Posts tagged as:

Curt Smith

Kudos to Curt

January 4, 2023

“If you’re a baseball fan, you’ll know the name Curt Smith.” That’s how David J. Halberstam leads off this nice piece, “Curt Smith continues his love for baseball on radio and television; He’ll never forget the 60s and 70s,” for SportsBroadcastJournal.com. I’ve had the pleasure of reading many of Smith’s books as well as chatting […]

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Our old friend, Curt Smith, weighs in on the top contenders for the 2023 Frick Award, bestowed by the Baseball Hall of Fame to a broadcaster for “major contributions to baseball,” in Sports Business Journal. Of course, I’m biased and am hoping that the Mets’ Gary Cohen gets the honor, but I’m sure the other […]

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Curt Smith and I go way back, relatively speaking. My first interview with him came in 2012 when he published Mercy!: A Celebration of Fenway Park’s Centennial Told Through Red Sox Radio and TV. In The Presidents and the Pastime: The History of Baseball and the White House — the subject of this Conversation — he […]

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Pull up a book (Vin Scully)

November 9, 2016

I wonder if Curt Smith plans on issuing an updated version of his 2009 bio, Pull Up a Chair: The Vin Scully Story. Seems like it’s not only warranted, but given that Scully called it quits after the Dodgers’ final game of 2016 practically a necessity. Now Smith could include more tributes to the iconic […]

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The late sports radio pioneer Graham McNamee has been named the recipient of the 2016 Ford Frick award for excellence in broadcasting. From the Hall of Fame press release: Graham McNamee, whose national play-by-play of the World Series in the earliest days of radio transformed the one-time opera singer into a household name, has been […]

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Bits and pieces, March 16

March 16, 2015

Curt Smith, author of several fine volumes about baseball broadcasters and broadcasting, offers this nostalgic essay on “Spring training: Baseball’s Brigadoon” in the Irondequoit Post. Publishers Weekly published their annual list of new baseball topics. Unfortunately, it’s only available to subscribers. I’ll see if I can find an end-around at some point. “Spring inevitably means […]

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Curt Smith and Scott Pitoniak will launch a new weekly baseball radio show — A Talk in the Park — on WYSL 92.1 FM and 1040 AM, on Saturday, Jan. 12, at noon, The 60-minute series will be available outside of Western New York via the Internet on wysl1040.com. Pitoniak, left, recipient of more than […]

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Congrats to Zachary James of Searsboro, Iowa, winner of the RKBB Facebook fan drawing, Curt Smith’s new book is A Talk in the Park: Nine Decades of Baseball Tales from the Broadcast Booth. (Yeah, I know it’s “like,” but that just sounds stupid in context, so I’m gonna keep on going with “fan.”) The next […]

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As a former presidential speechwriter and current senior lecturer of English at the University of Rochester, it’s safe to say that Curt Smith loves the spoken (and written) word. His output as an author combines that enthrallment with baseball; he’s written several books that highlight not the players on the field, but the people who […]

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Due to the vagaries of the publishing world, there are bound to be additional books on the Fenway Park and Mets anniversaries. Case in point, Curt Smith, who specializes in paying homage to the men and women who have brought the game to millions of fans over the years on radio and television, gives his […]

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A day late, but with all due respect to Scully, who turned 84 yesterday. Curt Smith, the go-to writer on the history of baseball broadcasting, published Pull Up a Chair: The Vin Scully Story in 2009.

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* Let me be Curt

January 25, 2010

Baseballisms.com ran this audio interview and profile of the prolific author Curt Smith, whose latest book, Pull Up A Chair: The Vin Scully Story, is a must-read for those fascinated by the veteran broadcaster.

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* R-ad-io daze

August 10, 2009

In this piece from the Hartford Courant, author Curt Smith (Voices of Summer: Ranking Baseball’s 101 All-Time Best Announcers)  recalls the classic days of baseball on the radio, replete with advertisements the broadcasters managed to squeeze in whenever they could. One of the neat things about minor league baseball is the advertising signage from local […]

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The American Spectator published this review of Curt Smith’s new book, emblematic of an increasing sentiment. Upshot: Unfortunately, Smith gives us a wealth of good information in a pedestrian writing style, clipped and choppy and occasionally incoherent. He sometimes changes subject in the middle of a paragraph. There are quotes where it’s hard to tell […]

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The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel published this piece on the author of the new Vin Scully biography. The Amazon Report on Pull Up a Chair: The Vin Scully Story

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* Bits and Pieces

June 17, 2009

Time to play a little catch-up: From Pressboxonline.com, a Baltimore-sports oriented site, a review of Bert Randolph Sugar’s new coffee table book about the Hall of Fame. “[The author] left nothing out and I can’t think of a better way to educate those whom are grasping for a better understanding of baseball’s history than to […]

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An audio interview, downloadable, as featured on Mike Silva’s New York Baseball Digest.

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The Ventura County Star posted this review on Curt Smith’s new Vin Scully biography. Upshot: Some people say “God is in the details.” Others say “the devil is in the details.” With Smith’s writing both are present. Those of us who look forward to poring over every facet of Scully’s life won’t be disappointed; Smith […]

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As reviewed in The Los Angeles Times. Upshot: …[T]hose seeking deeper insights into the redheaded announcer will be disappointed. Scully, now 81, is a humble man and has long said he does not want a biography written about him. He did not cooperate with Smith, and the result is an engaging yet uneven book. The […]

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Keith Olberman writes the “Baseball Nerd” under the MLB.blogs banner. In this entry, he takes Curt Smith to task for an error in Pull Up a Chair, his new biography of legendary Dodgers announcer Vin Scully. Olberman, who makes his living being contrary, used to be a baseball book reviewer in a former life. “[O]ne […]

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