NEW YORK -- NESN analyst Jerry Remy opened Wednesday night's broadcast from Yankee Stadium by apologizing to his viewers for controversial comments he made during Tuesday's game regarding interpreters being allowed to accompany coaches for mound visits during games.
"Last night during the course of the Red Sox-Yankees game, I made some comments that offended a number of people in our audience," Remy said. "I'd like to apologize to my colleagues at NESN, to the Boston Red Sox, but most importantly to the fans who were offended my comments. I sincerely hope you accept my apologies. Thank you very much."
As the Red Sox were on their way to a 5-4 victory over the Yankees on Tuesday, Remy took exception to interpreter Shingo Horie going to the mound with pitching coach Larry Rothschild to visit Masahiro Tanaka in the top of the fourth inning.
"I don't think that should be legal," Remy said during the broadcast. "I really don't."
Play-by-play man Dave O'Brien sounded surprised, saying, "Really?"
O'Brien then asked Remy what he didn't like about the rule that was instituted by Major League Baseball in 2013.
"Learn baseball language. You know, learn, it's pretty simple," Remy said. "You break it down pretty easy between pitching coach and pitcher after a long period of time."
"I would say that probably, you know, they're concerned about nuance being lost in some of these conversations," O'Brien said.
Earlier Wednesday, NESN released the following statement: "Relative to last night's NESN telecast from New York, NESN does not agree with any such views expressed by Jerry Remy, and we know from talking to Jerry that he regrets making them. The network sincerely apologizes to anyone who was offended by Jerry's comments."
Before Wednesday's game, Red Sox manager John Farrell expressed support for the rule allowing interpreters to visit the mound during games. Farrell was Boston's pitching coach in 2007, when Daisuke Matsuzaka and Hideki Okajima were signed as international free agents from Japan.
"Having been in that position and dealt with players that, I only knew certain words [in their language], I think an interpreter is needed," Farrell said. "I think Major League Baseball made the rule in 2013 because of the number of pitchers coming from Japan, the number of players coming from Japan.
"Whether it was with Dice-K to Hideki Okajima to guys that were on our pitching staff, I would have liked to have an interpreter pre-2013. We were able to have an interpreter during bullpen sessions, so while trying to learn Japanese, which is a pretty tall challenge, you can learn single words, or I found to learn single words or objects or numbers, but when you start talking concepts, let's face it, communication with players is priority No. 1. So, to be clear, the interpreter is needed."