Former Red Sox broadcaster (and Melrose, Massachusetts native)
Don Orsillo will be taking over play-by-play duties for an ailing
Ernie Johnson during TBS network coverage of the MLB post-season. Johnson announced on Monday that blood clots in his legs
will prevent him from flying to the various post-season venues. Orsillo has increasingly been getting national baseball gigs—most recently for
both FOX and TBS. Orsillo will do the play-by-play for the up-coming Indians-Astros series, and likely other high-profile series down the road. Orsillo—a graduate of
Northeastern University in Boston—was the TV voice of the Red Sox from 2001 to 2015. His firing by the NOG (
New Ownership Group of the Red Sox) in 2015 caused a huge uproar in
Red Sox Nation, and Orsillo remains highly popular among fans today. He was greeted with a standing ovation at Fenway Park this past weekend, while he was covering the Red Sox-Yankees series for national TV networks.
