This is from Hal McCoy's blog at the Dayton Daily News site:
<i>TWO OF MY all-time favorite baseball writers died within the last week - Jerome Holtzman of the Chicago Tribune and Neil Hohlfeld of the Houston Chronicle.
Holtzman was retired but was historian for the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown. Holtzman wrote one of my all-time favorite books, No Cheering in the Press Box, a book, he signed for me and a book I read at least every two years.
Holtzman could be a gruff curmudgeon, but if he liked you, you were golden. He wrote always with a cigar stub between his lips and he hummed as he wrote. I sat next to him at a World Series one year and was entertained by the entire score from South Pacific, as hummed by Holtzman.
And there was the time during the playoffs that Holtzman was seated next to another Chicago writer, Dave Nightengale. They didn't like each other much. The work space was tight and when one thought the other was encroaching, words were spoken harshly, chairs scraped backwards, and the fight was on.
A third Chicago writer said, "I don't like either one of those Bozos. Let 'em duke it to the death."
Hohlfeld was a beat writer for many year for the Houston Astros, mostly when the Astros were the Houston Lastros or the Houston Disastros. Early one year, in April, when only about 10 games had been played, the 'Stros were in first place.
Paul Meyer, beat writer for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, was needling Hohlfeld early in a game and Hohlfeld said, "Can't talk, Paul. I'm covering a first-place team."
Anyway, if you get the chance, read Holtzman's No Cheerling in the Press Box. It truly is a classic.</i>
