Jerry Remy Is Returning to His Role as a Red Sox Announcer

Photo via Associated Press

The fate of beloved Red Sox announcer Jerry Remy’s career was in flux after news broke that his son, Jared Remy, was arrested in connection with the stabbing murder of his longtime girlfriend Jennifer Martel, of Waltham.

Back in August, officials from NESN said the sports analyst would not return to his job for the remainder of the season, following his son’s arrest. Whether or not he would return to his seat behind the glass at Fenway Park at all was also up in the air, and the chances didn’t look good.

But during a meeting with news reporters Monday afternoon—after Remy’s family remained silent for months as the investigation into the murder of his son’s girlfriend continued—the sports announcer said that he decided it was time to make a choice, and that choice was to move forward.

“I had been trying to tell my family that we have to move on in some capacity and live our lives, yet I was one that was resisting that. I think it’s up to me to set an example to go on and live my life. Unfortunately, well, fortunately or unfortunately, it’s in the public eye,” he said in a written statement, before taking questions during an exclusive meeting with writers from WEEI, The Globe, Worcester Telegram and Gazette, Boston Herald, and Providence Journal.

Here are some of the key things to know about Remy returning as a Red Sox announcer in 2014:

He doesn’t want his announcement to take away from what the Martel family is going through:

“I must say that I hope in no way that my decision to come back to do games has a negative impact on the Martel family. I’m quite certain they’ll understand that we have to make a living. Unfortunately, mine is in the public eye.”

He still talks to his son, and is trying to get custody of Jared and Jennifer’s daughter:

“We’ve applied for custody…this is a little girl that’s going to grow up with no mother and no father, who’s probably going to have issues that we can’t even imagine at this point…conversations [with my son] have basically been about his children and football, college football, which I know nothing about and he knows everything about. Sports and stuff like that. You have to be careful what you say on the phone from jail anyway, because everything is recorded.”

Fans have been supportive, but he knows some people won’t agree with his decision:

“I’ve tried to stay away as much as possible from blogs, what people have to say. I’ve tried to make up my own mind. I’m sure there will be people out there who will be very upset with me, and I’m sure there will be people that are happy I’m coming back. I have no way to predict right now what the response is going to be. I know one thing, I work for very smart people here at NESN and with the Red Sox, and if the response is overwhelming[ly] negative, they’ll take care of it.”

He wants to concentrate on baseball once the season starts:

“Hopefully we can get down there and play baseball and concentrate on that and not my issues. That’s one of the reasons I wanted to get it out of the way now. I think people are aware of the story and they’ll be moreso after this, and I think we go down and just do baseball.”