When Jared Carrabis was a little boy, he wanted to become a comedian. Then he discovered baseball and dreamed of playing in the major leagues. The closest he ever came to the latter was two years of varsity ball at Saugus High. Carrabis will be the first to tell you he “wasn’t very good.”

Then a funny thing happened. Carrabis found a way to marry his two passions, along the way becoming one of the most recognizable and popular personalities in Red Sox Nation.

His MLB podcast, “Baseball is Dead,” and Red Sox podcast, “Section 10,” attract thousands upon thousands of listeners. Carrabis and company produce five shows a week about some of the zaniest topics you can imagine.

“When I was a kid, the first thing I ever wanted to do was be a comedian. As I got older, I wanted to play MLB. I’m not an MLB player. I’m not a comedian. But I am living both of those dreams. Our best shows are the ones when we make people laugh,” Carrabis said. 

If the podcast titles are any indication, suffice it to say that there are a lot of “best shows.”

“Section 10” podcasts include, “This Team is Dumb,” “The A’s are awful,” and “Ketchup Guppies.” Huh?

There’s a “Baseball is Dead” show titled “Bees.” Carrabis’ co-host is Dallas Braden, an Athletics TV announcer who pitched a perfect game with Oakland in 2011 (hmmm, maybe the A’s weren’t that awful that year). The show’s opening topic was the bee invasion at a Dodgers-Diamondbacks game. A beekeeper was called in to remove the nest from behind home plate. It turns out Braden keeps bees; he analyzed the removal, play-by-play style. 

“We’re entertainers,” Carrabis said. “We try to find things like a bad play that made someone look stupid or something controversial. We grab you with the funny stuff first, then get to the regular baseball stuff.”

Carrabis also does pre- and post-game shows with Jim Rice.

“Our dynamic is funny because there was a time when my mom was still doing my laundry and he would make fun of me for that,” Carrabis said. “Last November we went to Pedro Martinez’s charity event. Jim’s wife told me she still does his laundry, so I was like, ‘Jim Rice, you don’t do your laundry either.’”

You name ’em and Carrabis has hob-nobbed with ’em. That group includes manager Alex Cora, who Carrabis asked to catch the first pitch he threw at a 2022 Yankees-Sox game. 

“He’s been great to me,” Carrabis said.

Every Christmas, Carrabis gets a Felice Navidad text from David Ortiz.

“It’s cool to meet real people, but I have to pinch myself sometimes,” Carrabis said. “He and Pedro are just awesome.”

Carrabis and his “Section 10” co-hosts, Coley Mick, Steve Perrault, and Tyler Milliken, have achieved cult-like status. Nowhere was that more evident than in the 2018 World Series parade when Carrabis rode in a duck boat with Mick, J.D. Martinez, Rafael Devers, and Hector Velázquez. 

“Indescribable,” he said. “Best day of my life. People were holding up signs with nicknames from the show and wearing our logo. I’m standing next to two of the best hitters around and people were screaming my name. It was insane.”

This 35-year-old even has a Red Sox World Series championship ring. 

But success didn’t come easily. Carrabis began blogging during his junior year at Saugus. After graduating in 2007, he had 150,000 subscribers.

Nonetheless, “It was a grind. I didn’t make a dime for eight years,” Carrabis said.

The author of “One Fan’s Story: If This Hat Could Talk,” Carrabis’ turning point came in 2014 when he signed with Barstool Sports as “the Red Sox guy.”

“Getting hired by them was my biggest break,” he said. 

Carrabis spent nearly 10 years at BarStool before moving to DraftKings in 2022 as a baseball content creator. He didn’t possess naming rights for “Section 10,” so he rebranded the show as “Name Redacted.”

When his contract expired in March, Carrabis struck out on his own.

“I decided to go independent working with Underdog Fantasy, who really wanted me. I wanted to bring back ‘Section 10’ and be with my friends. It was the best decision for me and the fans,” Carrabis said.

Carrabis works out of his Lynnfield home. He converted the master bedroom into the hub of operations, which includes a state-of-the-art broadcast studio, nine wall-mounted TVs, and a ton of memorabilia.

The space is a throwback to his childhood bedroom in Saugus.

“I had 8x10s of every significant player in Red Sox history,” Carrabis said. “It’s kind of weird because now I know all of them.”

Carrabis’ parents, Ellyn and Patrick, are also avid Red Sox fans. They’ve had season tickets (located in Section 10, hence the name of the show) since Carrabis was 9. Like so many diehard fans who lived through the 86-year World Series drought, they frequently remind Carrabis of the suffering that came with it.

“They always said you don’t have any idea of how bad your grandfather had it,’” Carrabis said. “My father hammered that into me.”

Carrabis is often in the Red Sox broadcasting booth promoting new digital content for NESN. Sometimes, he’s not that welcome.

“They bring me in for one inning; I’m the comedic relief,” Carrabis said. “Last year, every time I was in the booth, the Red Sox would give up a home run. Tim Wakefield, Dave O’Brien, and Kevin Youkilis were saying, ‘Let’s just get Jared out of here.’”

J.D. Martinez once told Carrabis after a losing road trip, “Everywhere you show up, we lose. You gotta go.”

Last year, Carrabis got a text from Dustin Pedroia, his favorite player as a kid, during a game. Seems the opponent was teeing off on Sox pitching. Pedroia told him to “get out of that booth.”

Carrabis said he’s “scratching the surface” at MLB Network. 

“It’s always been a dream of mine to work with MLB. Eventually, I’d love to have my own show with them — so long as I can do it from my house,” he said.

When asked where he sees himself in 10 years, Carrabis wasted no time responding.

“Hopefully, still doing this,” he said. “I feel like I’ve reached where I want to be. We’ve established a sustainable audience. There was a lot of  internal and external doubt —  ‘Can I do this without BarStool?’ We’ve proven we can do it on our own, which gives me hope for the future. That duck boat experience validated it.”

So when Carrabis isn’t schmoozing with Big Papi or Pedro, or throwing out the first pitch at Fenway, or getting tossed out the Red Sox broadcast booth, where might you find him?

Last spring he was at Newhall Park, throwing out the first pitch on Lynnfield Little League’s opening day.

“I felt more pressure throwing the first pitch for Lynnfield Little League than I did throwing out the first pitch at Fenway,” he said. “Kids are ruthless critics!”