Don Orsillo ranked first among top MLB broadcast teams

Don Orsillo seems to be doing quite well after making the move from Boston to San Diego. 

During the latest edition of sports media website Awful Announcing’s MLB local broadcaster rankings, the San Diego Padres’ broadcast team — with Orsillo on play-by-play and Mark Grant on analysis — came in at No. 1. 

Awful Announcing compiled the rankings via more than 3,000 fan-submitted responses, which asked to grade their team’s respective broadcast between an A and an F, with each letter matching to a numerical grade from 1 to 5.

Based on Awful Announcing’s polling, an “A” was the most common grade for Orsillo and Grant at 69.5 percent, while 94.6 percent of their grades ranged between A-C. 

“Indeed, the most common sentiment in these comments was the idea of “best.” There were at least 65 usages of either “best” or “GOAT” for this booth, far more than we saw for any other announcing team,” Awful Announcing noted of Orsillo and Grant. “Thus, the comments wound up reflecting the numerical grades, and both pointed to this team as Awful Announcing readers’ favorite by far this season.”

The 2025 season marks the 10th season that Orsillo has called games for the Padres. He called Red Sox games on NESN from 2001 to 2015. NESN’s decision to not renew Orsillo’s contract angered many Red Sox fans, who still hold plenty of affinity for the New England native. 

“I’m amazed by it,” Orsillo of his ties to Red Sox fans in an interview with MassLive’s Sean McAdam in June 2024. “I truly am. I thought having been gone for nine years that there wouldn’t be many people who remembered. But as I said in my last game here, someone asked how I wanted to be remembered and I said, ‘Being remembered at all is enough for me.’ That’s how I felt then; that’s how I feel in 2024. 

 “I believe to this day that the broadcaster’s role is that of a family member. You truly become a family member. You’re on, in their livings rooms every night, every day. Or you’re on in the background while they’re doing something. You’re their voice of summer. The bond that people have with broadcasters is why I got into this business in the first place.”

 

Conor Ryan is a staff writer covering the Bruins, Celtics, Patriots, and Red Sox for Boston.com, a role he has held since 2023.