Ex-Sox radio man still looking for work

The last time Jerry Trupiano faced the prospect of not attending spring training was waaayyyy back in 1992.

Fifteen years later – and 14 seasons as one-half of the Boston Red Sox radio broadcasting duo – Trupiano not only won’t have a spring training press pass, he may not even have a job.

“I’m looking for work. It’s been disappointing, frustrating and strange knowing you’re not going to spring training for the first time in years,” said the St. Louis native. “I’m doing nothing right now and looking for work is a full-time job.”

The Red Sox and broadcast partner Entercom Communications inexplicably opted not to renew Trupiano’s three-year contract last month despite a successful run with longtime partner Joe Castiglione, whose contract was renewed.

“I got a call from the radio station [Boston’s WEEI, 850 AM] a week before the official announcement asking if I’d come in, but I asked them to just tell me since I had an inkling what was going on,” Trupiano recalled. “Then two days later one of the Red Sox VP’s called and then [Sox president and CEO Larry] Lucchino left a couple messages.

“No reason was given. I don’t even recall them even saying they wanted to go in a different direction. They just told me I did a great job and thanked me for my service.”

No reason was provided in the official press release from Entercom and the Red Sox announcing that Glenn Geffner and Dave O’Brien were Trupiano’s replacements. Trupiano’s name wasn’t even mentioned in the release. Calls to Red Sox chief operating officer Mike Dee and Entercom’s Jason Wolfe, also WEEI’s general manager, for comment were not returned.

So now the 58-year-old broadcaster with a professional career spanning 38 years and involving four sports, three Major League Baseball franchises, two world championship teams, and one Hall of Fame induction is stuck in an unfamiliar limbo.

“You do something for 14 years, and then you get out of the loop in other sports and you’re literally not really in the game anymore,” said the man with the trademark baritone voice and “Way back, waaayyyy baaaack” home run calls. “Not being able to work is sad, disappointing, and frustrating. Sometimes you wake up in the middle of the night and wonder what’s next.”

Trupiano honestly doesn’t know what’s next. He’s currently updating his resume, something he hasn’t done in more than a decade.

“I’ve been going through about 80 TV and radio broadcasts putting audition tapes together. I’ve had a friend helping me with it because, to be honest, I’m not real good at it,” Trupiano admitted. “Plus, I’m not good at selling myself. It makes me kind of uncomfortable to talk about myself.”

But sell himself he will because he wants and needs to work, even if that means he and wife Donna have to sell their newly renovated home in Franklin, Mass., and move out of New England.

This isn’t the kind of offseason a winner of 14 broadcasting awards expects to experience, but it doesn’t come as a complete surprise to Trupiano. He said there were signs as early as late summer that he wouldn’t be brought back.

“I think the Red Sox put stuff in the Boston Herald’s gossip column that I was going to the Cardinals next season,” he explained. “There were three things that upset me about that piece: That I was leaving on my own, that I already had a job lined up with the Cardinals, and they took some shots at my accuracy on the air.

“I took that as a cheap shot and when baseball writers asked me about it, I thought it was just the Red Sox putting their spin on things as you’re going out the door like they did with Nomar [Garciaparra], Roger Clemens, and others.”

“It’s one thing to kick me to the curb,” Trupiano added. “But it’s low to hurt my chances to get another job with someone else.”

When Trupiano was finally informed 21/2 weeks before Christmas that he wouldn’t be rehired, there were hardly any major league broadcast jobs open.

“I said, ‘Isn’t it too bad we couldn’t at least have had this conversation back in October,’ when there were four jobs open,” Trupiano said. “There have been a couple more since, but they’ve all been filled.”

Trupiano has his suspicions as to why he wasn’t retained.

“They apparently promised my job to someone else three years ago when they brought him, I feel,” he said. “I just kind of get that feeling.”

Now, he’s mostly feeling uncertainty with a sense of loss.

“You’re so lucky to have done a lot in this business, but then when it’s taken away from you, it’s almost like a death in the family,” he said. “You wonder why you didn’t look for a job sooner or have something on the back burner, but I don’t think I could have done everything differently.”

“I think my work with the Sox is what I’m most proud of since I started broadcasting,” added Trupiano, who was inducted into the Massachusetts chapter of the Italian-American Sports Hall of Fame along with Castiglione in 2003. “Attendance went up 11 of the 14 years I was in the booth and ratings went up, too. I certainly don’t think I have anything to be ashamed about with my work.”

Andrew Neff can be reached at 990-8205, 1-800-310-8600 and at aneff@bangordailynews.net