Well I've got the "Grand-daddy" of them all. And it wasn't even a competition between two teams.
It was the tribute to Ted Williams held at Fenway Park, Monday evening, July 22, 2002. All of Red Sox nation was still mourning the death of "Teddy Ballgame," OUR Teddy. Two entire generations of Sox fans, myself included, could not imagine baseball life without Ted even though he had retired from active playing over forty years ago. But the new owner, John Henry, and his entire organization did themselves (and Boston) proud with the event they named, "Celebration of An American Hero." It could not have been more aptly named for Ted was indeed just that.
It was such an incredible evening for me I hope you don't mind if I give you MY own personal viewing of the entire evening in a couple of installments.
I got to Fenway three hours early and there were already hundreds of celebrities assemble in the concourse under the right field grandstand. Against the wall was a large table with over a hundred media people interviewing someone. As I approached, with my tape recorder and camera poised, I realized it was JOHN GLEN, himself an American hero. Ted had been Glen's wingman in the Korean war and the two became very close. After about a half hour of listening to questions and answers Willie Mays approached another interview table about thirty yards away and everyone, having gotten all their questions answered, ran over to the "Say Hey Kid." for more interviews. I, and three others stayed on as Senator Glen, very patiently (realizing the importance of the night) stayed on to answer any of our questions. Needless to say we were all pretty intimidated and finally, I asked him if he ever had any political arguments with Ted as he was a staunch Democrat and Teddy was a right wing Republican. "Funny you should put it that way because, although we were both very outspoken on our views we didn't "argue," we discussed. I gave my side, he gave his...then I told him why I thought he was wrong, he told me the same, and then we'd go on to something else. Neither of us tried to change the other guys thinking. We both respected each other's viewpoints. The key was "respect" and, unfortunately, nowadays people don't "respect" they want to do battle and that never accomplished anything. Teddy would have made a great politician in the true sense of the word. Not one who made "backroom deals" for their own private agenda. Teddy really and truly had the best interests of the American people, and the country, at heart.
I then asked him if they had ever gone to Tokyo on "R&R" leave together. Glen answered, with a big smile on his face, "We sure did and that's when I saw, first hand, that the name and the fame of Ted Williams had spread all the way over to Japan. All the young kids followed him like the Pied Piper and, even though there was a language barrier they communicated perfectly. One kid rolled up a newspaper and swung it like a bat then pointed to Ted. Ted caught on immediately and nodded, yes, and moved several feet away and motioned that he was going to pitch to this "slugger." The kid caught on and took a batter's stance as Ted threw the imaginary ball and the kid swung at it. Ted "ducked" then turned quickly as if following a home run ball, then said "WOW" as the kids jumped up and down with pride. They did this for a couple of minutes then Ted gave them some batting instructions. AND, neither understood the others language but they both knew what they were saying," Glen remembered with a huge smile. He then added, "I guess baseball is a universal language when "kids" get together and Ted WAS...the "Eternal Kid."
That was just the beginning of the evening. There was lots more to come from the flock of white doves that flew over the huge #9 done in white flowers covering all of left field...to the flight of fighter jets flying over Fenway Park in the incomparable "Missing Man" formation in honor of their fallen comrade that left a huge lump in everyone's throat. (Their were many more such moments this evening) I promise you this was indeed the greatest sports event EVER....The next chapter will be coming up soon. You won't want to miss Dick Flaven's, "Teddy at the Bat."...Stay tuned.....