Flames and 42 Years of Joe

September 29, 2024 – 2010 Flames and 42 Years of Joe –

It was late on Sunday afternoon when I walked slowly into West Side Arena to watch the 2010 Flames play their first game in 15 days. Very rarely, do I watch a Flames game with ear buds in, but Sunday I had them in and turned up.

 

The Bay State Breakers (Petrie clan) were in town to play the Flames in EHF action. I ambled to my spot in the corner. I was listening to the Red Sox final game of the 2024 season. There was nothing much on the line as far as standings were concerned, unless anyone really cared if the team finished 3rd or 4th in the American League East. Okay, I actually cared, and I would rather have the Sox finish with a record of 81-81 instead of 80-82. All the games count. Even if they finished 13 games out of first place and 5 games out of a Wild Card spot.

 

 

Even so, I stood in the corner and listened to the broadcast on my MLB At Bat app. I listen to this app almost every single day of the season, whether the Sox are playing or not. Baseball season is long and yet I never want it to end. And 42 years is a long time. Then, 42 years of Joe couldn’t have gone much faster to so many of us.

42 years of Joe Castiglione as the Red Sox full-time, primary radio announcer ended on Sunday. I was the same age as the players on the 2010 Flames when I first heard ‘Joe Castig’ on the radio. I have been listening to the Sox on the radio since before I can even remember. Since before the advent of the designated hitter. Yes all pitchers used to bat for themselves.

This little space where I share words, numbers, and pictures that I first started 13 years ago, is a place of brutal honesty. And if I am being honest, which I am, I was standing in the corner with tears welling up around the edges of my eyes. 42 years. The end of another season. The end of an era that landed Joe Castig in the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown.

Countless moments that I could only see from my mind’s vast collection of images of players, uniforms, and ballparks. All called and described by the voice that has been my summer soundtrack since I was in my teens, playing ball, and loving every minute of it. There is an indescribable synchronicity that exists between baseball radio broadcaster and baseball fan.

After reading a few baseball books written by Joe Posnanski, I fully realize that there are hundreds of thousands of other like me, who ride the emotional roller coaster of the radio sportscaster’s descriptions. This is not something to take lightly. The weight of the actions being detailed over the radio is only measurable by one word; everything. Everything falls on the broadcaster’s ability to bring the game to life for someone who can only hear the words spoken. And sometimes, as the late great Vin Scully would have so aptly done in the right moments, no words were the best way to convey the magnitude of the moment.

Joe Castiglione was not only a tremendous radio man, he was a complete fan of the game. I thoroughly enjoyed how much attention he gave the history of the game. He also tracked so many different stats on his score sheet and in his own notes. Game after game. Year after year. I can relate to that.

Not only that, he absolutely loved the Red Sox, and you could tell the tenor of the game simply by the tone of his voice. Like a parent who cannot hide the sentiment that is running through them when discussing or addressing their own kids. All of it was so real. We jumped, yelled and high-fived or hugged! Or we caught the weight of our disappointment in our hands as our heads slumped forward in grief.

So many times in my life I stopped the car and got out, or stopped what I was doing, or ran to tell someone what I had just heard. And in my mind, I had seen. All because Joe Castiglione had called the incredible, or the unbelievable. He, as a die-hard baseball fan, had delivered the news in real-time to the world listening. And we leapt or fell right along with him and our beloved team.

 

 

I was standing in the corner at West Side Arena watching the 2010 Flames but somehow I was miles away. I stood listening to Joe Castig one last time as he shared the tales of the Red Sox. I could not even begin to count how many hours of my life I have spent, listening to Joe and the Red Sox.

If I didn’t have a record of what I typed on my phone into the team chat as events unfolded, I would not have a clue what I wrote. At a hockey game that anything but emotional my eyes were glassy and leaking. My mind remembered my younger self, and I was racing around the base-paths as I had from the 1970’s (even before Joe started with the Sox) right up to and through Sunday afternoon.

Thank you Joe. Because of you and your predecessors I have always measured all other broadcasters against you and other great voices from New England. I have listened to many, many others over the years, and I continue to. All I can say is that we in Red Sox Nation have had the very best. The very best. What a blessing it has been.

Eventually, the Sox game ended and I was still in the corner down next to the ice surface. I kept my ear buds in my ears even though I wasn’t listening to anything. My youngest son and the 2010 Flames were playing hockey just feet from me.

I watched and hoped and silently cheered. Again, being honest, the hockey game was about as exciting as showing up at a beautiful green ball field. Dressed in uniform all warm and ready to play. Only to sit and wait in the cold. While thick grey skies dumped rain all over everything in sight. Then, after a cold wait, the game gets postponed and what was to be the highlight of the entire day becomes the low point from which you must now recover.

 

 

The Flames lost 5-0. I counted (in the way that I do) that had the bounces of the puck gone in a more fortunate direction for both teams over the course of the game, the score would have been 9-3. Whatever that means.

The Breakers had played four league games (2-2) since the Flames had least played a game and it showed. According to the electronic version of the game, the 2010 Flames were outshot 9-1 in the second period while being outscored 3-0. If their was a camel and some straw nearby, it would have been during this period that the final straw broke the camel’s back.

Another way to describe this would be something like this. A final event in a series of negative events that causes an unwanted outcome. Perhaps, a minor play or routine approach that causes a sudden and large reaction due to the cumulative effect of previous small actions. Cumulative: increasing in severity with repetition of misdoings or mistakes.

 

 

 

Game 6 of the season (according to my spreadsheet).

Scoring:

• 2010 Flames – 0 – 0 – 0  = 0
• Breakers Petrie – 0 – 3 – 2  = 5

The Flames were outshot 24-14 in the game. The Breakers had layers of defense everywhere the Flames moved. Despite allowing five goals, Ingalls and Rosenbeck made several excellent saves. The Flames did have some good chances in the game, but they could not finish. A result that was determined by Breakers goaltenders and other misfires.

This game was about as good as it would be to play a 162nd game of the season to earn the difference between breaking even or having a losing season. I know the 2010 Flames and their game efforts will improve dramatically.

1. Bench – Too many Skaters.
2. Powers – Trip.
3. Giampa – Rough.
4. Powers – Elbow.
5. St. Pierre – Rough.
6. Giampa – Hook.
7. Soucy – Unsportsmanlike.

 

That is roughly how I remember the game.

 

 

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Mooney’s Moonshots

So this is why I call these Mooney’s Moonshots. Well, the name Mooney, that already gets us headed in the right direction. Then there is this. Moonshot. While ‘moonshot’ originally meant “long shot,” it’s increasingly being used to describe a monumental effort and a lofty goal—in other words, a “giant leap.” Moonshot is also used to describe a towering home run. And home run is a large gain, or popular success. So ya, I like Mooney’s Moonshots because it stands for all of that.

Thank you for the time you spend to take the pictures and go through them, load them, and then freely share them.

Here are some pics from the Breakers vs. Flames game, Mooney’s Moonshots.

 

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You can find more 2010 Flames material in these pieces, here. 2010 Manchester Flames.

 

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The thoughts and opinions expressed here are those of the individual contributors, mostly mine, and do not necessarily reflect the views of the schools, coaches, players, or characters listed in any of these blog posts. Or, maybe they do, but you would have to ask them directly.

 

Either way, “It’s a great day for hockey” ~ the late “Badger” Bob Johnson.