BOSTON -- Wednesday marks not only the end of the 2022 Red Sox season, but also the end of an era for Red Sox fans. Longtime NESN color analyst Dennis Eckersley is calling his final game before returning from broadcasting and moving to California.
Eckersley has been emotional on the air for much of the last week and is clearly sad about leaving a booth he has called home for years. But he’s also looking forward to moving on, as he said on this week’s episode of MassLive’s Fenway Rundown podcast.
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“Oh, heavenly,” Eckersley said when asked what Wednesday would be like. “I put so much pressure on myself. I really do. I think that if anybody’s good at something, you’re trying to be good at something, you do put pressure on yourself. We’re in a business where there’s anxiety. The thought of no anxiety is heavenly. Maybe I’l get bored and all that but I’ll deal with that when the time comes.”
In August, Eckersley announced that he’d retire from his NESN duties at the end of the year in order to spend more time with his children and grandchildren in California. He doesn’t plan to work in baseball in any capacity after the season. For the 68-year-old Hall of Famer, who pitched for 24 years before beginning his second act as an analyst for NESN and TBS, it’s clear that it’s time.
“I just turned 68 yesterday,” Eckersley said. “You start to add up the numbers, man. You know what I mean? Life is short. You’ve got to do what you’ve got to do. I think I had said before, I want to be a whole person. When you’re in this business, man, you’ve always got something on your mind. You’re not totally clean. I just want to make sure I have more time for the people I care about.”
Speaking less than 24 hours before calling his last game on NESN, Eckersley wasn’t sure exactly what he’d say to Red Sox fans as he signed off for the final time. But he did acknowledge it would be nearly impossible to keep his emotions in check. He was able to hold back tears during the interview but doubted he’d be able to do the sme during the Red Sox-Rays game Wednesday afternoon.
“You really don’t take it all in until the end, it until it seems like it’s right in front of you, which it is,” he said. “If you try to reflect too much, it’s grueling because it’s so emotional. God knows, you run from emotion. At least I do. But you can’t run from this. This is good stuff. You find out how you really feel. How I really feel about Boston and what it means to me. And it means a lot. It does.”
Eckersley has tried to get to Fenway Park a little earlier than usual and take in the scene by himself in recent weeks.
“It means more to me now than it ever did because I’m leaving,” he said. “And I’ll be back. But you see things differently when time’s up. You really do. You don’t know it until you know it.”
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