Ted Williams documentary on HBO should be insightful

HBO offers up another in its ever-growing lineup of top-notch documentaries Wednesday at 8:30 p.m. It's simply called Ted Williams. It's about the life, times and post-death controversy of the first manager of the Rangers.
Oh that's right. He had a pretty good playing career with the Boston Red Sox during which he rose to iconic status on the field while juggling personal demons off it.
HBO scheduled the documentary for the night after baseball's All-Star Game in hopes of attracting a larger audience with no Major League games scheduled.
Here are 10 things I learned in watching the 75-minute documentary.
1
Bob Feller comes up with the best description of what it was like trying to pitch to Williams: "Trying to sneak a fastball by Ted Williams was like trying to sneak a sunbeam past a rooster in the morning. It's not going to happen."
2
Williams had a distant relationship with his parents and, for most of his life, with his children. "I think Ted loved the idea of having a son more than having a son," reports writer Leigh Montville, one of his biographers.
3
"He used to take his bats to the post office and weigh them to make sure they hadn't gained an ounce of moisture," reports writer Richard Ben Cramer. "In the batter's box, nothing was beneath his notice. He had to be perfect."
4
Williams was fishing in the Florida Keys when his eldest daughter was born prematurely. He didn't bother to return home until he had enough fishing.
5
He missed three full seasons and most of two others in the prime of his career while flying in the Marine Air Corps in World War II and the Korean War. He flew so much training for Korea that his ears bled.
6
Joe DiMaggio was not a friendly rival. "Sure he can hit, but what has he ever won," DiMaggio is quoted by Ben Cramer. Williams never played on a World Series winner.
7
Williams, whose voice is used throughout the documentary, said he prayed to God only once in his life. It was as he was crash landing his plane, and there was plenty of profanity surrounding it. "This is the time old Teddy Ballgame needs you," he recalls.
8
Teammate Johnny Pesky refers to his friend as "the smartest, unhappiest player I ever saw."
9
Williams demanded a $10,000 pay cut for his final season with the Red Sox in 1960 because didn't believe he earned his $100,000 salary the previous season.
10
He was voted Manager of the Year in 1969, his first with the Washington Senators and quit after the 1972 season, the franchise's first in Arlington. The Rangers are never mentioned in the documentary.
 
Talking baseball's All-Star Game
What did we do without MLB Network?
The network will offer coverage of pre-home run derby batting practice Monday at 4 p.m. CDT. Things really heat up Tuesday when the network has a Red Carpet Show scheduled for 3 p.m. followed by more batting practice. Covering will be: Bob Costas, Matt Vasgerian, Greg Amsinger, Barry Larkin, Al Leiter, Joe Magrane, Harold Reynolds and Hazel Mae.
ESPN gets into the act Monday at 7 p.m. with coverage of the home run derby. Chris Berman, Joe Morgan, Steve Phillips and Erin Andrews report with the help of 20 cameras and slow-motion devices. The new technological toy is called "Ball Track." According to the network, the technology uses Doppler radar to track the path of the ball from the time it connects with the bat. It will also measure distance and, presumably, if the ball travels high enough, likelihood of rain.
When game time finally rolls around Tuesday at 7 p.m., Joe Buck and Tim McCarver will call their 11th All-Star game for Fox. Last year's game, by the way, attracted the biggest All-Star audience since 1999. And just so you know, the All-Star game will be the highest-rated show of the summer, and the average rating for the All-Star game this millenium has been 28 percent higher than the average prime time rating for competitors ABC, CBS and NBC.
ABC college football
You can't tell the broadcast lineup for the upcoming season without a scorecard. I count 22 game crews and 11 studio crews. Some highlights:
Craig James is out of the Saturday ABC studio. He will work the Thursday night game on ESPN and a Saturday afternoon game alongside Mike Patrick on ABC. Doug Flutie, who worked that studio last year, won't be back. John Saunders and Jesse Palmer will sit in the re-vamped studio.
Sean McDonough and Matt Millen replace Brad Nessler, Bob Griese and Paul Maguire as ABCs lead Saturday afternoon team. Nessler and Griese have been relocated while Maguire joins Flutie on the sidelines.
Ron Franklin and Ed Cunningham continue in the Saturday 2:30 p.m. slot, where they should get a heavy load of Big 12 games. Brent Musburger and Kirk Herbstreit remain the lead Saturday night team.
The ratings game
Sunday's Wimbledon marathon Roger Federer-Andy Roddick men's final earned a 3.8 rating and a 10 share for NBC, the best since Pete Sampras won his final title in 2000. . . . Meanwhile, Sunday's final round of Tiger Woods' tournament on CBS, won by Woods, earned a major market rating of 6.3, up 207 percent over last year when an injured Woods didn't play. . . . The U.S. Olympic Committee has announced it plans a U.S. Olympic Network in partnership with Comcast. NBC, the network of the Olympics, is not happy and neither apparently is the International Olympic Committee, which issued a statement saying, "The proposed channel raises complex legal and contractual issues and could have a negative impact on our relationships with other Olympic broadcasters."