NESN, the Red Sox’s exclusive home for all non-nationally televised games, has angered some fans after yet another edition of their annual all-female broadcast booth.
The regular broadcast duo of Dave O’Brien and Lou Merloni stepped aside Wednesday night, making way for Emma Tiedemann and Alanna Rizzo, in honor of Women’s Celebration Night at Fenway Park.
Red Sox fans were overwhelmingly pleased with the game, and why wouldn’t they be? The BoSox dropped the Chicago White Sox by a score of 4-0.
However, many online were not nearly as pleased with either NESN’s decision to bump the regular hosts for two women or the women’s performance.
Among those to weigh in were Barstool Sports Founder and avowed Red Sox fan Dave Portnoy, who registered his objections candidly.
“I have no problem with a women’s night for the Sox broadcast, but can we announce the game? This stinks,” Portnoy wrote on X.
Others aired their discontent as well.
“This needs to be on NESN+ I really don’t care if people get mad at me. You have so many other ways to do this than taking away a constant. If I’m Dave O Brien or Lou Merloni, I’d be bullshit. That’s their job! And I don’t care if this is for one night. It’s ridiculous!” another wrote.
“Listen no offense to these ladies, they were put in a rough spot and it just seemed forced. If you’re gonna do this every year for women’s day you gotta get women with chemistry calling together. Tonight’s broadcast was… well I turned on the White Sox broadcast after a bit,” one fan opined.
“What’s funny is they put this shtick on like they’re giving opportunities to women. Alanna Rizzo has done this women night for like 5 different teams. Putting the same woman on the call doesn’t do anything but check a box,” another asserted.
While not every comment was negative, the majority clearly believed that the move was merely a virtue signal from the network and nothing to be taken seriously.