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.
Marjorie Arons-Barron 
The local provincials have no clue as to the depth & true definition of ‘enabling’. The Remy situation is a modern day TRUE STORE OF A TWO-HEADED ENABLING MONSTER,………………….with real life casualties. This is documentary stuff.
After listening to talk radio 103 last night, then just now reading your article & the Moscowitz article, the shallowness of the defenders as we are dealing with damaged and lost lives here, floors me. It adds more fodder to the attacking of this sick US Culture of ‘totally sucking up to celebrity’, and what it has done the country. The same talk radio that tore up the DUPONT pedophile & the Delaware court system, does tear up the Mass court system for the FREE JAROD REMY behavior, yet said show, not once dissected the ENABLING aspect, instead choosing to address it as ‘love for one’s child.
Talking exception to your “albeit out of love, with the best of intentions”,……………above,…………might I offer the following. This is out pure and on-going embarrassment, the depths of which are sub-human. Not out of any love. Combine the embarrassment with the pure guilt, either conscious guilt, if he’s capable(as in boy, did I fail hard as a parent years ago), or unconscious(just a human nature reaction to his name being slandered) to the crimes. Sorry sports fans, there’s no room for love in the embarrassment + guilt formula. Love, maybe at the time of the FIRST OFFENSE, years ago, but love is not even in the rear view mirror today.
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SEEMS TO ME THAT A LOT OF RESPONDERS ARE MORE UPSET OVER THE JUDICIAL SYSTEM IN MASS, THEN THE JERRY REMY FAIMLY; AND THAT IS HOW IT SHOULD BE!
gET OUT IN NOVEMBER AND START MAKING THE CHANGES YOU WANT BY VOTING, WITH INTELLIGENCE, NOT PARTY AFFILIATION!
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I don’t remember any suggestion that the sins of the son should be ascribed to the father (or vice versa) nor do I think parents should be chastised for trying to help their child, even when the child does evil. If there’s someone to be chastised it’s the justice system that, knowing Jared guilty, did virtually nothing to restrain him from future acts of violence.
Your comment that “[Jerry Remy] couldn’t control his own children but had the effrontery to seek custody of [his grandchild]” suggests that you believe Jerry’s parenting skills were the cause of Jared’s behavior. Would you care to provide a shed of evidence that this was the case?
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Not the cause per se, but consistent enabling would seem to have exacerbated. I’m not writing to judge his parenting skills but to describe what goes through my mind when watching him and listening to him in the broadcast booth. A lot of others have written to say they share that reaction.
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Pingback: More reasons for Jerry Remy to disappear | Media Nation
GET OFF YOUR HIGH HORSE….NO ONE IS ARGUING THAT THE REMY’S WENT TO FAR TO REDEEM THEIR SON; BUT UNTIL YOU GUIDE ME TO THE BOOK ON PARENTING AND CONTROLLING YOUR EMOTIONS….. STOP BEATING THIS ISSUE OF JERRY REMY DOING HIS JOB, FROM WHICH HE MAKES A LIVING. BUT THEN AGAIN YU PROBABLTY WANT HIM TO MOPE ABOUT AND WEAR SACK CLOTH AND ASHES. YOU CAN DO THAT, AS YOU HAVE SO DEMONSTARTED WITH YOUR OWN EMOTIONAL OUTBURSTS. LET THE REMY’S DEAL WITH THEIR ISSUES IN THEIR OWN WAY AND YOU DO THE SAME, BY KEEPING YOUR EMOTIONS OUT OF YOUR COLUMN AND TO YOUR SELF. YOU ARE NOT ADDING ANYTHING HELPFUL JUST MORE DIATRIBE WITH VERY LITTLE COMMON SENSE TO YOUR APPROACH.
SO, BUFFY, JUST ENJOY THE GAMES, TURN DOWN THE SOUND, OR EVEN JUST LISTEN TO THE GAME OVER THE RADIO.
cudacase@aol.com
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