Red Sox broadcaster and former Red Sox player Gerald Peter Remy, commonly known as Jerry Remy and affectionately nicknamed ‘The RemDawg’, succumbed to a long-fought battle with lung cancer at 68-years-old early Sunday morning.
Known for his iconic Boston accent, rumbling voice, wisecracks and unmatched game predictions as a commentator, Remy first joined the major leagues as a player in 1975.
He shifted to commentating in 1988 when chronic knee problems took him off the field, becoming a fixture in Red Socks fans’ living rooms until left the broadcast booth to undergo cancer treatment in August.
His agent, Jeremy Kapstein, told the Globe there was ‘no doubt in [his] mind that if [Remy] for the chance he would grow into something special’ as a broadcaster when he sought out a deal for his client as a color analyst on NESN game broadcasts.
‘I kept stressing that he had both the baseball knowledge and wit to be successful. He was from here, and people had an identification with him,’ Kapstein recalled.
Red Sox broadcaster and former Red Sox player Gerald Peter Remy (pictured) succumbed to a long-fought battle with lung cancer at 68-years-old early Sunday morning
Jerry Remy was known for his iconic Boston accent, rumbling voice, wisecracks and unmatched game predictions
Remy spent 10 years total as a second baseman – although he spent the first two of those years playing with the California Angels, he said after he was transferred to the Red Sox in 1977 that ‘it seems kind of funny to think that I spent all those years living and dying with the Red Sox, and now here I am playing for them’
Known for his iconic Boston accent, rumbling voice, wisecracks and unmatched game predictions as a commentator, Remy first joined the major leagues as a player in 1975. He shifted to commentating in 1988 when chronic knee problems took him off the field, becoming a fixture in Red Socks fans’ living rooms
Remy called more than 3,900 Red Sox games in his broadcasting career, according to Boston.com, and made the Red Sox Hall of fame in 2006.
A Fenway Park tour guide told Boston 25 that tours all week would be dedicated to the team great.
A Fenway Park tour guide told Boston 25 that tours all week would be dedicated to the team great
In the 1990’s, the broadcaster was nicknamed ‘The RemDawg’ by his play-by-play partner Sean McDonough, and then Red Sox chairman Tom Werner characterized Remy as ‘the guy you’d like to have a beer with after the game’ to the Boston Globe in 2009.
In June of this year, Remy had to leave an on-air broadcast in June due to shortness of breath and spent five days at Mass General, according to Boston 25 News.
Then, in August, Remy stepped down from the broadcast booth, which he told Boston.com had ‘always been [his] comfort zone,’ to undergo intensive treatment.
Remy spent 10 years total as a second baseman – although he spent the first two of those years playing with the California Angels, he said after he was transferred to the Red Sox in 1977 that ‘it seems kind of funny to think that I spent all those years living and dying with the Red Sox, and now here I am playing for them.’
Fred Lynn, former Red Sox center fielder, paid tribute to his deceased teammate on Twitter today:
‘I lost a great teammate and a friend today. A true gamer and important part of all of Red Sox Nation. R.I.P. Remdog,’ he wrote.
‘So sad to hear that #JerryRemy has died,’ wrote former long-time FOX 25 sports anchor Butch Stearns. ‘RemDawg lived and breathed #redsox… proud to have called you a colleague and friend Scooter.’
Fred Lynn, former Red Sox center fielder, paid tribute to his deceased teammate on Twitter today
‘So sad to hear that #JerryRemy has died,’ wrote former long-time FOX 25 sports anchor Butch Stearns. ‘RemDawg lived and breathed #redsox… proud to have called you a colleague and friend Scooter’
In his hometown of Somerset, he told the Boston Globe, ‘let’s face it, the big leagues means Fenway.’
Although he only hit seven home runs during his tenure in the major leagues, the Boston Globe wrote today that ‘he could break down a swing on air with the best of them.’
In 2008, the broadcaster was diagnosed with lung cancer. A smoker since his youth in Somerset, Massachusetts, Remy underwent surgery in November of that year to remove a cancerous portion of one of his lungs.
He revealed he had been battling with depression when complications from the surgery kept him from commentating for a four-month spate in 2009, and in 2013 he announced that cancer was found in his lungs again, this time in a different spot.
Although he didn’t miss any of the 2013 season, despite another surgery, he took an immediate leave of absence the next year after his son, Jared, was charged with the murder of his girlfriend, Jennifer Martel. Later that year, Jared was sentenced to life in prison without parole.
‘It’s always been my comfort zone, for 40 years. I can’t sit there. I just can’t sit in my chair [at home],’ Remy told Boston.com in 2014. ‘I’m not crazy about the 4 o’clock arrivals, but the game itself I truly love, and I always have and I still do, and that’s not going to go away’
In 2019, Remy penned a memoir entitled ‘If These Walls Could Talk’ detailing his career along with the wrenching lows he had experienced.
‘I felt like if I do a book, I felt it was time to release some of the stuff I’ve been going through in my life,’ he told the Boston Globe before the book was published.
‘Obviously, I couldn’t do a book without dealing with my son, and I tried to do that the best I possibly could without getting too deep, because if you get too deep it sounds like you’re making excuses.’
But despite the tragedy, Remy couldn’t stay away from the game, the broadcaster’s box, where he felt at home:
‘It’s always been my comfort zone, for 40 years. I can’t sit there. I just can’t sit in my chair [at home],’ Remy told Boston.com in 2014.
‘I’m not crazy about the 4 o’clock arrivals, but the game itself I truly love, and I always have and I still do, and that’s not going to go away.’