I don't know if you remember the last time that Denis Leary and Lenny Clark took a spin in the NESN booth, but it was epic. They went on a rant about Youklis being a jewish first baseman, and after a great play by Youk, Leary yelled, "Where's Mel Gibson now?!" It was truly amazing. Well the two were back in the booth last night, and while the two weren't nearly as wild, they were certainly entertaining. They even took on Jerry Remy's replacement, Dennis Eckersley, at one point. Via Sox & Dawgs....

Denis Leary & Lenny Clarke Return To NESN Booth Together For First Time Since Mel Gibson Rant (Sox & Dawgs)

With the holiday weekend, I'm a little late getting to this, but this definitely deserved a post. Dennis Eckersley is filling in for Jerry Remy on NESN, and twice during last Friday's Mets-Red Sox game, the former major leaguer used some interesting commentary to describe the action. The first involves Eck using the "S" word, and the second is him somehow turning Justin Masterson's name, into "Justin Masterbates". Enjoy!

Now that is one heck of a bad night. I can just picture Orsillo rolling around in the booth, and making fun of him every single break. Too funny.

Dennis Eckersley's Golden Sombrero (CBSB Media)

Man, talk about a downer to start your Thursday. NESN's Jerry Remy has told the masses that he's taking a leave of absence because of a recurring problem, which was at one point cancerous. Here is his statement in full, via Sawx Heads....

In November I had a very small, low-grade cancerous area removed from my lung. I was fortunate that it was discovered at an early stage. Except for the surgery, I required no additional treatments. I left the hospital with a clean bill of health.

Unfortunately, following the surgery, I developed a bad infection further compounded by a case of pneumonia. It was the pneumonia and the infection that set me back. This all happened just as I was leaving for spring training.

In hindsight, it was a mistake to go and I am paying the price for it now. As NESN announced, I am taking a leave of absence so that I can fully recover.

First of all, I would like to thank all of you for the outpouring of concern you have given me recently. I honestly appreciate it. Secondly, I want to emphasize that I am in good shape now.

While physically I have no issues, the past few months have been emotionally draining, and exhausting for both my family and I. Along those lines, I would like to thank NESN and the Red Sox for allowing me to take as much time as I need. I am not certain exactly when I will return, but I will keep you posted. I want to make sure that when I do return I can be with the team all the way to the 2009 World Series!

I hope that by stating all this publicly it will emphasize the dangers of smoking to everyone, especially children. So, once again, I appreciate all your support and I would like to emphasize – if you don’t smoke, don’t start, and if you do smoke, try to quit! I don’t say that lightly because I know how difficult it can be.

Thanks,
Jerry

Man, well hopefully those of you who smoke can head his words, and hopefully Jerry gets better....and back in full on crazy action....real, real soon.

Personal Update from The RemDawg (Sawx Heads)

As Sox and Dawgs points out, I thought gambling was illegal in Baseball. Nomar Garciaparra has always been a first ball swinger, even back when he was on the Red Sox, so in the fifth inning Jerry Remy and Don Orsillo decided to place a little bet if he would swing away. Here's the clip....

Those two are borderline insane, so this doesn't surprise me, but I wonder if the whole gambling thing extends to the announcing booth? Guess not.

Isn’t Gambling Illegal In Baseball? (Sox and Dawgs)

So I've been taking in the White Sox-Rays game this afternoon, and I think it actually got me interested in Playoff Baseball this year. Sure the Cubs' misery is fun and all, but yesterday just came off extremely slow paced to me. Not sure if it was the teams involved, or the good pitching performances just put me to sleep, but I just wasn't into it yesterday. Well that's not the case anymore. This game is just the opposite of that. The fans are awesome (bandwagon or not), Reynolds and Orsillo are great together (although they've had their awful moments), there are actually runs being scored, Ozzie Guillen is still crazy....and most importantly....

It comes complete with random on-field arguments sparked by Orlando Cabrera kicking dirt at reliever Grant Balfour for seemingly no reason whatsoever!

Now that's what I'm talking about! HR suggested that the two may have a history, but I think the dirt kick was in response to Balfour celebrating after striking out Juan Uribe before Cabrera came up. Either way that was pretty fun. Feel free to use this as your open thread for the night and I'll see you for a full day tomorrow.

If you have never watched a NESN Red Sox broadcast I will tell you that you are missing out on perhaps one of the most hilarious telecasts you'll ever see. I get people who email me nightly saying things like, "Remy is joking on Kevin Costner," or, "O and Rem are laughing out of control right now." The two really can't be stopped.

Well thanks to NESN we have a behind the scenes look at what exactly sets them off. The answer....cows....

Well, last Sunday, in the break prior to coming back to the start of the game, Russ Kenn and I were telling Don and Jerry that we would be showing some scenic’s of Vermont for our opening billboards, and the conversation turned to talking about cows for some reason. We started to get silly and were speculating that the cows in the scenics were the same cows that were in the Connecticut scenics, or that they were actually professional cows from Hollywood who travel around the country acting for scenics.

The laughter started to build, and about 10 seconds before we got back it became uncontrollable. Don was unable to read the billboard copy because he was laughing so hard…Jerry was rolling in his chair with his finger on the “talk-back” button…the button that allows him to talk to the truck without his audio going out on the air.

Two of my cameramen, Bill Titus and Matt Johnson, immediately shot the booth so we could see what was going on.

If this were school, I think it might be time for the teacher to separate these two. If one of them passes gas they're out of commission for a good ten minutes. That's what makes them so enjoyable though. Don't change a thing NESN and keep putting together clips like this for us.

Laugh A Minute (NESN)

A salute to Jerry Remy is going to be going on at Fenway before the Red Sox-DBacks game tonight and you're invited! Well, only if you have MLB's Extra Innings package that is. Rem Dawg is being honored for 20 years of calling games for his beloved Sawx and tonight he gets high schoolers singing to him and a pregame tribute....

Tonight, distributors are making NESN's Red Sox pregame show available to MLB Extra Innings subscribers beginning at 6 p.m. EST. This is a special event so that Red Sox fans may enjoy coverage of Jerry Remy Day at Fenway Park and a salute to Jerry for his 20 years of broadcasting Red Sox games.

Tuesday is Jerry Remy Day at Fenway Park, and the Red Sox will include youngsters from the TV analyst’s hometown in the pregame ceremony. Four recent Somerset High School graduates will sing the national anthem, and other town students will present the colors.

There had been rumors of a recent rift between Remy and his booth mate Don Orsillo, but according to Baseball Musings it's Heidi Watney whom he can't stand. Good times! Congrats Remy, and while your antics annoy some, they'll never get old around these parts. We better see some of that air guitar tonight!


Salute To Remy (Boston.com)
Local students to sing at Fenway as part of Jerry Remy Day (The Herald News)

(And yes it's a prerequisite that I use that photo for every Rem Dawg post)

More often than not Rain Delays are going to be the most boring things on the face of the Earth. You sit under the upper deck overhang and watch old blooper videos or TWIBs while you wait for the rain to die down. Well the Red Sox have a new video to keep you in the ballpark and NESN decided to air it last night.

Sox & Dawgs and Center Field give us Manny Delcarmen and Jonathan Papelbon as Fab and Rob of Milli Vanilli. Blame it on the Rain....

There aren't very many things that can leave Orsillo and Rem Dawg speechless and I think this one takes the cake in that department. You have to be somewhat nuts to be a closer but Paps might have a little more crazy in him than the required amount.

Blame It On The Rain (Sox & Dawgs)
Blame It On The Rain (Out In Center Field

Jon Lester dominated the Royals earlier tonight to the tune of 9.0IP, 9 K's, 2 Walks, 0 Hits which is Algonquin for a no hitter. Enjoy the celebration and the subsequent f-bomb at the 1:25 mark.....

You know what? Good for whoever said that on-air (my guess is Timlin). No hitters are unfuckingbelivable and should be described as such. Good times in Boston as Cancer Survivor Jon Lester completes one of the most exciting feats in Baseball.

(P.S.- In announcing news Rem Dog and Orsillo had yet another epic night. I got word that Remy's mic was left on during the commercial and he started bitching about American Airlines and I witnessed them making of a girl with "Dolly Parton-like Hair" at one point. Good times.)

Since Extra P did such a wonderful job live-blogging an almost 5-hour game last night I decided to make him do more work and put together a review of the first game on TBS' coverage this Postseason.....here's what he had to say.
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If you watched the one-game play-in last night, you got an early chance to try TBS baseball coverage on for size. It wasn't technically a playoff game, but it certainly had the feel of one, so I think we got a pretty solid preview of what's to come.

Right away, many of the commenters on last night's live blog of the event noticed that the production values and announcing were a bit more... restrained, I guess is the word. Don Orsillo and Joe Simpson were almost a tad too restrained, but we can hope that they'll catch the fever as the actual playoffs roll on. Regardless, their analysis and knowledge of the game were a vast improvement over the Fox fireworks show.


The most interesting TBS feature was a between-innings cutaway featuring Ernie Johnson and Cal Ripken. Ernie was wearing some thick-framed glasses that made him resemble maverick Baltimore film director John Waters. Perhaps he did that to make decidedly non-maverick Baltimore baseball iron man icon Cal Ripken feel more comfortable on the set - I don't know. I do know that it didn't work.

Cal was a tad stiff, and his analysis was limp and not very incisive. At one point, the viewer could feel Ernie longing for his days on TNT, as he ribbed Ripken for taking it easy on one of the players, which would have sent Barkley into a hilarious comeback. It made Cal smile, slightly.

This segment is actually fairly decent, and I think it will be a hit on the bigger stage, but it would really help to get Ernie someone to play off of. He was the closest thing to a straight man that the NBA on TNT had, and to put him next to an even straighter straight man is a recipe for dull.

This same announcing duo and studio setup will be on display Wednesday at 3am ET, as the NL Wild Card games begin on TBS.

Yes Red Sox fans, it's true. Your crazy and wacky duo is going to separated for at least the first round of the MLB Playoffs this year....

Red Sox TV play-by-play man Don Orsillo is headed to the postseason — though probably not with the team whose games he broadcasts.

Orsillo, now in his seventh year with NESN, has been tabbed by TBS to work baseball’s Division Series, according to broadcast industry sources. Under baseball’s new postseason TV deal, TBS has exclusive rights to the four best-of-five Division Series, three of which will get under way on Oct. 3.

What happens if Remy falls down again, or another fight breaks out with Bill Simmons?!?! This makes me think of the movie Just One of the Guys when the two nerds are pulled apart and start screaming like they were attached at the hip. What is Rem Dawg gonna do without Orsillo?

Orsillo to broadcast playoffs for TBS (Projo.com)