BU Alum Takes On Boston Globe’s Red Sox Beat
Tim Healey (COM’14) is documenting the team’s eventful season—and race for the playoffs
Tim Healey (COM’14) joined the Boston Globe as its Red Sox beat writer in June 2025. Photo via Unsplash/Osman Rana
BU Alum Takes On Boston Globe’s Red Sox Beat
Tim Healey (COM’14) is documenting the team’s eventful season—and race for the playoffs
Tim Healey grew up in Danbury, Conn., in the southwestern corner of the state, where Boston and New York sports allegiances clash. When he chose a college, Healey (COM’14) knew where he wanted to go: “I thought, I want to write about sports, and there’s no better place to be than the middle of Boston.”
At Boston University, Healey majored in journalism, covered sports for the Daily Free Press, and interned at the sports radio site WEEI.com. In 2016, he landed a job covering the Miami Marlins for the South Florida Sun Sentinel, followed by seven years covering the New York Mets for Newsday. Then, in June 2025, he landed the only job he says could have drawn him away from New York: covering the Boston Red Sox for the Boston Globe, regarded as one of the best writing beats in all of sports journalism, in large part because of the storied history of the team and the newspaper, legendary Fenway Park, and the fevered passion of Boston’s fans.
To say Healey’s brief tenure in Boston has been eventful would be an understatement. Within days of his arrival on the beat in June, the Red Sox traded their longest tenured player, Rafael Devers, and promoted up-and-coming star Roman Anthony. Since then they’ve gone from a losing record to the cusp of their first playoff berth in four years.
Bostonia spoke with Healey about Boston, baseball writing, and the Sox chances in the postseason (if they make it).
Q&A
with Tim Healey
Bostonia: What drew you to baseball writing?
Healey: I got involved in journalism as a high schooler and I really liked it. I like the style of writing. I like being able to find things out. BU obviously has a great journalism program, so it was my top choice. And to whatever degree I was capable, I tailored my own experience to baseball, because baseball was my favorite sport growing up.
Bostonia: What is a typical day for a baseball beat writer?
Healey: For a 7 o’clock game, it’s showing up around 2 o’clock and leaving around midnight. At 3 o’clock, the clubhouse opens to reporters for 50 minutes. That’s our opportunity to talk to players and coaches for whatever stories we’re working on. The manager speaks three hours before first pitch, and that’s another opportunity to ask questions. Then I go on the field for batting practice, then upstairs to the press box to write. My pregame story is a notebook—whatever news of the day and odds and ends are relevant to our readers. I have to file the first version of my game story the moment the game ends. After the game, I go back downstairs, talk to the manager, go back into the clubhouse and talk to the players, and then update or rewrite the game story. Midnight is my last deadline.
Bostonia: Has the role of the beat writer evolved as technology has changed viewing and reading habits?
Healey: It had probably already evolved by the time I got into this job. Because people watch the games or see highlights and play-by-play stuff on social media, my goal is always to tell them something they don’t know, whether that’s an extra interview in the locker room or keying in on a specific moment. One example that comes to mind: in June of this year was when Roman Anthony, on his second day in the majors, got his first hit. That also happened to be the first day his family was able to be there to watch, so while everybody else was in the clubhouse talking to players, I popped out onto the field and talked to his mom and sister about what a day and what an experience that was for the family.
Bostonia: This has been an eventful season for the Red Sox—does that make your job easier or harder?
It makes it more enjoyable, for sure. And it makes it easier. The way I described the Mets for so long holds true for my first months covering the Red Sox: they keep it interesting. The worst thing that you can have as a baseball beat writer is a boring team. And the Red Sox are not that.
The worst thing that you can have as a baseball beat writer is a boring team. And the Red Sox are not that.
Bostonia: What motivated you to move from New York City to Boston?
It’s because of what it means in the city and market and what it means in the industry, and all of the amazing people who have covered the Red Sox for the Globe through the years. When I got to Newsday in 2018 I very quickly realized that the job was awesome and that there were very few baseball beat jobs—maybe just one—that I would leave for. When I was at BU, I was one of those hardcore sports journalism kids covering the hockey team for the Daily Free Press and all that stuff. When people would ask, “What’s your dream job?” covering the Red Sox for the Globe was an answer too silly to even say out loud. Now I have that job—it does not escape me how fortunate I am.
Bostonia: With everything going on in the world today, why do you think sports—and sportswriting—matter?
My job would not exist if the Red Sox did not have a rabid and huge fan base. So, in a very basic sense, sports matter because people decide individually and collectively that sports and baseball and the Red Sox matter. And sports matter because they’re a window into everything else about life. Some of my favorite stories I’ve written have included no statistics and have been about a guy who happens to play baseball, as opposed to a baseball player. It can be a window into hardship in life, into growing up in other countries and adjusting to America, and into economics—like all these other things that do “matter” more in the real world, sports can be a vehicle for them.
Bostonia: What do the Red Sox need to do to make a run in the playoffs?
It’s going to be much harder with Roman Anthony out with the strained oblique. So, it’s going to be on the other hitters to pick up the slack, which they haven’t always done. If the Red Sox don’t score, they’re not going to play very deep into October. What they do have going for them is the pitching. Garrett Crochet is one of the best pitchers in baseball. Brayan Bello has really developed and matured into a legitimate number two, and then you like your chances with Lucas Giolito as your number three. And the bullpen has been excellent, with Aroldis Chapman and Garrett Whitlock in the late innings. There’s a lot to like about the Red Sox, but losing Roman Anthony absolutely raises the degree of difficulty.
This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.