White Sox, Rays pay tribute to beloved broadcaster Wills

ST. PETERSBURG -- The Rays honored the life of late radio broadcaster Dave Wills during a ceremony before Saturday’s game against the White Sox at Tropicana Field, finding the perfect moment to remember the Chicago native who made Tampa Bay’s radio booth feel like home.

“Nobody was more a Tampa Bay Ray than Dave Wills,” Rays principal owner Stu Sternberg told the crowd. “We miss him. We know we will continue to miss him.”

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“In many ways, Chicago never left him,” wrote White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf in a letter read by Rays radio broadcaster Neil Solondz. “Every trip the Rays made to Chicago was like the return of the mayor as friends lined up to say their hellos on the field, in the ballpark and in the visiting broadcast booth.”

Wills, who passed away March 5 at the age of 58, worked for the White Sox radio broadcast team before taking over as a radio voice of the Rays in 2005. The club held a private memorial service for Wills last month and joined with the White Sox to do so Saturday afternoon.

The ceremony included a montage of Wills’ most memorable calls, interspersed with comments from Sternberg, manager Kevin Cash, broadcast partner Andy Freed and others. Freed spoke from inside the Rays’ booth, where Wills’ shirt, pen, scorecard, microphone and lamp remained in place.

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“This was Dave’s home. … Everybody who was ever a fan of the Tampa Bay Rays was a friend of Dave Wills,” Freed said. “This is always going to be his side of the booth. … Dave’s never leaving us. He’s going to be here forever.”

Wills’ wife, Liz, stepped in front of the mound alongside daughter Michelle to throw out the first pitch to Rays video coordinator Chris “Chico” Fernandez, a close friend of Wills.

Tampa Bay is establishing a scholarship in honor of Wills, and Rays players are wearing specially designed memorial patches on their batting helmets throughout the season. Additionally, Rays players and coaches wore special shirts before Saturday’s game, with a microphone under the name “DAVE.”

“There's not a day that goes by that he's not thought about,” Cash said.

Darrin Jackson, who is in his 24th year as a White Sox broadcaster, never worked directly with Wills. Jackson was a player in 1999 with the White Sox and then moved to the television side from 2000-08 while Wills worked alongside Ed Farmer and John Rooney for 11 years on the White Sox radio network.

But Jackson remembers Wills’ gregarious nature and his infectious personality, not to mention some of his humorous interactions with White Sox fans calling into the postgame show.

“I used to sit there and shake my head and go, ‘He’s a little crazy,’” Jackson said with a laugh. “It just used to entertain me to know he was that guy, and honestly, I always felt even though he was aggressive toward pre- and post-[game] fans that were way off-base half the time, I looked at it and I said, ‘I think he can handle himself. I’m not worried about him.’ That made it kind of fun.

“He was somebody that was very outgoing, energetic. I think lovable because of his personality. It was true. It was real. The thing I loved about him is the authenticity. He just said it like he thought it should be said.”

Wills also did broadcast work for University of Illinois Chicago men’s basketball and the Kane County Minor League affiliate in Geneva, Ill. Although Wills missed the 2005 White Sox World Series title to join the Rays, Jackson was happy for the Oak Lawn native’s fulfillment of a broadcasting dream and the career he developed with Tampa Bay.

“That’s it. He got down here. He was the voice of this team,” Jackson said. “He and Dewayne Staats. They were the voices of this team. It’s tragic and an unfortunate loss. I’ll just always smile and laugh at his personality. That’s all I know. Whatever I think of him, it’s going to be with a smile.”

It seemed only fitting for the Rays to pay tribute to Wills with the White Sox in town for this three-game series.

“Absolutely, which is a credit to them,” Jackson said. “They thought it through, and they realized his connections are deep on the South Side of Chicago.

“Make sure they did it at an appropriate time, and it’s befitting. He was a true South Side fan, and he didn’t care what anybody else thought. But one of the things I really loved about him is that he got the chance down here in Tampa.”