Sometime in the 1980s, I was in the cramped Shea Stadium press box for the first time. A foul ball came screaming back and a tall, rangy guy tripped over a divider in the front row and knocked over two people as he aggressively tried to catch the ball. When he missed, he knocked over someone else as he tried to grab the ball before it bounced out into the stands. It was chaos: Papers flying, drinks spilling, people desperately trying to save their computers from crashing to the floor.
"Who is that?" I said to anyone.
It was Norm.
I later saw him in the press room at Madison Square Garden, wearing a winter ensemble that included a plaid flannel shirt with a sports jacket and sneakers that had the laces wrapped around the high tops about four times.
He was a unique and ubiquitous part of the NY sports scene for a long time.
