The broadcaster will return to the MassMutual Center on Saturday.
The voice of the Red Sox was once a hockey man.
Don Orsillo is convinced he is the first guy to be fired by a team five times, then have that team throw a bobblehead night in his honor.
"Peter Cooney was very good to me at the end, but it was like working for George Steinbrenner,'' said Orsillo, who will return to his Springfield roots Saturday night at the MassMutual Center.
Red Sox Night for the Springfield Falcons game against Albany will feature a Don Orsillo bobblehead giveaway, along with a visit from Wally, the Red Sox mascot.
For Donny O, the night will bring back memories of the five years in Springfield that kick-started his career.
The last radio play-by-play man of the Indians, and the first for the Falcons, says he is thrilled to be coming back.
"It's a place that meant so much to me, not only to my career but in my life. I was only 21 when I got the job for the 1991-92 season,'' Orsillo said.
"I was really green. I learned so much. Jay Leach was my first coach, and he helped me a lot.
"I met players like John Stevens and Rob Murray, who went on to become coaches.''
Orsillo will be the last to say it, but he's a famous TV star. No longer known primarily as Jerry Remy's straight man, Orsillo has been landing postseason network playoff gigs, even as his own team has been staying home.
He has never forgotten where it all started. It is where Orsillo, who was hired by former Springfield Indians owner Cooney in 1991, says it nearly ended several times.
"We had some pretty ancient broadcasting equipment. It dated back to when Peter was broadcasting, so he wouldn't get rid of it,'' Orsillo said.
"I remember that we were in Baltimore for a 1 o'clock game. At about five before 1, it wouldn't work.
"I called Peter, and I told him it looked like the broadcast wasn't happening. He told me that he was turning on the radio at 1, and if I wasn't on, I shouldn't get on the bus afterward because I was fired.''
The game did not get on the air. Orsillo did get on the bus, but he was so shaken that he called his mother for advice.
Then he talked to Bruce Landon, who told him to report for work the next day. By the time Cooney sold the franchise in 1994, Orsillo knew the drill.
"By my count, I was fired five times. Every time, it was Bruce who told me to come back the next day,'' Orsillo said.
Landon and former teammate Wayne LaChance formed the Falcons in '94. Orsillo called their games for two years.
The Falcons were an expansion team, and not an extension of Cooney's Indians, which moved to Worcester in 1994.
That means the team that "fired'' Orsillo five times is not the club that is honoring him. But why nitpick at a great story over a technicality?
Broadcasting minor league hockey was more challenging than calling Red Sox games on TV, he said.
"It was the only place I worked alone, for one thing,'' said Orsillo, who also did minor league baseball.
"Back then, there were also a lot of teams in the Canadian Maritimes, and we didn't get to see them very often.
"We had names and numbers, but very little information. With the Red Sox, we get info from all sources, almost an overload.''
Since leaving Springfield in 1996, Orsillo has returned only once, when Murray's number was retired.
"I'm not sure there is any value to an Orsillo bobblehead doll. I'm pretty sure you can get one for free,'' Orsillo said.
"Four years ago, the Red Sox had a bobblehead night for Remy and me. I think whatever value was attached was because of Jerry.''
That might have been true once, but Orsillo has passed his industry's toughest test. In a field where voices can become tiresome with overexposure, he has stood the test of time.
His preparation, honesty and night-after-night enthusiasm have earned him a popularity quite different than Remy's, but nonetheless palpable.
Orsillo's self-deprecating humor contributes to a man-of-the-people image that never gets old.
"When we called him, he had only one request. He asked that the bobblehead be thin with a full head of hair,'' Landon said.
The funny thing is, Orsillo's supposed weight problem is not unlike the premature reports of Mark Twain's death.
It's greatly exaggerated, usually by Orsillo himself. It's become part of the fun.
"The last time I saw Peter Cooney was in 2003. He told me I looked fat on TV,'' Orsillo said in typical fashion.
Donny O says he does not know quite what to expect on Saturday, but he'll be in no rush to leave.
"I know I'm supposed to drop the first puck,'' Orsillo said.
"They asked if I would sign some autographs, and I said sure. I'll stay as long as they want.''