Don Orsillo Talks Of Support From Unexpected Connection

As the Sox are ready to begin Spring Training, Don Orsillo is doing the same with his new team.

DO is still a bit in shock with regards to the way he was let go after 15 years of calling games for his beloved Red Sox.

While he has relocated to sunny Southern California and is getting ready to broadcast San Diego Padre games, both for radio and television, in a recent interview, he shared a story that involved him getting consolation from an unexpected source.

In an interview with MLB.com, Orsillo says Yankee manager Joe Girardi reached out to him after Orsillo was let go.

According to the article by Corey Brock:

During the final week of the season, with the Red Sox visiting Yankee Stadium for the last time in 2015, Orsillo was told Yankees manager Joe Girardi wanted to see him.

Girardi proceeded to tell Orsillo a story about how he, an Illinois native, wanted nothing more than to play forever with his beloved Cubs, and that when he was picked by the Rockies from the Cubs in the 1992 Expansion Draft, it crushed him.

"He called it the most devastating thing in his life," Orsillo said. "But then he said, 'What I didn't realize was how good the second half of my life was going to be.'"

Orsillo then paused and smiled.

"Joe told me, 'I want you to know you can do that, too.'"

DO has signed for six years. He'll work close to 100 games on TV and radio this year, and then will move to TV full-time when the legendary Dick Enberg retires at the end of this year.

Not only will I miss Orsillo on TV, but I might miss Dave O'Brien (who got the Orsillo gig) more, as I'm more likely to catch the Sox on radio than television.