Joe Castiglione G’70 Honored as 2024 Ford C. Frick Recipient for Excellence in Baseball Broadcasting

The moment Boston Red Sox fans had dreamed of for 86 years was nearly at hand that fall evening back in 2004. The last time the Red Sox were crowned kings of the baseball world, back in 1918, radio hadn’t yet been invented as a medium, so when Joe Castiglione G’70 uttered his now-famous call, he became the first broadcaster to declare the Red Sox World Series champions on that fateful night, Oct. 27, 2004.

“Swing and a ground ball, stabbed by [Keith] Foulke. He has it, he underhands to first — and the Boston Red Sox are the world champions. For the first time in 86 years, the Red Sox have won baseball’s world championship. Can you believe it?” Castiglione told the audience as Red Sox players mobbed each other in celebration after snapping what was the second-longest World Series drought in baseball history.

The ball from the final out of that World Series is on display at the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York, and on Wednesday, Castiglione received word that, he, too, was heading to Cooperstown as the 2024 recipient of the Ford C. Frick Award, presented annually for excellence in broadcasting by the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum. He joins fellow honoree Bob Costas ’74 (2018) as the only Orange alumni to win this award.

Castiglione has been delivering his signature call, “Can you believe it?” as the radio voice of the Red Sox for 41 years, but when the Hall of Fame called and delivered this news, Castiglione said he was the one who couldn’t believe what he was hearing.

“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,” Castiglione said in a conference call with reporters. “To have my name in that broadcasters section … It’s just amazing.”

Castiglione earned a master’s degree in television and radio from the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications.