Industry News

“Believe It”: Joe Castig’s A Hall Of Famer

Joe CastiglioneThis past Saturday (7/20), Boston Red Sox radio play-by-play announcer Joe Castiglione, whose signature catchphrase is, “Can you believe it,?” was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York. “Joe Castig” received the Ford C. Frick Award for broadcasting excellence. During his acceptance speech, the 77-year-old Hamden, Connecticut native remarked, “Broadcasting baseball is my vocation. It’s the only thing I ever wanted to do, at least since I realized I wasn’t good enough to be a player. At my 50th college reunion, a classmate said to me, ‘You’re the one guy who did exactly what he said he wanted to do,’ and I’m still doing it. What a blessing.” Castiglione’s more than four decades doing Red Sox radio play-by-play marks the longest tenure of any Boston broadcaster on radio or television. In 2004, Castiglione published Broadcast Rites and Sites: I Saw It on the Radio with the Boston Red Sox. Prior to joining the Red Sox broadcasting team in 1983, Castiglione called Cleveland Indians (now Guardians) games (1979) and did some Milwaukee Brewers games two years later. Joe Castiglione Ford Frick was a driving force behind the creation of the Baseball Hall of Fame and helped foster the relationship between radio and baseball. The Hall of Fame has presented the award every year since 1978. To be considered for the award, an active or retired broadcaster must have a minimum of 10 years of continuous major league broadcast service with a ball club, network or a combination of the two.

Industry News

St. Louis Cardinals Player and Broadcaster Mike Shannon Dies at 83

Former St. Louis Cardinals player and longtime Cardinals broadcaster Thomas Michael “Mike” Shannon has died at the age of 83. Shannon was a member of three Cardinals World Series teams in 1964, 1967 and 1968. He also spent some 50 years as a member of the team’s radio broadcasts. He was recognized in recent years by the National Baseball Hall of Fame as a finalist for the prestigious Ford C. Frick broadcasting award and he was enshrined in the St. Louis Cardinals Hall of Fame in 2014.