Fields of memories honor young plane crash victim Esplanade area named for big fan
Teddy Ebersol watched every Red Sox game with glove on hand, hat on head. He could rattle off bizarre statistics, like how well each player could hit when the temperature was above 55 degrees. When his team was down 0-3 in the American League Championship Series last year, he bet Nick Carter, his prep school dean, pizza for the whole dorm that his team would win four games straight.
Before he died in a plane crash last November, the 14-year-old son of NBC Universal Sports chairman Dick Ebersol was watching his video of the World Series for the fourth time in five days.
In a tribute to an exuberant Red Sox fan who loved both watching and playing the game, about 200 people gathered on the Esplanade yesterday to break ground on a $1.75 million renovation of the athletic fields near Longfellow Bridge -- ''a mere David Ortiz home run from your beloved Fenway," said Red Sox chairman Tom Werner, a close friend of the Ebersols and instigator of the project.
Teddy Ebersol's Red Sox Fields at Lederman Park will replace the much-loved but poorly maintained fields where 2,000 children play baseball, soccer, and lacrosse and run track and field each year. The expanded fields will include three new baseball diamonds, a T-ball field for younger children, and several soccer fields.
Bob Costas, the sports broadcaster, was master of ceremonies for the star-studded groundbreaking ceremony yesterday.
Werner and Governor Mitt Romney also spoke, and the guest list included Red Sox principal owner John Henry, president and CEO Larry Lucchino, NBC's ''Today" show host Katie Couric, Patriots owner Robert Kraft, and former Red Sox shortstop Johnny Pesky.
But there were also old friends and neighbors from Litchfield, Conn., where the Ebersols live.
Abby Friedman, 15, who was a teammate of Ebersol's and the only girl on the Washington Montessori School's baseball team in Connecticut, wore black jeans embroidered with Teddy's name.
''When he died, I -- I can't even think of the words," she said.
Family and friends spoke of how Teddy had spurned his father's beloved Yankees, instead joining his mother, actress Susan Saint James, and sister, Sunshine Lucas, in rooting for the Red Sox.
The rivalry, his sister said, gave father and son more to talk about.
Before yesterday's ceremony, the Red Sox Foundation, the Esplanade Association, and the Hill House, a nonprofit group that provides youth recreation programs at the fields, had raised about $1.55 million for the project. The state, which owns the park, is a cosponsor of the project.
Sharon Malt, president of the Esplanade Association, said the group hopes to raise additional funds to maintain the fields, which should be completed in time for next year's season.
The improvements will include new water fountains, benches, portable bleachers, backstops, lighting, and a manual scoreboard built to resemble the Green Monster. A drainage system will alleviate chronic flooding problems, and an irrigation system will keep the grass green during dry spells.
Under a tent beside the Charles River, a tearful Dick Ebersol thanked friends and relatives who have supported the family during their darkest days.
''You are the only antidote to this unspeakable pain," he said. He spoke of how, on a trip last summer, Teddy's mother asked her son why he fell in love with baseball so suddenly three years before.
''He said, 'Because I didn't think I was close enough to my dad, and if I could learn a language that he loved, we could be that much closer,' " Ebersol said. ''It was the greatest gift of my life."
