'The busiest man at Fenway Park during a ball game isn't on thefield or behind a beer counter, but out in the player's parking loton Van Ness Street. He's Roger Shea of Scituate, who directs theChannel 5 telecasts of Red Sox games.' - Tim Horgan, Boston Heraldcolumnist, 1969.
From 1957 to 1972, Roger Shea was the man behind the scenes asdirector of televised Red Sox, Celtics, and Bruins games, includingnine seasons at WHDH doing Red Sox broadcasts. Wearing two headsetsand working in a mobile van, he guided his crew of technicians andcameramen while staying in constant touch with his announcers,letting them know which camera angle was about to be utilized.
'He approached his craft not unlike the athletes he covered,'said Mr. Shea's son Michael of Carmel, Ind. 'He arrived at the parkor stadium hours before game time, he did his homework, and he had agreat sense of anticipation. And he was versatile, also helping outat Channel 5 with directing the 11 o'clock news and the Saturdaymorning candlepin bowling show for many years.'
Mr. Shea, who after leaving Boston also produced and directed theCleveland Indians, Detroit Tigers, and Seattle Mariners baseballgames through his freelance company, Sport Ventures Inc. of Largo,Fla., died Dec. 30 at the home of his daughter Linda in Quincy aftera 10-year battle with cancer. Mr. Shea, who was 80, had lived inLargo until shortly before his death.
'Roger was a perfectionist,' recalled longtime friend and formerDetroit Tigers TV baseball announcer Larry Osterman, who worked withMr. Shea at station WWJ in the 1970s. 'He wanted his camera peopleto get it right the first time, but he did it in a professional way.He knew the game and he knew television and we had a lot of funtogether.
'Roger talked to the production people, the camera people, andthe announcers before every game,' added Osterman, who also residesin Largo. 'He also knew the players, the front office executives,and the folks who worked the concession stands because he was apeople person. He loved to talk shop and to talk baseball.'
Mr. Shea was recognized by the Cleveland chapter of the NationalAcademy of Arts and Sciences in 1981 with an Emmy Award forOutstanding Achievement in Local Coverage. He was also a producer/director of regional National Football League games, New England(Hartford) Whalers hockey games, Cleveland Cavaliers and DetroitPistons basketball games, and NBC's Game of the Week baseballtelecasts. He was on the scene in 1968 at Harvard Stadium, where hedirected coverage of the historic 29-29 Harvard-Yale football gamefor both Channel 5 (now WCVB-TV) and the closed-circuit TV audienceat the Harvard Alumni Club in New York City.
'Baseball,' Mr. Shea told Horgan, 'is by far the toughest sportto direct. It isn't the size of the field so much but the fact thatit is a slow game. When something does happen, it happens prettyfast. The game can go along for minutes with nothing much happening,then in the space of a few seconds there is a double play or a two-base error or a tape-measure home run.
'You can't fake this game. If you can't anticipate what mighthappen in a given situation, your cameras [there were four at FenwayPark then] won't catch the play. There's no time after the ball ishit.'
In a 1983 interview with the Seattle Times, Mr. Shea added thatwhile other sports have a predictable flow of action, are played ina confined arena, and finish within a similar time frame, baseballpresented different challenges: 'In baseball,' he said, 'you must beready for anything. There are some lulls, but when action picks up,it often occurs in several spots.'
He did that job well, according to Horgan: 'The man who directsthe Sox games misses very few key plays during the course of theseason,' he wrote, 'which is a tribute to his training, hisexperience, and his knowledge of the game.'
Mr. Shea, who also worked the 1967 World Series between the RedSox and St. Louis Cardinals, experienced every level of televisionsports production - from major networks to independent stations tocable companies.
Mr. Shea, who resided in Scituate while working at WHDH-TV andalso at WSBK-TV (for Bruins broadcasts), was born in Fall River andgraduated from Durfee High School in 1945. He enlisted in the Navyat age 17 and was a weather specialist stationed in the Philippines.
He then attended Boston University on the GI Bill, graduating in1952 with a major in visual communications and a minor in motionpicture production. A member of the Photography Club at BU, Mr. Sheaonce had a job offer to work as a photographer for United PressInternational in Washington for $25 a week.
'After he had the UPI offer he decided he would knock on doorsfor one more day,' said his son. 'He walked into a TV station inWashington and found out that their film editor was about to leaveand he applied for that job instead and was hired. It was his startin television, and a few years later he was at WHDH.'
During his retirement years, Mr. Shea lived in both St. Augustineand Largo, Fla. He and his late wife, Carole (Mewborne), enjoyedbeing full-time grandparents.
Mr. Shea also enjoyed boating and loved to catch stripers off thecoast of Scituate that would often become a family meal.
In addition to his son Michael and daughter Linda, Mr. Shealeaves another son, Stephen of Largo; two other daughters, DebraStelzer of Scituate and Brenda of Los Angeles; a sister, VirginiaMcWeeney of Westport; and five grandchildren.
A memorial service will be held at a later date.
