The list of great Red Sox radio broadcasters is a long one, including (but not limited to) Curt Gowdy, Jon Miller, Jim Woods, Ken Coleman, Ned Martin, Bob Starr and Dave O’Brien.

Yet, among them, only Gowdy and Miller can claim a Ford C. Frick Award, given annually to a broadcaster “for major contributions to baseball.”

Until next weekend in Cooperstown, that is, when Joe Castiglione will join Gowdy and Miller as a worthy recipient of the honor.

Red Sox fans over the years have been lucky to have one great broadcaster after another call the action. Most had a distinctive style – Martin was erudite, Coleman was folksy – but each is part of a through-line of broadcast greatness, connecting one generation of fans to the next.

“I think of those guys a lot,” said Castiglione recently. “I’ve been blessed to have some great partners. I haven’t really thought about it much, but I guess after 42 years, I’m part (of that long tradition). (Baseball) on the radio in New England has always been big, because of the summer and the six New England state and all the outdoor activities. So I guess that puts me in that line, that line of succession. And I’m proud of that.”

When Castiglione began in 1983, he was just 36 and Coleman was in his early 60s, and served as Castiglione’s mentor and radio father figure. Now, Castiglione has that same role with radio partner Will Flemming.

“That legacy is very real,” said O’Brien, now the team’s TV voice on NESN but prior to that, Castiglione’s radio partner for nine seasons. “So many of us were native New Englanders and we grew up in this ballpark, dreaming of sitting up here (in the broadcast booth). Luckily for all of us, it played out for us. But that (connection) is very real; you can feel that tug. You do.

“It’s different here than it is in so many other places. You’re born and raised here and (the Red Sox) are in your blood – this ballpark, this organization. It’s in your DNA. That’s not true everywhere. Vin Scully is from the East Coast and moved to the West Coast. He wasn’t from there. He wasn’t a Los Angeles native. Most of us (in Boston) were born within an hour and a half of Fenway

Many of Castiglione’s predecessors are specifically linked to a moment in time over Red Sox history. Coleman will forever be recalled for Billy Rohr’s no-hit bid at the start of the 1967 Impossible Dream season. Martin provided the radio soundtrack for much of the ’70s. And Castiglione is immortalized by his call of the final out of the 2004 World Series: “Swing and a ground ball, stabbed by Foulke….He has it, he underhands to first…and the Boston Red Sox are the world champions. For the first time in 86 years, the Red Sox have won baseball’s world championship. Can you believe it?”

Castiglione also called the final outs of the 2007, 2013 and 2018 World Series. For postseason calls, it helps that local radio announcers continue to call games through the World Series, something not afford to their local TV brethren.

“Those radio calls resonate,” O’Brien said. “I think there’s something special about the intimacy of radio, that those guys, through time, have been able to connect with Red Sox fans, from generation after generation. Radio’s special. Those calls live forever. It doesn’t happen on television, not very often. But it does on radio. They’re our guys. You think of Castig in ‘04; that’s our guy, who has lived and died, every pitch, every out, to get to that moment.

“And you know he’s going to have the appropriate tone. Your great radio announcers like Joe, tonally they connect with their audience in such a unique way. It’s just the sound of your voice; there’s no accompanying pictures. The audience relies so much on that. That passion, that emotion, that proper tone is there, and Joe’s done it as well as anyone I’ve ever known.”

O’Brien further described Castiglione as “the best guy…he’s the Will Rogers of baseball.”

Indeed, friends from across the game, including Andre Thornton (from Castiglione’s time in Cleveland), Rich Hill, former Red Sox manager Joe Morgan, Brian Daubach and Trot Nixon will all be in Cooperstown to share the announcer’s special moment. He’ll be joined by several Red Sox Hall of Famers, including Jim Rice, Wade Boggs and Dennis Eckersley, among three of the 57 Hall of Famers planning to attend Hall of Fame Weekend.

NEXT WEEKEND, Kenley Jansen will, for just the second time in his career, visit Dodger Stadium in the uniform of the visiting team.

Jansen spent 12 seasons in Dodger Blue before leaving as a free agent to sign with the Atlanta Braves following the 2021 season. In 2022, he returned with the Braves and was greeted with a standing ovation when he was spotlighted. But when he entered the game, where he would earn a save for Atlanta, he was soundly booed.

Now Jansen is getting ready to make another return, this time with the Red Sox. He’s looking forward to the visit as the Sox’ first series coming out of the All-Star break.

“I haven’t been there for two years now,” said Jansen, who still lives in LA during the offseason. “That’s where I grew up, man. That’s where my legacy is. I cherish all those moments that I was there with the Dodgers. I know we’re going to play against them, but it feels like a reunion. You’re family. LA’s home.”

Though Jansen said he hasn’t had a lot of contact with Dodgers President of Baseball Operations Andrew Friedman since leaving, he said Friedman is often the first to congratulate via text when Jansen reaches a career milestone like his 400th career save.

“That shows love,” he said. “Listen man, it’s part of the business. He needs to do what he needs to do for his team and I have to do the same for my family. I love Andrew, and I love everybody there, from Andrew to (Manager) Dave Roberts to (team executive) Lon Rosen to (President) Stan Kasten.”

Assuming he’s not dealt at the deadline, Jansen is heading toward free agency again after this season. Asked if a reunion with the Dodgers could be a possibility, Jansen chuckled and said: “All 30 teams are a possibility. That’s how I see it. Whichever team has the best situation for me and me family, that’s where we’ll play. We’ll see how it goes.”

HAVE THE RED SOX ever had a trio of players with the kind of speed possessed by Jarren Duran, David Hamilton and Ceddanne Rafaela? Doubtful. For a franchise whose identity was long defined by power and slugging capability, the Sox were, for many years, a station-to-station outfit satisfied with advancing one base at a time.

That once led to a humorous exchange in Winter Haven, Florida, between then-manager Joe Morgan and a fan as Morgan signed autographs before a spring training game.

Fan: “Why don’t we run more, Joe?

Morgan: “Why don’t we run? Because we can’t, sir.”

That’s no longer the case. A little past the halfway point of the 2024 season, the three have combined for 56 stolen bases through Thursday’s 7-0 win over the Athletics. As a team, the Sox had stolen 88 bases through Thursday and seem to have a good chance to post the highest team stolen base total for a season since 2009 when they had 126. That’s the most for a Red Sox team since the World War I era, when the stolen base was a much bigger weapon.