BOSTON – It dawned on Don Orsillo fairly early on that his chances of becoming a pro ballplayer were slim and none.

So rather than give up on his dream, he simply substituted it for a new one.

“I was 12 when I told my parents I wanted to be a major league announcer,” said the Melrose, Mass., native. “I wanted to do the Red Sox, but knew that was a long shot.”

Actually, not so much.

Twenty-four years later, Orsillo is not only a big league announcer, he’s in his sixth season as the Boston Red Sox television play-by-play man.

It’s been a rapid rise for the man who grew up in North Conway, N.H., but things didn’t really take off for him until his sophomore year at Northeastern University.

“When I got to NU, it all kind of fell into place,” Orsillo explained. “I took Joe Castiglione’s broadcast course. He told me he thought I had a future if it’s something I wanted to do, and he told me he had an opening as a statistician.”

That summer, Orsillo worked as statistician for Ken Coleman and Castiglione.

“Ken Coleman was sort of my idol growing up,” Orsillo said. “We didn’t have many TV stations when I was young: WCSH out of Portland, WMUR out of Manchester and Channel 3 in Burlington, Vt. WCSH had 10 or 11 Sox games and those were the only ones I saw so I really fell in love with Red Sox radio.”

Two days after graduating with his communications degree in 1991, Orsillo started his first announcing job as the radio voice of the Pittsfield Mets, minor league baseball affiliate of the New York Mets.

From there it was on to Binghamton, N.Y., and then Pawtucket, R.I., where he spent five seasons as the Triple-A Red Sox’ radio voice. In the winter, he was the voice on TV and radio for the AHL’s Springfield Falcons. All the while, Orsillo kept waiting for his big break and a call to the majors.

“I would have gone anywhere. I just wanted to do major league ball,” he said.

He didn’t have to go “anywhere” as fate intervened in 2000, when Orsillo was asked to fill in for former NESN play-by-play man Sean McDonough, who had to call a college football game for CBS at the tail end of Boston’s season.

“It turned out those games were my audition because at the end of the third game, [former Sox general manager] Dan Duquette came into the booth and said he’d do everything he could to get me in the next season,” Orsillo said. “Sure enough, that November I got a call from the president of NESN and he offered me the job.”

If he wasn’t already thinking he’d hit the lottery, Orsillo knew he had when his first game for NESN in 2001 was Sox pitcher Hideo Nomo’s no-hitter.

Little did the married father of two daughters realize when he took the Sox TV job with New England Sports Network in 2001 that he would also eventually wear another cap: as color analyst Jerry Remy’s straight man during telecasts.

“I think there are some people who don’t like it,” Orsillo said about the ease with which he occasionally laughs with Remy during broadcasts. “Sometimes you fight it because you know there are some who just want to hear the game.

“When you’re talking with 31/2 or 4 million people a night watching, there are going to be some who don’t like it, but most people have fun with it and seem to appreciate it. Plus, some of the games are not that exciting and we’re doing 153 of them. It’s all part of entertainment and with it being on TV, they’re not missing anything.”

Remy has occasionally cracked up Orsillo – referred to as “announcer boy” by players in Red Sox promotional commercials – to the point where Orsillo couldn’t talk because he was laughing so hard.

“I just hope they enjoy my work and the fun we have,” said Orsillo. “We’re just trying to have a good time.”

Orsillo’s TV contract expires at the end of the 2007 season and he hopes to stay longer.

“If I had my druthers, I’d just do this, to be honest with you,” he said. “This really is my dream job.”

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