Hall of Fame pitcher Dennis Eckersley said Monday that he will be leaving the Boston Red Sox broadcasts at the end of the season, his 50th in Major League Baseball.
Eckersley, who was drafted by Cleveland as a California high schooler in 1972, went on to pitch 24 seasons as both a 20-win starter and a 50-save reliever for Cleveland, Boston, the Cubs, Oakland and the Cardinals. He won the AL Cy Young and MVP awards in 1992 while playing for the Athletics.
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The Boston Globe said Eckersley is retiring from his job as a Red Sox TV analyst on NESN to spend more time with family, specifically his twin 3-year-old grandchildren. He has worked for the cable network since 2003.
His last broadcast will be on Oct. 5.
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"I've been thinking about this for a long time. I really have," Eckersley told the Globe. "Not that it matters, but it's kind of a round number, leaving. I started in pro ball in '72, when I was a 17-year-old kid right out of high school. Fifty years ago. And I've been with NESN for 20 years, even though it doesn't feel like that because I didn't do much my first four or five years. So it's time."
Eckersley, 67, a first-ballot Hall of Fame pitcher, played for the Red Sox from 1978 to 1984 and again in 1998. But his greatest accomplishments on the baseball field came during his run as the dominating closer for the World Champion Oakland Athletics in the late '80s and early '90s.
