by Pat McManamon
PEPPER PIKE, Ohio -- They could be chatting, reminiscing about old times. They could be cousins, friends, neighbors -- or romantically involved.It's 1957 and Ted Williams is leaning against a wall at Fenway Park. He holds his glove, but he isn't smiling. The woman behind him leans forward, bracing her hands against the wall. They aren't laughing, but neither seems unhappy.
The story behind the photograph, taken without Williams or the woman knowing, is part of sports lore, but also delves deep into societal changes and is wrapped up in the irascibility of Williams and a young lady doing her job.
Nowadays, leagues have investigations when female reporters are not treated well -- as in the current case of the New York Jets. This woman -- Doris O'Donnell -- was on her own in a man's world, talking to the most contentious player in baseball.
O'Donnell, now 89 and living in Boston Heights, Ohio, had a journalism career that spanned 58 years. She worked for the now-defunct Cleveland News at the time and was on a trip with the Cleveland Indians that resulted in more tales and tawdriness than she imagined possible.
At that point in time, women did not write about teams, much less travel with them. O'Donnell was on the trip at the whim of mercurial editor Nat Howard, who sent her to the East Coast to follow the team and come up with stories.
When the trip ended, O'Donnell had been thrown out of two press boxes, told she should be home making babies and came up with a rare one-on-one interview with Williams while leaning against that wall. Shortly after her return, she was the subject of a front-page story in The Sporting News in which she was quoted saying of sportswriting: "I'd rather see a son of mine driving a bus." It also had advice from Williams, who said after hearing she had been ejected from the press box: "Don't let those guys push you around."
O'Donnell's attitude the entire trip: "I just wanted my story."
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