The Other Side of RemDawg

It's a couple weeks old, but I just found this profile of Red Sox announcer and former second baseman Jerry Remy by Neil Swidey of the Boston Globe. You should read it. Witness:

Remy, with just seven home runs and one All-Star appearance during his 10-year Major League career, will never be anything but a paying visitor to Cooperstown. Improbably, though, this long-retired undersized second-baseman-turned-TV-commentator with the smoker's laugh, heavily lined face, and even heavier accent ("us" is "uz" and "of course" is "acourse") has managed to become a more popular figure in Red Sox Nation than [Jim] Rice, [Luis] Tiant, and all but a few living Hall of Famers, as well as most members of the current roster.

I never knew that much about Remy besides his on field stats and in booth persona, so it was interesting to read a bit of a different take on his life. This was one of my favorite anecdotes from the piece:

[Jerry and his friends would] laugh about their exploits, like the time Remy and his pal Henry Velozo took their girlfriends to a local amusement park. When they got back to the parking lot, they found Henry's Pontiac had a flat tire, which neither Jerry nor Henry knew how to fix. So the two of them headed back into the park, figuring a stranger would be more willing to change a tire for a couple of girls traveling alone. From the top of the giant slide, they watched as a random guy dutifully jacked up the car, and they chuckled at how perfectly their plan was working -- until the random guy got in the back seat and their girlfriends drove off with him.

Go read the story! Now!

via the Boston Globe
photo courtesy of the Boston Globe