Is Sports Illustrated Out to Get John Henry Williams - On MLN Sports Zone

Editors Note: John Henry Williams passed away on March, 6, 2004 following a battle with leukemia. Also see:
John Henry Williams: An Elegy For A Lightweight (March, 2004)

The Kid's Kid (March, 2003)

Is Sports Illustrated Out to Get John Henry Williams?
In the rush to make John Henry Williams look like a fiend played by Vincent Price in the handling of Ted Williams' final resting place, SI practices some sloppy journalism. An open letter to the Editors of SI.

Opinion
Brian Ross - Sr. Editor
MinorLeagueNews.com

Editor:

Your stories by Tom Verducci and the accompanying pieces on si.com on August 12th demonstrate that Mr. Verducci has been an "insider" so long that he's obviously forgotten some of the basic tenants of good journalism.

Larry Johnson's information, the lynchpin of his piece, is tragic on its face, but says more about the lab and Mr. Verducci's reporting than it does about the sorry state of Ted Williams' afterlife or the caring of his son, John Henry.

When we checked out this story for our publication (The Kid's Kid, 03.07.03), we found that requests to freeze a whole corpse often have to be deferred because preserving the body and the head may require slightly different storage temperatures and techniques.

Some of the techniques and storage problems described by Verducci are common problems that arise in other bodies that are stored and preserved cryonically. Some preservation issues may speak to poor operating practices by the lab that Mr. Johnson ran when the procedure was performed.

Without an endorsement of cyronics, a fair assessment of the pitfalls in the process would probably indicate that, while the average person finds the whole thing distasteful, nothing particularly out of the ordinary is probably happening in the Williams case.

I would assume, if you took the time to get into the details of what must be done to prepare a body for cremation, you could find equally distasteful and graphic images to make a point.

As regards John Henry Williams, our publication was one of the few to get an interview in-depth with him. Mr. Williams is no rocket scientist. In the raw transcript for our story, it is clear that he doesn't have a whole lot of ability to beguile sharp reporters.

The younger Mr. Williams is playing in third and fifth rate leagues as a somewhat unusual tribute to the father that he came to know much later in life. Right or wrong to the outside world's point of view, he seems quite convinced that he is doing what his father bade him to do.

Mr Verducci can't get him on the facts, so he blasts him with a lot of innuendo. That SI allowed this sloppy journalism on to its pages speaks to the fact that there is an emotional chord in the way that Ted Williams passed that sticks in the craw of your editorial staff as much as it bugs Mr. Verducci.

There are many, many people who don't make their final wishes known to more than one or two people because they either think it's nobody's damn business, or because they might fear the criticism of friends and family.

Mr. Williams didn't sign his cryonic paperwork? How many people each year die with wills that are unsigned, or failed to make payments on crypts or plots? A little smoke. No fire.

Williams executor didn't fight John Henry on the cryonic suspension. If the young man was so far out in left field, one would think that the complaints of the sister and close personal friends might have been taken a bit more seriously.

Was John Henry aware of what was going on in the lab? Mr Verducci intimates that he should know. It sounds like the lab, and the "caring" Mr. Johnson should have their feet held to the fire for shoddy practices.

Missing DNA? I would say that the liklihood of that showing up on e-Bay from the hands of an employee of the cryonics lab would be far more possible than suggesting that John Henry would be so crass as to peddle his father's genetic code.

Mr. Verducci's golden informant halo on the head of Mr. Johnson is poorly placed, and done so only as a means of vilifying the younger Mr. Williams.

Innuendo will not prove that John Henry didn't do what his father asked him to do. The article's principle mission, to discredit John Henry's call on his father's final resting place, could not factually do so.

The personal attacks on John Henry Williams seem a bit unfounded. If he were the demonic, calculating guy that he's portrayed to be, he'd be making a lot more bald-faced exploitation of his father's memory and memorabilia.

Thus far, the Ted Williams memorabilia collection is being moved with about the same energy that it was in the past. John Henry is occupying his time playing fifth-rate ball for below fifth-rate pay with some notion that it brings him closer to his father.

The one place where I will say John Henry is getting smarter is that he knows a guy from SI coming out to talk to him at Podunk Park is not there filled with good wishes and a lot of care for him, or, to his viewpoint, his family. So he shuts up.

Good for him. He's right. It's not Mr. Verducci's business. Nor is it the general public's. Nothing criminal has been done. The pundits don't like this being Ted Williams' resting place? Too damn bad.

The secret to Ted Williams hitting is also the secret to good journalism: Keep your eye on the ball. The great things that Ted Williams did in his life are suitably honored by anyone who knew him or knew of him. Sensationalism of the disposition of his remains, however poorly handled, makes Mr. Verducci and SI the ghouls, not John Henry Williams.

Sincerely,

Brian Ross
Sr. Editor
Minor League News