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RIP Bill Webb

G-Fafif Mar 08 2017 02:19 AM Edited 3 time(s), most recently on Mar 08 2017 05:50 PM

The longtime director of Mets telecasts has died at 65 after his long battle with cancer.

d'Kong76 Mar 08 2017 02:20 AM Re: RIP Bill Webb

RIP to the best of the best.

themetfairy Mar 08 2017 02:25 AM Re: RIP Bill Webb

Such sad news - he was indeed one of the greats!

Edgy MD Mar 08 2017 03:10 AM Re: RIP Bill Webb

Was expected to participate in a partial schedule this year. Belongs in the Mets Hall of Fame. Safe journeys to you.

Ashie62 Mar 08 2017 03:20 AM Re: RIP Bill Webb

An innovator. Mets HOF

Gwreck Mar 08 2017 05:58 AM Re: RIP Bill Webb

I have a distinctly fond memory from a number of years back, he gave a talk at the Museum of the Moving Image in Queens on what goes into televising a baseball game. One of those people who you can just tell from the moment they speak that they are incredibly intelligent and tremendously funny.

Edgy MD Mar 08 2017 01:20 PM Re: RIP Bill Webb

Did anybody ask him about how much deliberation went into re-angling the centerfield camera so they could get the woman with the twirling arms out of the frame?

Lefty Specialist Mar 08 2017 01:32 PM Re: RIP Bill Webb

Changed the way baseball was broadcast, and the Mets were lucky to have him for 40 years. Still remember McCarver teasing him constantly in the '80's and Webb always able to pull up a camera shot to tease him back. Made everyone he worked with better.

MFS62 Mar 08 2017 02:21 PM Re: RIP Bill Webb

Edgy MD wrote: Did anybody ask him about how much deliberation went into re-angling the centerfield camera so they could get the woman with the twirling arms out of the frame? I had similar thoughts. Thoughts of him remind me of the good old days when games were predominately shot from the camera behind home plate instead of from center field. You didn't have to change cameras to follow a batted ball. It was better. RIP Later

Edgy MD Mar 08 2017 05:22 PM Re: RIP Bill Webb, 1951-2017

Webbie started with WOR in 1969. I can't imagine too many employees with the Mets go back that far. I've seen conflicting reports, some saying he was 65 (like this thread) and others saying he was 70.

Lefty Specialist Mar 08 2017 05:48 PM Re: RIP Bill Webb, 1951-2017

Edgy MD wrote: Webbie started with WOR in 1969. I can't imagine too many employees with the Mets go back that far. I've seen conflicting reports, some saying he was 65 (like this thread) and others saying he was 70. If he was 65, that'd mean he started working for WOR when he was 18!

G-Fafif Mar 08 2017 05:52 PM Re: RIP Bill Webb

Richard Sandomir has him at 70, Ken Rosenthal 66, Neil Best 65. Bill Webb is perhaps best described as timeless. Remembered for his framing the Mets as both incredibly cool and smokin' hot here.

A Boy Named Seo Mar 08 2017 06:05 PM Re: RIP Bill Webb

Darling giving a really moving remembrance now. Described him as a father-figure and said he's been crying his eyes out. Keith's was more light-hearted. Said he had lots of post-game cocktails with him. #KeithBeingKeith

G-Fafif Mar 08 2017 06:08 PM Re: RIP Bill Webb

Gary recorded an interview last night. [youtube:3nd724tn]BzwmRaob4ek[/youtube:3nd724tn]

G-Fafif Mar 08 2017 06:22 PM Re: RIP Bill Webb

This rather thorough article from a TV sports production site says 1951, though as noted above, the college experience cited doesn't really jibe with the 1969 start date at Channel 9. Born in West Orange, NJ, in 1951, Webb attended Kinnelon High School and then the University of Tennessee, where he was pre-med. In 1969, he broke into the broadcast industry with his first job at WOR-TV (now WWOR-TV) New York. At WOR-TV, he quickly worked his way up to associate director. In 1971, he became AD on all Mets home games at Shea Stadium, marking the birth of a storied career in the truck at the ballpark. In 1979, he got his first job directing baseball when WOR elevated him to lead director on all Mets games. It was there he first crossed paths with analyst Tim McCarver, who served on the Mets’ broadcast team from 1983 to 1998 and would go on to team with Webb at Fox Sports from 1996 until McCarver’s retirement from Fox in 2013. Webb directed hundreds of Mets games before leaving to join ABC Sports following the 1987 MLB season. During his time as lead director at ABC Sports (1988-96), he diversified his directing portfolio, steering the ship on a cavalcade of Wide World of Sports shows, as well as on college football, college basketball, and horse racing’s Triple Crown, for which he won four Eclipse Awards. Throughout the 1990s, Webb maintained his New York roots, directing Yankees games and a variety of other properties for MSG Network. After narrowly missing out on the opportunity to direct his first World Series in 1994 because it was canceled, Webb finally got his shot the following year, directing the 1995 Series for The Baseball Network. His star shot into the next echelon in 1996, when Fox Sports won the rights to one of two Major League Baseball TV packages and tapped him as its lead director, including the 1996, 1998, and 2000 World Series. Fox would gain exclusive national MLB rights in 2001 and has aired every World Series since — with Webb in the director’s chair through 2014. Along with long-time producing partner Pete Macheska, play-by-play man Joe Buck, and analyst McCarver, Webb has changed the way America watches baseball, embodying Fox’s “Same Game, New Attitude” mentality without ever sacrificing the art of storytelling. Webb had a homecoming of sorts in 2006, when the Mets launched their own regional sports network, Sportsnet New York. He was among the first production hires for Mets broadcasts. Webb — along with producer Greg Picker and the broadcasting trio of Gary Cohen, Keith Hernandez, and Ron Darling — was a staple of Mets telecasts for the next decade. As McCarver noted last year, “Bill Webb has been such a pioneer. He took what Harry Coyle and Roone Arledge had mastered before him and extended that into an even greater way to bring the game to the viewer at home. There’s simply never been anyone quite like him.”

G-Fafif Mar 08 2017 06:24 PM Re: RIP Bill Webb

OTOH, Webb explained that he left college early in his Sports Broadcasting HOF profile. Born in West Orange, NJ, in 1951, Webb attended Kinnelon High School and then the University of Tennessee, where he was pre-med. In 1969, he broke into the broadcast industry with his first job at WOR-TV (now WWOR-TV). “My parents and I just could not afford for me to [continue college], and my father, who was in advertising, told me about a job opening at WOR in the traffic department,” says Webb. “I rotated the commercials and put the commercial cards in the deck. That’s how it all started. It worked out okay, to say the least.”

metirish Mar 08 2017 10:52 PM Re: RIP Bill Webb

FS1 had a nice tribute to Webbie after the Barca Champions league game today , sounded like it was narrated by Buck. We were fortunate to have him on SNY

d'Kong76 Mar 09 2017 01:37 AM Re: RIP Bill Webb

The first 8-9 mins before the game today were touching, great stuff.

Frayed Knot Mar 10 2017 05:05 PM Re: RIP Bill Webb

Anyone who's even somewhat artistic and with a jones towards getting themselves on TV needs to show up with some sort of variation on this on a banner during an early season game at CitiField It'd be a can't miss. [fimg=200:2jch6df8]https://cdn0.littlethings.com/app/uploads/2015/11/0000_Layer-Comp-12-600x313.jpg[/fimg:2jch6df8][fimg=200:2jch6df8]http://www.backdropsfantastic.com/backdrop_images/300's/HA-022-Spider-Web-1.jpg[/fimg:2jch6df8] [fimg=200:2jch6df8]http://cdn-image.realsimple.com/sites/default/files/styles/rs_main_image/public/1463163958/retro-table-top-fan.jpg?itok=s0XINRyk[/fimg:2jch6df8][fimg=200:2jch6df8]https://images.halloweencostumes.com/products/11366/1-1/brown-caveman-club.jpg[/fimg:2jch6df8]

Benjamin Grimm Mar 10 2017 05:08 PM Re: RIP Bill Webb

I love Buck Spider's Oscillating Stick!

Frayed Knot Mar 10 2017 05:18 PM Re: RIP Bill Webb

Well sure, who doesn't!