* New book recalls George Plimpton

Sure, Plimpton wrote about things other than sports, but that’s where I remember him best. No doubt he was the inspiration for hundreds of other sportswriters to step down from their glass-enclosed press box to give the games they covered a whirl. I even took a turn, playing in a game with a men’s 35-and-over basketball team. I also almost tried out for the Israel baseball League.

Plimpton, who died in 2003, wasn’t the first to put his butt on the line as a “participatory journalist.” Paul Gallico, who wrote for New York papers in the 1920s, stepped into the ring with Jack Demspey (with the expected result). His story and dozens of others are the subject of Inside the Ropes: Sportswriters Get Their Game On , a new book from Bison.

Among his many sports titles, Plimpton gave us Out of My League: The Classic Hilarious Account of an Amateur’s Ordeal in Professional Baseball, most recently released in 2003 by The Lyons press, and The Curious Case of Sid Finch, a story about a Mark Fidrych-type pitcher with a 100+ MPH fastball that originally appeared as an April Fool’s submission to Sports Illustrated.

Now it falls to others to write about Plimpton, or at least give their thoughts and memories to editor Nelson w. Aldrich Jr. for George being George: George Plimpton’s Life as Told, Admired, Deplored, and Envied by 200 Friends, Relatives, Lovers, Acquaintances, Rivals — and a Few Unappreciative Observers (Random House).

Enjoy Plimpton, the shill, in the classic commercial for a computer baseball game.

Tagged as: George Plimpton