 1982 before taking the Red Sox job.

His career path has come almost full circle. Only now, instead of sitting as a student in those lecture halls and lab courses, he’s teaching them.

“I’ve been teaching sports broadcasting courses at Northeastern University for the last 19 years and I teach at Franklin Pierce College in Ringe, N.H., one day a week,” he said. “I’ve seen some of the kids I’ve taught go a long way.”

New England Sports Network announcer Don Orsillo is one such student. Another calls the action for the Colorado Avalanche. Also one of Castiglione’s students, Leslie Sterling, was the first female public address announcer in the American League.

“She’s now an Episcopalian priest,” he said. “Just goes to show you never know what you might wind up doing.”

Fortunately for Castiglione, he’s doing exactly what he wants to do from March through October.

In case you’re wondering, opening day is April 4.