RE: Coverage of Williams firing

[Martin Waters <martinjwaters@yahoo.com>]

--- "Michael P Fitzpatrick Jr." <fitzradio@the-<snip>
>WWLP did in
> fact carry the story, it was our 2nd story in the
> first block of 5pm, and
> the 3rd in the first block of 6pm.
<snip>

It was played rather big on TV in Hartford-New Haven,
too. Even when you start getting into mixed Red
Sox-Yankee country, with the general rivalry plus this
year's race, Yankee fans are interested in something
like this. The Hartford Red Sox radio, WTIC (AM),
carried the news conference live.

As for the Red Sox radio broadcasters, they sure were
mild-mannered, to put it kindly. All they seemed able
to say was that it was a foregone conclusion Williams
was done after this season anyhow, so although the
timing was somewhat of a surprise, it really was no
big surprise, generally. In other words, we're not
going to talk about it very much because it's no big
deal -- in fact, we're just about done with it. And
then they were done. 

The next morning, WTIC (AM) had local Conn. guy Rob
Dibble on. And the inside-495 crowd might be
interested to know his take on it. He, personally,
thought it was a bad move, now or later; and, further,
he said that baseball people, experts, commentators,
etc., nationally all think Williams is an excellent
manager and that Duquette is a loser -- apparently the
opposite of the
world-according-to-WEEI-callers-and-hosts. Dibble
mentioned, sort of shaking his head, the nay-saying
nature of Red Sox fans in general and the print media
and sports talk radio there specifically for stirring
up an anti-Williams atmosphere.

Dibble said the consensus evyerwhere but the Boston
area is that Williams did a great job keeping in
contention a team with huge numbers of significant
injuries, a roster featuring many, to put it politely,
fading veterans, not to mention a nut case or two, and
with a GM who "forgot" to get anything like the
pitching that really ought to have been needed. In
other words, the team got lucky, at least until
lately, with a bunch of overachieving pitching.

They also got into the thing about how the real reason
Williams was fired has nothing to do with what's said
in the Globe or on WEEI. In this version Williams was
a dead man walking ever since a couple seasons ago he
let somebody play at the end of the season(I forget
all the details) so the player reached whatever
benchmark was in his contract to get a bonus. This was
after Duquette had told him to keep the guy off the
field so the team wouldn't have to pay the money. 


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