You won’t find his name among the players, coaches, managers, umpires, etc. on Baseball-Reference, but Greg was nevertheless an influential source, at least to me when it came to baseball books.
Greg passed away Dec. 28. He was just 44 and had been in poor health for quite awhile.
There aren’t a lot of entries about him. David Pease at Baseball Prospectus probably wrote the most in-depth memorial to this point. When I Googled for more info, I got a lot hits along the “I didn’t know him that well, but…” variety. I fall into that camp, sorry to say.
I met Greg at a SABR convention many years ago and we hit it off because of our mutual enjoyment of baseball literature. Over the years he would send me links to book reviews which were published in myriad outlets that I would turn into entries for the blog. He also contributed to or edited a few baseball titles himself, including Best Baseball Writing, 2005; Baseball Prospectus, 2000;Meet the Mets 2008: An Annual Guide to New York Mets Baseball; and others.
A damn shame. You can read some nice comments from his friends on his Facebook page. And Greg Prince writes about him on the Faith and Fear in Flushing blog.
Greg Spira, lower left, took in a game with three other writers/Mers Fans including, clockwise above Spira, Greg Prince, Dana Brand (who passed away earlier this year), and Matthew Silverman at Shea Staium. Photo courtesy Faith and Fear in Flushing
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