A blizzard [on Sunday] to set the scene of snow and then beautiful blue skies for the van to be able to pull away and then head to Florida [on Monday]. It's the best of both worlds. |
I take pride if you can do either of two things -- make a child fall in love with baseball or make an adult remember where and when and why and how they fell in love with baseball. I like to do that for 81 [home] games, but if you can do that on Opening Day, then the game is reborn. |
It will be a few weeks yet before balls start crashing into this backstop, but for the Red Sox, baseball and spring training are right around the corner. |
It's a practice we put into effect last year as a result of parents asking us to, |
My understanding is Carroll worked fewer than 1,000 hours and got a watch. There is a security staff of several hundred who are not full-time. |
People do use that hotline. You can stop a situation before it becomes a problem, ... The overwhelming majority of fans want a very comfortable atmosphere. |
People do use that hotline. You can stop a situation before it becomes a problem. The overwhelming majority of fans want a very comfortable atmosphere. |
The crowd showed their appreciation but they didn't know they were saying goodbye. He knew it. |
There's tremendous enthusiasm. Some of the ordinary metrics you use are ticket sales, and they're well ahead of last year, but you really want to use the anecdotal metrics, you want to hear what people say to you as you're walking down the street, and they're thrilled that you have Coco Crisp and they're thrilled to see what Josh Beckett looks like in a Red Sox uniform ... you can certainly feel the buzz throughout the Boston area, and I trust, throughout New England. |
They were these songs now considered middle of the road, ... but at the time [they] seemed hip. |
This is a day for kids. This is a day that brings out the children in all of us. You can imagine when you were 8 years old or 10 years old how, with such reverence, you viewed the phrase 'pitchers and catchers report.' And the van leaving is that trigger of emotion that tells you it's just five days until pitchers and catchers report. And on a day when New England is blanketed with snow, the reminder that pitchers and catchers report in a few days by virtue of the van leaving, those are good words. Those are soothing to any New Englander's soul. |
To fans in New England in the 1950s and '60s, his was the voice that told the stories of the Red Sox to a generation of fans. He was the voice under the pillow. |
We are finding out that a lot of Bostonians are making plans to go to Spring Training. I think we've probably gotten more calls about that than I've seen in our years here. One lady sent me an e-mail, she said, 'I know that the van is leaving, I don't care. I'm already in Fort Myers, when is the van arriving? |
We inherited a policy we have grave questions about. But we haven't come up with a new policy. |
We knew he was in failing health, and we wanted fans to have an opportunity to show their appreciation with their ovation. Often, announcers don't get to enjoy the live reaction to their words or voice, and we had an opportunity to provide that to him. It was a memorable moment. |