Posts tagged as:

Sportswriting

This is how I start off my review of Seeing Home: The Ed Lucas Story: A Blind Broadcaster’s Story of Overcoming Life’s Greatest Obstacles, by Ed Lucas and his son, Chris: “These days, the word ‘inspirational’ is tossed around a lot for things that really aren’t. But in the case of Ed Lucas, it somehow […]

{ Comments on this entry are closed }

Trying to clear out the old mail box before the holiday: MLB historian John Thorn posted this photo on Facebook of a joint 1969 publication, ostensibly by Pete Rose and Denny McLain: At the time, Rose and McLain were the best in the game. Dayn Perry, author of a couple of baseball books of his […]

{ Comments on this entry are closed }

One of my favorite movie quotes comes from Men in Black when Agent K (Tommy Lee Jones) is trying to convince police officer Edwards (Will Smith) to join the elite extraterrestrial monitoring organization: Fifteen hundred years ago everybody knew the Earth was the center of the universe. Five hundred years ago, everybody knew the Earth […]

{ Comments on this entry are closed }

One of the legends of the sportswriting world passed away yesterday at the age of 93. Bisher began writing for the Atlanta Journal Constitution in 1950, retiring in 2009. he began his newspaper career in 1938 at the Lumberton Voice in North Carolina. I recall him from his work as a region writer covering the […]

{ Comments on this entry are closed }

Robert Lipsyte (Accidental Sportswriter, An: A Memoir) , Robert Wientraub, (The House That Ruth Built: A New Stadium, the First Yankees Championship, and the Redemption of 1923), and Alan Hirsch, (co-author with Sheldon Hirsch, The Beauty of Short Hops: How Chance and Circumstance Confound the Moneyball Approach to Baseball) will discuss their new books as […]

{ Comments on this entry are closed }

And Other Tales from the Edge of Baseball Fandom, by Emma Span (Villard, 2010) As much as I love baseball, there are times when I take a step back and wonder, “What am I doing with this nonsense? Surely, there are better ways to spend my time and energies.” And at the risk of being […]

{ Comments on this entry are closed }

* Caesar's wife

July 28, 2009 · 6 comments

This one is a toughie. Omar Minaya took time out in yesterday’s press conference announcing the firing of Tony Bernazard to point an accusing finger at NY Daily News sportswriter Adam Rubin. Aaccording to Minaya, Rubin had perhaps politicked (my phrase) for a player development job some time back and was therefore somewhat predisposed to […]

{ Comments on this entry are closed }

I hope this article from The Wall Street Journal isn’t too prophetic as it warns of newspapers’ shrinking presence in the press box. A few years back, I worked as a part-time reporter for STATS at Mets and Yankees home games. It was a kick, having my own seat in the box, chatting with “real” […]

{ Comments on this entry are closed }

* Shocker of the day

June 27, 2008

From Editor and Publisher‘s Web site: “Study: Newspaper Sports Departments Mostly Male, White“ Newspaper sports departments remain nearly all white and male — and progress towards diversity is painfully slow, concludes a “report card” on sports staffing released Thursday at the annual meeting of Associated Press Sports Editors (APSE). I’ll post a link to the […]

{ Comments on this entry are closed }

* Halberstam's legacy

May 7, 2008

The Columbus Dispatch ran this review of Everything They Had: Sportswriting from David Halberstam. The LA Times published one, too. Regardless of their politics, I’ve always had great admiration for authors like Halberstam, Doris Kearns Goodwin, and George F. Will, among others, who have the ability to write about “serious” issues and those of lesser […]

{ Comments on this entry are closed }

* State of the "art"?

April 10, 2008

Michael Rowe wrote this analysis of modern sportswriting on the Utne Reader Web site. He laments the art of the craft, as was evidenced by such wordsmiths as Ring Lardner, Huey Fullerton, and, more recently, the likes of Roger Angell. “Does sportswriting suck,” he asks, bemoaning the lack of reporting “that tackles an actual ethical […]

{ Comments on this entry are closed }

* Catching up, Part 1

April 8, 2008

There’s a lot of material that’s fallen by the wayside as I try to keep this blog fresh with the latest in baseball book publishing information. But in the words of the revered philosopher, Regis Philbin, “I’m only one man!” So I’m using this space to try to catch up. Some of the items might […]

{ Comments on this entry are closed }

Received this e-mail from Dugoutcentral.com: DugoutCentral is pleased to announce that the winners of its Spring Training Writing Contest will receive free, one-on-one consulting with esteemed writing coach Susan White for the first half of the 2008 MLB season. For those fan writers who are serious about improving their skills, this is a unique opportunity.Susan […]

{ Comments on this entry are closed }

script type="text/javascript"> var _gaq = _gaq || []; _gaq.push(['_setAccount', 'UA-5496371-4']); _gaq.push(['_trackPageview']); (function() { var ga = document.createElement('script'); ga.type = 'text/javascript'; ga.async = true; ga.src = ('https:' == document.location.protocol ? 'https://ssl' : 'http://www') + '.google-analytics.com/ga.js'; var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(ga, s); })();