Over the years Tom Caron has worn a lot of hats at NESN. Besides serving as the host of the network’s pre and postgame Red Sox coverage, he’s also done play-by-play for a variety of sports and served as the network’s first ever sideline reporter for baseball.
To celebrate his 30th anniversary with the network, NESN had Caron do all of that and more as part of a special broadcast honoring his career.
“It’s kind of mind boggling, you don’t ever expect to stay at one place as long as that,” Caron said. “One thing about NESN is they’ve always given me new opportunities and new challenges, so I’ve never felt like I have to go look for another job. As long as they’ll have me I’ll stay, and they’ve had me for 30 years.”
At this point it’s hard to imagine Red Sox baseball without Caron. The longtime NESN host and commentator has been a fixture of the network’s baseball coverage for decades and has been front and center for each of the club’s four World Series championships this century.
Yet had things played out differently, it’s possible Caron could have followed a much different path — one that may have seen him instead become the voice of an NHL hockey team.
“That’s really what I was looking for, I was applying for NHL play-by-play jobs while I was here,” Caron said. “I got to fill-in on the Bruins a couple of times, and always loved the Red Sox, grew up as a hard core Red Sox fan, but it wasn’t until the new ownership group came in in 2002 that I got the opportunity to move over to the baseball side.”
Prior to joining NESN in 1995 Caron served as the voice of the Portland Pirates of the American Hockey League, who were then the minor league affiliate of the Washington Capitals. Caron became acquainted with NESN’s people during the 1994-95 NHL lockout, during which the network covered a number of the Pirates’ games while the Bruins weren’t playing, including a playoff series involving the Pirates and the Providence Bruins.
Eventually Caron was presented with an opportunity to do a new show called “Front Row,” and upon joining NESN he did that along with a lot of Hockey East and minor league hockey coverage. It wasn’t until 2002 that he began transitioning to baseball, specifically when he pitched the idea for adding a sideline reporter for Red Sox games similar to what the network already had for Bruins coverage.
“They liked the idea and they asked me to do it,” Caron said. “It was a great opportunity. Somebody at Major League Baseball told me later and I’ve never really verified this but I believe it to be true, I was the first sideline reporter at any regional sports network for baseball. Like no RSNs had a baseball sideline reporter. Now everybody has one.”
Caron took on his current role as studio host for Red Sox coverage in 2004, and after the Bruins’ 2004-05 season was canceled due to another lockout, he decided to stick with baseball full time and has never looked back.
“I never thought I’d be in a place where the city and the teams would matter as much as they have in this past 30 years, and to do it in a place where I work with some of the best people in the industry, both on and off the air, that’s the secret to longevity,” Caron said. “Do it in a place where it matters and do it with colleagues who are the best at what they do, and you’ll have a good long career.”
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