PawSox Name Josh Maurer as a Radio Broadcaster for 2014
The Pawtucket Red Sox have named Josh Maurer as a new radio broadcaster for the 2014 season. Josh will join Jeff Levering, who returns for his second season as lead play-by-play voice, as the duo will broadcast all 144 PawSox games on 920 WHJJ and the 12-station PawSox Radio Network. Maurer was chosen among more than 100 nationwide applicants to, in essence, replace Bob Socci who left the PawSox last July to become the radio play-by-play broadcaster of the New England Patriots.
Maurer, who just turned 33 on February 20, has spent the past two seasons as the radio broadcaster for the Trenton Thunder, the Double-A affiliate of the New York Yankees in Trenton, NJ. He is also currently the radio voice for the football and men's basketball teams at the University of Massachusetts - a position he has held since 2008.
Josh is in the midst of his sixth season with the Minutemen basketball team after completing his sixth season with the football team last fall. He worked full time for UMass as their Assistant Athletic Director for Broadcasting from August 2008 until March of 2012 before he joined Trenton for the 2012 baseball season. He has maintained his role as radio play-by-play man and sometimes television voice of UMass football and basketball during the baseball off-season and will continue to do so once the 2014 PawSox season ends in September.
Maurer broke into Minor League Baseball in 2005 as the radio play-by-play broadcaster of the Charleston RiverDogs, the Single-A affiliate of the Yankees in the South Atlantic League. He was with the RiverDogs for four seasons (2005-2008) and during the baseball off-season he also did radio work for the Charleston Southern University football and men's basketball teams (2006-2008).
Josh received his degree in Broadcast Journalism with a Minor in Sports Marketing from the University of Maryland in 2003. A native of Lower Merion, PA (just outside of Philadelphia), he has spent the past six fall and winters living in Amherst, MA while calling UMass games.
He has production experience working for ESPN (Washington, D.C. branch) as a Production Assistant for "Pardon the Interruption" from 2001-2003 and as a Production Assistant on the Philadelphia Phillies Television Network in 2004. Maurer has been honored by the AP each of the past four years for "Best College Sports Play-by-Play" in the Massachusetts/Rhode Island region.
While he will be on the air for all 144 PawSox games this season, Josh will also continue the strong legacy of the PawSox blog, social media presence and provide new content to pawsox.com.
"It is an immense honor and extremely humbling to be chosen as the newest broadcaster for the Pawtucket Red Sox and to work with such a talented play-by-play man as Jeff Levering," said Maurer. "This is one of the finest minor league broadcasting jobs in the country and with that comes great responsibility and expectations. I look forward to contributing to the PawSox both on and off the air."
As mentioned, Maurer, in effect, replaces Bob Socci who, after just three months with the PawSox last season, became the latest in a long line of PawSox broadcasters to receive the call to the big leagues this past July when he joined the New England Patriots. The PawSox used several local broadcasters to team with Levering over the final two and a half months of the 2013 season after Socci left.
The illustrious group of former PawSox broadcasters in the "big leagues" - all of whom have gone directly from Pawtucket to the major leagues - include: Gary Cohen (PawSox radio in 1987 & '88) who has been with the New York Mets ever since leaving the PawSox, Don Orsillo (1997-2000) who will begin his 14th season with the Boston Red Sox on NESN this spring, Dave Flemming (2001-2003) who has been a radio voice of the San Francisco Giants for the past ten years, Andy Freed (2001-2004) who has called Tampa Bay Rays games since leaving Pawtucket, Dave Jageler (2005) who was with the PawSox for just one season before he took over as the Washington Nationals radio voice where he has remained since, Dan Hoard (2006-2011) who earned the call to the National Football League with the Cincinnati Bengals in the fall of 2011, Aaron Goldsmith (2012) who was one year and done with the PawSox before heading to Seattle where he has been a radio play-by-play man for the Mariners, and Bob Socci (2013) who departed from the PawSox in July of 2013 to become the play-by-play voice of the Patriots.
"We are pleased to welcome Josh Maurer to the PawSox and the PawSox Radio Network led by our flagship station 920 WHJJ," said PawSox President Mike Tamburro. "Josh is a talented young broadcaster who impressed us with his style and knowledge. We believe fans will quickly come to enjoy his call of the game. He and Jeff Levering will form another terrific tandem in what continues to be an outstanding PawSox radio tradition."