Peter Vecsey remembers Red Foley

From one NY tabloid icon to another, his tribute column:

http://www.nypost.com/seven/01042009/sports/moresports/legendary_journalist_set_this_rebel_stra_147137.htm

 

Pretty damn good.

 

Great story. I was fortunate enough to smoke a few cigars with Red and talk baseball. What a gem of a man.

 

Loved the tribute. Thanks to Peter V. for the great read and trip back in time. He makes those Daily News days zing like something out of The Front Page, and this already was the '60s and '70s. Wow.

It goes without saying that appreciation of old-school types, and the mentoring that went on from one generation to the next in this business long before anyone thought to call it mentoring, is getting lost in our era of buyouts, layoffs and reassignments-as-nudges out the door. The whole learn-from-elders, pass-it-on-to-youngsters tradition started taking a beating when the 18-to-34-year-old demographic became king, editors decided they had to fast-track many still learning into prominent roles (funny how they never hand over their jobs, though) and entry-level salaries became the only kind beancounters possibly can tolerate. I was one of those "Here I come, get outta my way" guys too, but the system in the past, fortunately, had more brakes on that approach. I believe my work and I are better off for it.

This business often has ended poorly for lots of its practitioners, a sour cherry on top of a career of modest pay, crazy hours and constant humbling (pray to God that the naked jackass will answer a few questions about the curveball he hit over a wall two hours ago). Those who beat the odds, congrats. Those who accept a possibly dreary end-game but love this all anyway, good for you. Just so we all keep our eyes wide open to what it is, more than ever.

 

Good job by Vecsey. I spent many days with Red and, in fact, was one of the reporters Phil Pepe referred to at the end of Vecsey's piece who went to ask went to ask Red (ha ha) about possibly changing a call. Red always made us laugh and, of course, who can forget Lasorda greeting Foley with the line, "Here he is, Blue Foley."

 

Vecsey did a similarly nice tribute to Cotton Fitzsimmons a while back. He's much better at this sort of thing than he is when he's throwing rumors against the wall and making lame jokes in his NBA columns.

 

Great column ... that's the newspaper biz I most wish I was a part of. I got started in 1975 or so, and I think I was about 20 years too late.

 

Agreed, SF_E, agreed. The ghosts are still roaming down near 42nd and Second.

 

Have not been around those parts in a while but I used to eat lunch at a bar / restaurant on 2nd and 41st - they put out about the best corned beef sandwich and french fry platter around. Still have not gotten rid of all the plaque build up.

 

uh, oh, I smell a "food hijack" coming on. Don't know the name of that place, but midtown certainly has no shortage of bars with the corned beef spread. Yum. Also, the dirty-water dogs ... the sterno pretzels ... man, doesn't get any better than grabbing a hot pretzel when it's like 25 degrees and scarfing it down on the way back to Penn Station.

 

Anybody else see the resemblance?

 

Red Foley was one of the good guys. Opinionated but he was always blunt and honest. Taught me a lot about how to be an official scorer and he didn't make many mistakes handling the job. He took it seriously and was, in my opinion, fair.