RIP Rudy Martzke

[jojoblack]

For those who knew or knew of him, we've lost a trailblazer -- former USA TODAY sports media critic Rudy Martzke has died at age 82.

 

[MileHigh]

Absolutely a trailblazer and a must read.

The Dreaded Glitch Award.

RIP.

 

[Deskgrunt50]

I posted on the journalism thread. MODs, whichever one you want to keep.

An pioneer in the biz. RIP.

 

[jojoblack]

I posted on the journalism thread. MODs, whichever one you want to keep.

An pioneer in the biz. RIP.

Sorry, I wasn't aware.

 

[Deskgrunt50]

Sorry, I wasn't aware.

Pretty much simultaneous. This one might get more traction. I wasn't sure where to put it.

 

[playthrough]

Impossible to explain to the kids these days how magical that USA Today Sports section was for a time. Martzke a significant part of it.

 

[MileHigh]

Pretty much simultaneous. This one might get more traction. I wasn't sure where to put it.

Both are fine. More traction here as you said. I'll drop a link in the other one.

 

[MileHigh]

Impossible to explain to the kids these days how magical that USA Today Sports section was for a time. Martzke a significant part of it.

You could say that about tons of sports sections pre-Y2K.

 

[playthrough]

You could say that about tons of sports sections pre-Y2K.

For sure, I grew up on the murderers-row AJC (Kindred, Mort, et al). Then USA Today came with that unique (for the time) layout and it just felt like a candy store of info. And with distribution back then, in a major city, you could get it with the late scores.

 

[HanSenSE]

One of his previous jobs was PR chief of the ABA's Miami Floridians. Added a lot of insight and funny stories to Terry Pluto's book.

 

[MileHigh]

For sure, I grew up on the murderers-row AJC (Kindred, Mort, et al). Then USA Today came with that unique (for the time) layout and it just felt like a candy store of info. And with distribution back then, in a major city, you could get it with the late scores.

I grew up on the LAT and would devour it every day. Their 1984 Olympics coverage was just incredible. Those were the days.

 

[DanOregon]

Network types either loved him, feared him, or hated him. Sometimes all three.

 

[Liut]

One of his previous jobs was PR chief of the ABA's Miami Floridians. Added a lot of insight and funny stories to Terry Pluto's book.

... and the Spirits of St. Louis.

 

[maumann]

Man, when USA Today had a full page of baseball team-by-team player stats once a week, that pretty much was nirvana. Remember when the AP would run expanded batting and pitching agate on Sundays?

I used to have to wait for The Sporting News, which would be a few days behind, depending on when it'd show up in the mail. Then Baseball Weekly debuted.

Now I can access anything I want via Baseball Reference, Fangraphs or Retrosheet, so my copies of Baseball Encyclopedia and Total Baseball are really heavy paperweights.

 

[Scout]

Man, when USA Today had a full page of baseball team-by-team player stats once a week, that pretty much was nirvana. Remember when the AP would run expanded batting and pitching agate on Sundays?

I used to have to wait for The Sporting News, which would be a few days behind, depending on when it'd show up in the mail. Then Baseball Weekly debuted.

Now I can access anything I want via Baseball Reference, Fangraphs or Retrosheet, so my copies of Baseball Encyclopedia and Total Baseball are really heavy paperweights.

No matter how fast you type, nothing was faster than scanning all those stats on one page.

 

[Michael_ Gee]

Since I never was close to the sports media beat, I enjoyed Rudy's company in the few times I had with him at various late nights at the big events (Super Bowl, Final Four, NBA Finals, etc.).

 

[Neutral Corner]

Impossible to explain to the kids these days how magical that USA Today Sports section was for a time. Martzke a significant part of it.

Living in Birmingham, if I wanted coverage of something beside the Tide, Tigers, Falcons, Braves, and Titans, I had to get it from USA Today. It was damned important to me.

 

[HanSenSE]

... and the Spirits of St. Louis.

The Buffalo Braves too, I believe.

 

[BTExpress]

Man, when USA Today had a full page of baseball team-by-team player stats once a week, that pretty much was nirvana. Remember when the AP would run expanded batting and pitching agate on Sundays?

Fort Lauderdale may have run team-by-team stats before USAT (I know they did in the early-mid80s).

But we stole USAT's idea for running separate NL and AL pages, complete with standings that ran the width of the page (Home, Away, Day, Night, vs. Division, etc.) and notes for every team.

Our IT department even created Atex commands that would make an MLB logo to go with every note. /UFdodgers/, /UFmets/ and so on.

 

[Typist Clerk]

Network types either loved him, feared him, or hated him. Sometimes all three.

All at the same time. He could boost a career or cripple it.