The National Baseball Hall of Fame announced Boston Red Sox radio announcer Joe Castiglione is 2024’s winner of the Ford C. Frick Award. This award, given for excellence in baseball broadcasting, honors the veteran play-by-play caller’s 41 seasons.
Castiglione first called games for Cleveland and Milwaukee from 1979-82, joining the Red Sox broadcasting team in 1983, following Jon Miller’s departure to the Orioles. Over the years, he became a beloved figure in New England, known for his enthusiastic coverage of memorable moments in Red Sox history. When the Red Sox won their first World Series since 1918 in 2004, Castiglione was behind the mic, and again for championships in 2007, 2013, and 2018.
Castiglione told MLB, “It was really a ‘can you believe it?’ moment. You never dream of these things when you’re starting. My first goal was to do Major League Baseball. My second was to do a World Series, then to win a World Series, but this was nothing that was on my radar ever, and it’s just such a thrill to be honored by my peers.”
“More stunning really than anything. Absolutely stunned, I think, is the word I use to describe what it was like when that call finally came through. And maybe having been on the ballot three times before had something to do with that, but still, it’s great and certainly worth the wait.”
