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Media on top of this story
Legend's death was well covered
By Bill Griffith, Globe Staff, 7/6/2002
Reporters and producers were called in from vacation, the prepared special packages were freshened up, and reporters were dispatched to Fenway Park, Florida, and points in between.
Yesterday, caught between July Fourth and the weekend, had shaped up as one of the quietest sports days of the summer.
That all changed when this story, one with impact on the scale of the Patriots' Super Bowl victory and the sale of the Red Sox, came over the wires.
On the radio front, the topic was only Ted on WEEI, WWZN, and ESPN after news of his death broke shortly before 1 p.m. Age, not always revered on talk radio, suddenly was paramount. WWZN's Eddie Andelman, on a day off, was a call-in guest. Former Red Sox Dom DiMaggio and Bobby Doerr were sought-after guests.
Eighty-four-year-old Tigers announcer Ernie Harwell, on his final visit to Boston in his farewell season after 55 years as a major league broadcaster [42 with the Tigers], was interviewed on virtually every sports newscast and talk show.
Channel 56 senior correspondent Jack Hynes, a Boston media member who lived and worked through many of the Williams years, delivered a special tribute on the 10 o'clock news.
ESPN radio, broadcasting ''Best Of'' programming on tape, came on live at 2 p.m. with John Rooke, Rece Davis, and Rob Dibble. Within an hour, the hosts had DiMaggio, Jim Lonborg, Bob Feller, Tommy Lasorda, and Frank Howard as guests.
NECN had a prepared piece at 1 p.m. and senior sports producer John Zannis had a one-hour special scheduled to air at 8 last night with reports from Fenway Park. Zannis had Mark Ockerbloom reporting the story early with Mike Giardi returning from Cape Cod to work the late-night shows.
Channel 7 broke into Wimbledon coverage with news of Williams's death. Executive sports producer Andy Sugg already had received permission from the Red Sox to air the Ted Williams-Pedro Martinez meeting that was part of the team's highly successful ''100 Years of Red Sox History'' video. That will air during tomorrow's ''Sports Xtra'' (11:30 p.m.), which will air live from the Charlie Horse in West Bridgewater.
''We're lucky to have [former Sox manager] Joe Morgan on tomorrow,'' said Sugg. ''He's of Ted's generation and certainly can talk about him at length.''
Channel 25 anchor Butch Stearns, originally scheduled to host ''The McDonough Group'' on WWZN from 3-7 p.m., was back at the studios. He used a sound bite from the Globe's Will McDonough when the station aired a full report of Williams's death at 2:30 p.m. For tomorrow's ''Sports Sunday,'' Stearns has video from Williams's last public appearance in February in Florida. Richie Conigliaro, who has been campaigning to have his late brother Tony's number retired by the Red Sox, already was scheduled as a guest on ''Sports Sunday.''
Channel 4's Bob Lobel said, ''We're throwing a lot of resources at this story'' and ''have a pretty good plan.'' The station tentatively plans to broadcast ''Sports Final'' from the Boston Sports Museum's Ted Williams display. For ''Sports Final OT,'' Lobel tentatively plans to rebroadcast a tape of a 1993 show that featured Williams, Bobby Orr, and Larry Bird.
ESPN will show its hourlong ''SportsCentury'' on Williams tonight at 8, followed by a special half-hour ''Baseball Tonight'' about Williams. ESPN Classic is working on a 24-hour tribute, tentatively scheduled for Wednesday.
Channel 7's Mike Macklin and Channel 4's Dan Roche already were en route to Florida last night to report on reaction in Williams's home state.
It was that kind of day. From slow day to full speed ahead.
This story ran on page F7 of the Boston Globe on 7/6/2002.
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ed Williams was very much the patriarch of the Boston Sports Family. His death yesterday had sports departments around the area - and the country - scrambling to prepare tributes to the biggest name in Boston sports history.