Having written the column for the newspaper, I wasn't inclined to repeat my impassioned defense of Don Orsillo here. But it's drawn so much feedback -- including a very nice note from Joe Castiglione (whom I've never met), praising Don's work -- that I feel it might be newsworthy.

First, in case you haven't seen it, here's the column:

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When you tune into the Red Sox game tonight -- 6 o'clock on NESN, which is Channel 56 on most cable boxes in our area -- listen to the voice bringing you the play-by-play. It'll be smooth and rich and utterly professional.

Then listen to the words. They'll be simultaneously spare and full, creating maximum effect with seemingly minimum effort.

Listen to it all. The descriptions will be complete and, more importantly, accurate (a baseline requirement that, for some reason, many modern announcers fail). The interaction with the analyst will be entertaining and informative. There'll be no fumbling, no stumbling. There'll be a flow of information delivered unobtrusively; never will you think, as you frequently do, that the announcer swallowed a baseball encyclopedia and is determined to spit it out in large chunks.

The Boston Red Sox made some pretty good acquisitions over the winter, but one of their best was picking Don Orsillo as their television voice on NESN.

Which is why what's happening to him these days is so ridiculous. And unfair. And maddening.

You see, Orsillo apparently wasn't excited enough at the end of Hideo Nomo's no-hitter last week to suit some radio personalities on the main all-sports station in Boston. So they've decided to make him their latest punch line, at least until something else comes along to strike their sophomoric fancy.

It's ridiculous for any number of reasons, but let's pick the biggest one: You decide to take on a Boston sports voice, and this is the one you go after? If you can't find another, more worthy target, it's not that you're not looking hard enough. It's that you're not looking at all.

It's unfair for any number of reasons, but, again, right to the top: It was the guy's first game . I realize we've become a rush-to-judgment society, but now we're casting thumbs-up or thumbs-down based on (an opinion of) one night's work?

And it's maddening for one giant reason: Orsillo doesn't deserve it.

There aren't many things in the world I truly love, but watching and listening to baseball is one of them. I listened to Orsillo during his years with the Pawtucket Red Sox. Much like Gary Cohen (who used the PawSox job as a springboard to the bright lights of New York), much like Jack Lefebvre (who never got the shot he should have gotten), I knew, when I heard Orsillo do a game from McCoy, that I was hearing an announcer capable of running in broadcasting's fast lane. The modern-day Red Sox have a history of letting this type of talent escape, which is why I was so thrilled when NESN did the right thing and brought him on board over the winter.

I say this all so definitively because the Red Sox of my youth had no such weak spot when it came to spotting on-air quality. Curt Gowdy. Ken Coleman. Ned Martin and Jim Woods. The Red Sox of my young adulthood even had Jon Miller in the booth for two glorious seasons. I recognize skill because I heard it, night after night, summer after summer.

Orsillo is in that mold. He may not be a Martin-like poet -- though he knows how to turn a phrase, like "Offerman down by way of the K" and "Done with one without a score", both from last night's telecast -- but he does the legacy of Gowdy and Coleman proud. And, five games into his major-league career, he's hardly as good as he's going to get.

The gnats of Boston radio, of course, don't want to hear any of that. Once Orsillo didn't peel the paint off the walls with hysterical screaming when Nomo completed his no-hitter, they decided they had ready-made programming for the next few days.

So here's my challenge. Tune in the game tonight. Listen to Orsillo, the young man who grew up in New Hampshire dreaming of one day broadcasting the games of the Boston Red Sox.

If you like what you hear, drop him a line. It's not easy being a target of wannabe shock jocks, and he could use a kind word these days.

Better yet, drop his bosses a line. Their e-mail address is sports@nesn.com.

Let them know what a good choice they made.

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It's drawn a lot of response, nearly all of it positive; as I write this, there's only been one negative letter. We'll be printing all of them on Sunday, and the Web site will pick up the file.

But the most interesting was this one: