Don Orsillo hired to broadcast San Diego Padres games

On Tuesday night San Diego Padres President and CEO Mike Dee announced that Don Orsillo would be joining the Padres broadcast team in January 2016.

The Red Sox entered Wednesday with five games remaining in their 2015 season, which, of course, also means the same number of games remain in Don Orsillo’s 15-season tenure as NESN’s play-by-play voice.

Orsillo, who grew up in Madison, N.H., will participate in both television and radio broadcasts during the 2016 season in effort to slowly work him in while Padres play-by-play announcer Dick Enberg wraps up his career.

For the Padres, they can commit to Orsillo for the long term following Enberg’s retirement. Orsillo is a fan-favorite and one of the most popular broadcasters in Boston history.

The Padres aggressively courted Orsillo last month, with Dee and Padres executive chairman Ron Fowler flying to the East Coast to meet with Orsillo. The team has already found his replacement, and it is a good one. The network then took a day to issue a strained explanation that the presentation was only meant to be seen at Fenway, and NESN had its own plans for a tribute on the final broadcast of the season. With him and Mark Grant holding down the TV broadcasts after 2016, Padres fans should have no issue getting used to hearing a great baseball broadcaster in Orsillo. Next year, Orsillo will do select games on television and radio. “We thank Bob for all he has done for the Padres organization, and after the season concludes, we will discuss possible opportunities within the organization that utilizes his many strengths to continue to offer fans his insight”. Ted Leitner will return to the radio booth for his 37th season and Eduardo Ortega will return for his 30th season as the team’s primary Spanish language broadcaster. He will be joined again by color analyst Carlos Hernandez for an expanded schedule of telecasts on Fox Deportes San Deigo.