RIP John Feinstein

[MileHigh]

From Dave Kindred on social:

My great friend John Feinstein died this morning of a heart attack at 69. Too soon. We needed more time. Forty-eight years were not enough. I celebrated and enjoyed his every success, at the Washington Post, on best-seller lists, and in all those moments when I suggested he might let someone else say a word or two, only to hear him remind me, correctly, "But people like to hear me talk." God must be getting an earful today.

 

[qtlaw]

Hard to fathom. I read Season on the Brink and had no idea a sports book could provide that level of detail on the “inside “.

Too many for me to list here.

Total bummer. Thanks Mr. Feinstein for the joy you brought to my life.

 

[HanSenSE]

Final column for the post ran yesterday.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2025/03/13/tom-izzo-michigan-state/

 

[playthrough]

Really good from Forde.

John Feinstein Perfected Art of Telling Singular Story With Ceaseless Reporting

 

[Baron Scicluna]

Caddy for Life also was a personal favorite.

Forever's Team, about the 1978 Duke team that lost to Kentucky in the championship game, feels like a very underrated one of his. I was surprised how much I liked that one.

I could read just about anything that he wrote. A true professional.

I got “Forever’s Team” off a cheap used book rack in some forgotten store when I was a poor copy desker and throughly enjoyed it.

“The Last Amateurs” is also a good read.

I’ve told this on here before, but I always loved this one story he told of his early career at the Washington Post. It was during the days when the NFL Draft was held during the daytime; Feinstein was in the sports department and huge Redskins fan Ben Bradlee walked in and asked the SE, “Who did we draft?”

And Feinstein answered, “Hey Ben, I didn’t know the Washington Post owned a football team!”

Bradlee responded that if Feinstein didn’t like it, he could take a hike.

RIP

 

[tapintoamerica]

I got “Forever’s Team” off a cheap used book rack in some forgotten store when I was a poor copy desker and throughly enjoyed it.

“The Last Amateurs” is also a good read.

I’ve told this on here before, but I always loved this one story he told of his early career at the Washington Post. It was during the days when the NFL Draft was held during the daytime; Feinstein was in the sports department and huge Redskins fan Ben Bradlee walked in and asked the SE, “Who did we draft?”

And Feinstein answered, “Hey Ben, I didn’t know the Washington Post owned a football team!”

Bradlee responded that if Feinstein didn’t like it, he could take a hike.

RIP

And this was before Feinstein had hit it big.

 

[Neutral Corner]

RIP to a great one.

I wish guys who are my age would quit keeling over. It's kinda depressing.

 

[Webster]

Loved his stuff and he was great on Kornheiser. Prickly sort whose book One on One might have been the most ego filled thing I’ve ever read.

 

[MileHigh]

 

[Brooklyn Bridge]

He was on Sports Reporters back in the day with Bob Ryan and **** Schapp. Appointment viewing when I was younger. He was a guest on a national show at the start of Covid, when games were being canceled.

 

[Sam Mills 51]

I got it for Christmas and haven't gotten to it yet


I checked my shelves and have:

Season on the Brink
The Legends Club
Living on the Black
The Last Amateurs
The Punch

On my shelves:

Forever's Team
Season on the Brink
A Season Inside
One on One
A March to Madness
The Legends Club
The Last Amateurs
Last Dance
A Good Walk Spoiled
The Majors
Open
Caddy For Life
A Civil War
Next Man Up

Five Banners is on loan to my mother - a Duke alum. Funny backstory to that one is I couldn't find out in a B&N in Manhattan the last time I was there, yet it was finally available across the back ditch from my house at a B&N a few days after I got back.

Also read one of his novels because a good friend of mine who is a longtime educator decided that was a good read for his class.

Suffice it to say this is a gut punch. Might go back and get some more of these, though I don't know when I'd make the time to finish them.

RIP good sir and Thank You.

 

[micropolitan guy]

"A Civil War" is a classic.

The brother of one of my friend's wives is prominent in "The Last Amateurs."

"Living on the Black" is outstanding, as is "Where Nobody Knows Your Name," about life in the minors. Coincidentally, I just saw that on the shelf in the library this morning.

"A Season Inside" has a lot on a young George Mason coach named Rick Barnes, and my alma mater as well. Very good read.

"Back Roads to March" is great, so many stories about low- to mid-major teams.

One of my favorite authors. RIP to a giant.

 

[mpcincal]

One of my favorite authors, although I hadn't read a book of his in a while. Ironically, I haven't read "Brink"; I think "Forever's Team" was the first one of his I read and enjoyed that. I also read "A Good Walk Spoiled" and "The Majors," making me care about a sport (golf), I generally don't have much use for. And then I was elated when he wrote one ("Play Ball") on my favorite sport, baseball (and wasn't a bit disappointed by that). He just had this knack for move seamlessly through whatever environment was the subject of the book, and took you along for the ride. RIP.

Oh, yeah, and I'll always remember Feinstein for one of the best comebacks I ever heard. Bob Knight, as everyone knows, wasn't pleased with "Season on the Brink," and he was quoted as calling Feinstein "a pimp and a *****." When Feinstein got wind of the quote, he replied, "I wish he'd make up his mind so I knew how to dress."

 

[Shelbyville Manhattan]

So, tonight I thumbed through my copy of "Forever's Team" (my second copy; the first one, bought at a dollar store somewhere around 1991, lost its cover several moves ago). This passage from the introduction -- in which he writes about learning of former Duke coach Bill Foster's heart attack following a game coaching at South Carolina -- gave me chills:

"It had been eight months since my father suffered a heart attack and I was familiar with the trauma that accompanied one."

 

[HanSenSE]

 

[Slacker]

Nice job by Forde. And this passage really stands out (in a good way) ...

As a columnist, he cherished the freedom to both praise and condemn—and his condemnations could be vicious. He could be a savage critic of almost everyone in charge of college sports. He ripped coaches, athletic directors, conference commissioners and NCAA presidents.

Feinstein was president of the U.S. Basketball Writers Association from 1991–92, but in some ways he never gave up the gavel. He cared deeply about the association and remained active in most of its affairs—whether asked to participate or not. He was an absolute bull as an advocate for media access and seating at the NCAA tournament.

Feinstein was such a vociferous critic of the NCAA on those issues that it was occasionally necessary for whoever was the president of the organization at the time to smooth things over with NCAA officials behind the scenes. Feinstein didn’t do diplomacy on that front. Anything that inhibited the ability to tell an accurate and compelling story was intolerable to him.

 

[nickp]

A Season on the Brink is one of the greatest sports books

 

[exmediahack]

Obviously my favorites are the ones already mentioned here, but a few others I enjoyed: A Season Inside, on the 1988 college hoops season. Great profiles on Steve Kerr, a young Rick Barnes, among others.

Hard Courts: About the 1990 tennis season.

Loved both of those as a teen.

He just had one come out last fall about Ivy League football. Haven't read it yet but definitely plan on it, having followed the league for 20 years since moving next to Columbia's field.

Also for “A Season Inside” for 14-year-old me.

Feinstein’s real legacy to me is that his writing got me to really care about golf and Yankee League basketball. Things I really don’t care about.

 

[cyclingwriter2]

I’ve been rereading “where nobody knows your name,” his stories of following guys in AAA for a season. It’s not an easy subject, but he walks the tightrope perfectly of making it interesting without being condescending.

 

[swingline]

A Season on the Brink was the first sports book that I ever purchased.

I devoured that book in one day.

Damon Bailey!