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Favorite Sports writer(s)?

Discussion in 'Journalism topics only' started by Gehrig, Nov 25, 2011.

  1. Gehrig

    Gehrig Active Member

    Before I start, I just wanted to apologize in advance if this is in the wrong section or it's already been created before.

    Who is your favorite sports writer(s) of all-time?

    For me, it's, Frederick George Lieb. Little information:

    Born: March 5, 1888, Philadelphia, PA
    Died: June 3, 1980, Houston, TX, age 92

    New York sports writer;
    Philadelphia News bureau, magazine & newspaper, 1910
    Arrived in New York City, March, 1911
    New York Press, Baseball editor, 1911 - 1916
    New York Morning Sun, 1916 - 1921
    New York Telegram, Baseball editor, 1921 - 1927
    New York Evening Post, March, 1927 - 1934
    Moved to St. Petersburg, FL, 1934
    Sporting News correspondent (1935-58) & columnist (1943-47),
    St. Petersburg Times (Florida) (1965-77).
    February, 1980 - June 5, 1980 nursing home Houston,TX.
    World Series scorer (1922-24), covered World Series (1911-58).
    Sporting News historian for years.

    Authored:
    The St. Louis Cardinals: The Story of a Great Baseball Club, 1944
    Connie Mack (actually a book on the Philadelphia A's), 1945
    The Detroit Tigers, 1946
    The Boston Red Sox, 1947
    Judge Landis and 25 Years of Baseball, by Taylor Spink (actually ghost-written by Fred Lieb)
    The Pittsburgh Pirates, 1948
    The Story of the World Series: An informal history, 1949
    The Baseball Story, 1950
    Can You Buy a Baseball Star?, 1953
    The Philadelphia Phillies, 1953
    The Baltimore Orioles: The History Of A Colorful Team In Baltimore And St. Louis, 1955
    Comedians and Pranksters of Baseball, 1958
    The Story of the World Series, 1965
    Baseball as I Have Known It, 1977
     
  2. Mitch Albom and Skip Bayless.

    Those guys are the balls.
     
  3. SF_Express

    SF_Express Active Member

    I'm a Red Smith guy from way back.

    I love Heinz simply because he kept it simple (even though as a young writer, I didn't always) and loved Roy Blount Jr. if he counts as a sports writer.
     
  4. Moondoggy

    Moondoggy Member

    Mizzougrad ;D
     
  5. SF_Express

    SF_Express Active Member

    He's a Young Phenom! (Hi, Mizzou :)
     
  6. Versatile

    Versatile Active Member

    Newspaper sports writers: Tom Boswell, Dave Anderson, Jim Murray, Tony Kornheiser and Ray Fitzgerald
    Long-form sports writers: Roger Angell, Frank Deford, George Plimpton, Rick Reilly and Bill Heinz
    Current: Charlie Pierce, Joe Posnanski, Sally Jenkins, Les Carpenter and Richard Justice
     
  7. lesboulez

    lesboulez Member

    Slap Maxwell.
     
  8. Joe Williams

    Joe Williams Well-Known Member

    Oscar Madison.

    Oh, and Max Mercy too.
     
  9. SoCalDude

    SoCalDude Active Member

    Dickie Dunn
     
  10. Frank_Ridgeway

    Frank_Ridgeway Well-Known Member

    Started reading Red Smith as a high school freshman when I started reading the NYT every day. Probably I surmised that he was supposed to be good since the NYT was running him, but I acquired the taste for his writing without knowing he was a legend -- he was just a byline like any other columnist's byline and I happened to like reading him.

    Pre-internet, you really had to make an effort to read out-of-towners. First time I saw John Schulian's stuff in the Chicago Sun-Times in the early 1980s was a wow moment, and then I started working on a paper that got Sun-Times copy on the supplemental wires and I read him all the time. Best newspaper sports columnist of my lifetime, I still think, although Lupica in his prime and Mike Downey in his prime ... both so entertaining in different ways.

    Another wow moment was the first time editing Mark Whicker. He was just stringing a Monday Night Football game for us while the Philly papers were on strike. His running was unlike any running I'd ever seen -- so smooth -- and then a quick turnaround with a complete writethru. Freak ... of ... nature. And, as I later learned, just so consistently good four times a week, like the Tony Gwynn of sports columnists.
     
  11. Versatile

    Versatile Active Member

    Whicker was sullied by one of the worst columns ever and generally has not appealed to me as a columnist, but he was an excellent reporter in Philadelphia based on what I've read of his work. Still, that one column was something completely unacceptable and abhorrent ... and lazy.
     
  12. spikechiquet

    spikechiquet Well-Known Member

    Ray Barone, Penelope Jane Franklin and Bobby Newman.
     
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