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FORT MYERS, Fla. – Sean McDonough has a lot more free time – and a lot less hair – these days, but he’s still a voice of the boys of summer.
The longtime Boston Red Sox television play-by-play man hasn’t called Sox games for New England Sports Network or Boston station WSBK-TV (Channel 38) for four years, but Sox fans still fondly recall him.
That was evident as the now completely bald – “I just decided to stop fighting it and cut it all off” – McDonough was greeted with handshakes, hugs and even cheers from fans and colleagues while preparing for a broadcast from City of Palms Park last month.
“I still walk around today and have people coming up telling me they miss having me do games on NESN,” said the Hingham, Mass., native. “Just being here today, I’ve run into a lot of people I haven’t seen in awhile, so it’s been nice to catch up with some familiar faces.”
Citing “continuity” reasons, NESN replaced McDonough with current announcer Don Orsillo at a lower salary after the 2004 season.
McDonough was calling one of two spring training games he was scheduled to do for ESPN, who he’s been working for – on and off – since the mid-1980s. His contract calls for him to do 55 sporting events (primarily college football and baseball) a year for the Bristol, Conn.-based cable TV sports giant.
“I’m enjoying the ESPN stuff, but when you do network games, you don’t usually care who wins or loses, whereas in 17 years with the Sox, I clearly wanted them to win, although I tried not to be a homer about it,” McDonough said.
Actually, he was anything but as he wasn’t afraid to be critical of Sox players, coaches or even management when he felt criticism was warranted.
“I just feel like that’s the way you’re supposed to do it,” he said. “I think you’re supposed to be there to represent the fan, and I don’t think being a cheerleader serves the fan.”
McDonough, who has also worked for CBS and ABC, says he misses doing Sox games, especially Sox-Yankees games, but doesn’t miss the yearlong travel toll from broadcasting a full baseball season.
“You’re getting up at 5 a.m. and sometimes getting home at 6 a.m. the next day. I think after awhile, it affects your ability to do your job because it’s a grind,” he explained. “I kept a diary one year and a kind of daily log and I was on the road for 225 days out of 365. I stopped doing the log because it was depressing me.”
That’s not to say he didn’t or doesn’t enjoy it.
“I really enjoy it when I’m in the process of it,” he said. “It’s just what you have to do to get to that point before and after that can wear on you.
“But hey, if your job is getting paid to come to a spring training game, well, there are a lot of people willing to pay to come to a game, so there’s a lot worse that you could be doing.”
Spending less time on the road the last four years has allowed the Syracuse University alumnus to get into golf, boating and fishing.
“I have a better-than-teachers’ schedule with a better-than-teachers’ salary,” he said with a chuckle. “Now I don’t have any excuses to miss weddings and graduations.”
McDonough was a Sox TV announcer from 1988 through 2004. He couldn’t have asked for a better way to go out than calling Boston’s first World Series title season in 86 years.
“I would have liked to have left the Red Sox on my own terms,” said the 45-year-old McDonough. “That’s a dream job for a lot of people.”
It was a dream come true for the oldest of five siblings.
“I pretty much knew I wanted to do this from age 5 or 6,” he said. “My dad [longtime Boston Globe sportswriter Will McDonough] covered spring training in Winter Haven when I was a kid and I used to sit in the back of the radio booth watching Ken Coleman and Ned Martin doing games. I remember being 8 or 9 with a tape recorder calling Bruins games while watching them on TV.”
“I’m fortunate,” he added. “I’ve really come around to the notion that I was really lucky to have that job for 17 years.”
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