Remy brings ick factor to ballgame by Marjorie Arons-Barron

The entry below is being cross posted from Marjorie Arons-Barron’s own blog.

Despite a hailstorm today, little green shoots are starting to poke their heads up in our yard, tomorrow is April 1st and the baseball season has officially started.  I’m poised to wrest control of my garden from the rabbits and welcome the season with a clean slate. Except for the Remy factor.

When Jerry Remy started broadcasting from spring training, I said it felt odd. But I was prepared to be open-minded.  That was before the outstanding article in the Eric Moscowitz story in the Boston Globe chronicling how Jerry Remy and his wife, albeit out of love and with the best of intentions, enabled the repeat acts of violence by their out-of-control son Jared, now in the slammer awaiting trial for the murder of his girlfriend, Jennifer Martel.  One of his many victims was a young man whom he beat mercilessly, leaving him brain-damaged. Massachusetts judges, perhaps swayed by Jerry Remy’s celebrity, time and again let Jared off with a slap on the wrist. Case after case of assaults, beatings, and attempted murder, most continued without findings.  Ten times there were new charges while he was actually on probation, and still he ranged free, a steroid-infused monster and constant threat to others.

I’m a die-hard Red Sox fan so of course I was tuned in when they opened  against Baltimore in Camden Yard today.  The Sox left 12 on base and lost by a run.  Jon Lester pitched very well.  Grady Sizemore hit his first homer.  Not the best outing. Still, there are 161 games to go, and there’s much reason for optimism.

But watching and listening today wasn’t easy, and it had nothing to do with the score. Every time Jerry Remy opened his mouth, I saw the  man who indulged his thug of a son, couldn’t hold him accountable, gave him “all the advantages” and got nothing for it but a criminal who was a threat to society and to others, particularly women, who came in contact with him. I heard the man who couldn’t control his own children but had the effrontery to seek custody of the small child who had been in the house when son Jared allegedly murdered her mother. I also wondered about who gets hired as security guards at Fenway, as Jared Remy was.

Jerry Remy should not broadcast for the Red Sox, at least not until the end of Jared’s trial.  His presence in the broadcast booth is too uncomfortable.  Baseball should be an escape, not a constant reminder of all that is ugly, unjust and dangerous in the world. Message to John Henry: all of Red Sox nation is NOT behind Jerry Remy. Take him off the air.

I welcome your comments.