Meet The Sports Writers

[Bill Burgess]

---------------------------------------------------They Built The Game

When it comes to crediting people with making baseball what it became, some men stood out from the rest. True, it took many thousands, working quietly to build baseball into the National Game that addicted millions. But still, some stood out as Those That Built the Game more than others.

The sports writers and sports editors were foremost among such persons deserving of such credit. Here, I will credit some of the most worthy of all.

In the 1860's/1870's, few were writing baseball in the newspapers. It fell to a relative few to begin to insert baseball into the papers. In fact, in the 1860's/1870's, few newspapers had sports sections at all. The first known sports section was in 1880, by Francis Richter in the Philadelphia Ledger.

Henry Chadwick in Brooklyn, David Reid and Michael J. Kelly in New York, Al Spink in St. Louis, John Gruber in Pittsburgh, Francis Richter/Alfred Wright in Philadelphia and Lewis E. Meacham of Chicago were among those who started sports departments in newspapers.

Below are a few of the most important and influential sports writers/editors who built the game of baseball into the National Game. They Built The Game.

Henry Chadwick began writing baseball for the Yankee Clipper in 1858 and stayed there until January 1, 1879, when Al Wright replaced him. Before the Civil War, cities/towns had their 'nines', but nothing more. He was greatly involved with the evolution of the rules of the game, and edited the Spalding Guide, 1881-1908.

Michael J. Kelly developed the modern day box score and it was soon adopted by David Reid in St. Louis and Lewis Meacham in Chicago. When he began to write baseball, the Civil War was raging, there were no organized leagues, and no sports sections in any newspapers.

Alfred Wright began writing baseball in 1868 for the Philadelphia Mercury. He took over the Yankee Clipper when Chadwick moved on from it, January 1, 1879 and stayed there until 1894, when ill health made him stop.

David Reid started writing baseball around 1868 in NYC. He moved to Philadelphia in the early 70's, and then on to St. Louis in 1875.

Francis Richter started writing baseball in 1880 with the Sunday World in Philadelphia. He soon moved to the Philadelphia Ledger and started the first sports department in a US newspaper. He started the Sporting Life April 14, 1883 and ran it until 1917, when the war caused his lack of funding to close it. It had been an 8-page newspaper. He also edited the Reach Guide from 1901 to his death February 12, 1926.

Lewis B. Meacham started writing baseball in 1875 for the Chicago Tribune, but died in 1878. He had actually fought in the Civil War for Vermont, and been taken captive and spent time in a Southern prisoner-of-war camp.

Billy Spink arrived in St. Louis around 1872, and started sports sections in several St. Louis newspapers. He had been a fine ballplayer previous to his writing career. He died in 1885.

Alfred Spink, Bill's brother, arrived in St. Louis in 1875 and soon was writing baseball for their newspapers. He started The Sporting News March 17, 1886. It was 8 pages until 1937.

John Gruber started writing baseball in 1882 for the Pittsburgh Times, the first time baseball was included in a newspaper in that city. He was also the official scorer for the Pittsburgh Pirates from 1893 until he died in 1932.

For some reason, some of the most important early baseball writers died early in life.

Michael J. Kelly (NYC) died June 27, 1973, at the age of 31.
Lewis E. Meacham (Chicago) died October 2, 1878, at the age of 32.
David L. Reid (St. Louis) died May 2, 1885, at the age of 36.
Billy M. Spink (St. Louis) died June 30, 1885, at the age of 37.

That 4 such important men to the game should die so young was a great loss for baseball.

[Bill Burgess]

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[Bill Burgess]

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[Bill Burgess]

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[Bill Burgess]

George Spencer Vecsey

Born: July 4, 1939, Jamaica (Queens), NY
Died: Still Alive

New York sports writer;
(1940 census)
Jamaica HS,
Graduated Hofstra College (Hempstead, NY), 1956-1960
Newsday, (Long Island), sports writer, 1960 - 1968,
New York Times, 1968-?; sports writer, 1968-70, international correspondent, 1970-73, Metro reporter, 1973-76, religious writer, 1976-80, sports writer, 1980-
Promoted to conduct Sports of the Times column, January, 1982-

Father: George Spencer, Sr., born November 16, 1909, died November 23, 1984, Jamaica, NY. He had been an editor of radio sports wire, for Associated Press.

George Vecsey, a 1960 graduate of Hofstra College, has been a sports columnist at the New York Times since 1982 and has written over a dozen books, including five best-sellers.

His most recent book is "Baseball: A History of America's Favorite Game," published by Modern Library in 2006 as the first sports book in a history series whose authors include Karen Armstrong, Hans Kung, Ian Buruma and Alan Brinkley.

Among his books are: "Coal Miner's Daughter," with Loretta Lynn, which was a New York Times best-seller for eight weeks and was later made into an Academy-Award winning movie.

Vecsey is also proud of "One Sunset a Week," the story of a radical coal-mining family during the Nixon years, and "Five O'Clock Comes Early," written with Bob Welch, a baseball pitcher and recovering alcoholic.

George Spencer Vecsey was born on July 4, 1939, to two journalists. He attended Jamaica High and enrolled at Hofstra in 1956. He worked as a student publicist in the Hofstra athletic department, covering memorable coaches Butch Van Breda Kolff and Howdy Myers. He also began working at Newsday, covering several Yankee games at the age of 20, days before his graduation with a BA in English.

In 1968, Vecsey was hired by the Times, first covering sports, but in 1970 he was recruited to become a national correspondent for the Times, based in Louisville, Kentucky. Later he was a Metro reporter from 1973-76. For the next four years, he covered religion, including Pope John Paul II's first trips to Mexico and the U.S. He also interviewed the Dalai Lama twice.

In 1980, Vecsey returned to sports as a feature writer, and was named to write the Sports of the Times column upon the death of Red Smith in 1982.

Leaning toward international sports, Vecsey has covered seven consecutive World Cups of soccer as well as all the Summer Olympic Games beginning with Los Angeles in 1984, heading toward Beijing in 2008.

Vecsey lives in Port Washington, Long Island, and is married to his co-editor of the Hofstra yearbook, Marianne Graham, an artist and teacher who has made a dozen trips to India as a volunteer with a child-care agency.

They have three children and five grandchildren. Laura Vecsey was a sports columnist in Seattle and Baltimore and is now a poet in Seattle. Corinna Wilson, an attorney, is deputy director of the Pennsylvania Newspaper Association. David Vecsey joined the New York Times in September of 2007 as a copy editor on the Metro staff.

George Vecsey was awarded an honorary doctorate from Hofstra University in 1990 and in 2001 he was voted into the Hall of Fame of the National Association of Sportswriters and Sportcasters.
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After three years of covering religion for The Times, including two papal conclaves, George Vecsey returned to where he began his journalism career -- writing about sports. In January 1982, following the death of the sports columnist Red Smith, he was named a columnist, joining Dave Anderson in writing "Sports of The Times." Mr. Vecsey had been a sports reporter for Newsday, on Long Island from 1960 to 1968, when he joined The Times.

After two years of writing on a variety of sports, he became a national correspondent opening a Times bureau in Louisville, Ky. -- covering everything from coal mining to country music to the Kentucky Derby. That assignment lasted until 1973. He returned to New York to become Long Island correspondent, covering that area until May 1977, when he started to write about religion. On the religion beat he covered papal trips to Mexico and the U.S. In 1978 he covered the conclaves in Rome that elected John Paul I and John Paul II.

Mr. Vecsey has written or edited many books -- some on sports. A few examples of his work are: "Joy in Mudville" in 1970, a history of the New York Mets; "One Sunset a Week," the story of a radical coal-mining family in Appalachia, that received good reviews and a few honors, 1974; "Loretta Lynn, Coal Miner`s Daughter" in 1976, a bestseller that was made into a film in 1980 starring Cissy Spacek and, in 1985, "Martina," the autobiography of Martina Navratilova, also a best seller. In 1986, he wrote "A Year in the Sun," how and why he wrote columns in one year. He also wrote a book on the pioneers of aviation and collaborated on another with Bob Welch, the Cy Young Award-winner who is a recovering alcoholic. In 1990, he collaborated with Barbara Mandrell on her autobiography, "Get to the Heart," a New York Times best seller for 19 weeks.

In 1990, he was awarded an honorary doctorate from Hofstra University. In 1991, he was voted the New York State Sportswriter of the Year, for the sixth straight year, by the National Association of Sportswriters and Sportcasters.
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Sportswriter for over 40 years. Reported World Cups, Olympics, baseball and soccer. Also covered religion – twice interviewed the Dalai Lama. A 12-time NSSA New York Sportswriter of the Year. Author of many books, 5 being best sellers:

Martina, Sweet Dreams, and Get to the Heart. His Coal Miner’s Daughter won an Academy Award. Inducted April 30, 2001.
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George Vecsey (Sportswriter. Born, Jamaica, NY, July 4, 1939.) Starting as a part-timer handling high school sports at Newsday in 1956, George Spencer Vecsey progressed to a columnist for The New York Times. Shortly before graduating from Hofstra (where he majored in English), Vecsey became a full-time sportswriter at Newsday in February 1960. He rapidly progressed to college sports and by 1962 covered the fledgling Mets. In 1968, Vecsey moved to The Times, handling mainly college basketball and major league baseball. Over the next 14 years, he wrote about many subjects for The Times besides sports, but, in 1982, joined the roster of regular “Sports of The Times” columnists. Vecsey’s father, George, sports editor of the old Long Island Press in the 1930s, was dismissed for trying to organize editorial employees for the then-new Newspaper Guild, and subsequently worked at the Daily News and The Associated Press. Vecsey’s brother, Peter, is the noted N.B.A. columnist for the New York Post. Vecsey was awarded an honorary doctorate in Humane Letters by Hofstra in 1990. (The Bill Shannon Biographical Dictionary of New York Sports is an open database of sports biographies maintained by Jordan Sprechman and Marty Appel.)

Authored:
Baseball: A History of America's Favourite Game, 2006

[Bill Burgess]

Thomas Andrew Scott Fullwood

Born: February 22, 1854, Greensburg, PA
Died: May 8, 1893, Pittsburgh, PA, age 39,---d. at home. Had been suffering for the past few months from an abscess in the head, which finally resulted in his death.

Pittsburgh sports writer;
Greensburg, PA, (June 9, 1860 census)
Philadelphia, PA, 15-year old, (March 18, 1870 census)
Pittsburgh, PA, reporter, (June 15, 1880 census)(listed F. S. Fullwood)
Lived Philadelphia, 1867 - 1873
Returned to Pittsburgh, 1873
Pittsburgh Leader, sports editor, 1875 - 1893

Father: John, born 1818?; Mother: Maria, born 1823?;

Sporting Life obituary, May 13, 1893, pp. 2.


---------------------Appeared in 1889 book-----------------Trenton Times, May 08, 1893, pp. 7. (Trenton, NJ)

---------------------------------------------------------Rome Semi-Weekly Citizen, May 10, 1893, pp. 3. (Oneida Co., NY)

[Bill Burgess]

John Ballard Old

Born: April 1, 1901, Kansas
Died: April 25, 1979, Los Angeles, CA, age 78,---d. of a heart condition at Centinela Hospital Medical Center (Inglewood, CA)

Los Angeles sports writer;
Parsons Ward 1, KS, 9-year old, (April 16, 1910 census)
Parsons Ward 1, KS, 18-year old, (January 19, 1920 census)
Tulsa, OK, Assistant to President, Morris Plan Bank, (April 18, 1930 census)
Los Angeles, CA, sports writer, newspaper, (April 15, 1940 census)
Los Angeles Herald-Examiner, sports writer
football and basketball official

Father: Ira Wherry, born Missouri, 1874?; Mother: Jessie B. Wherry, born Indiana, 1870?; Wife: Helen M., born Indiana, 1901?; Son: Robert O., born Oklahoma, 1925?; Daughter: Nancy B., born Oklahoma, 1930?;

Elected chairman of the Los Angeles chapter of the Baseball Writers Association, November 13, 1958.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Los Angeles Times' obituary, April 25, 1979, pp. E4.

[Bill Burgess]

Charles Fie Mathison

Born: July 27, 1856, Detroit, MI
Died: June 22, 1933, NYC, age 77---d. At home in Brooklyn, NY.

Detroit / New York sports editor;
Detroit, MI, 13-year old, (July 18, 1870 census)
Detroit, MI, works in printing office, (June 4, 1880 census)
Brooklyn, NY, newsman, dealer, (April 18, 1910 census)
Brooklyn, NY, newspaper, general, (April 5, 1930 census)
Detroit Free Press, sports editor, 1884 -
New York Press, (1914)

Father: James, born New York, 1832?; Mother: Louisa, born Michigan, 1837?; Wife: Josephine, born Michigan, 1860?;

Had been sports writer for New York newspapers, and then turned to boxing referee. Had refereed the Jack Sharkey/Max Schmeling fight. He voted for Schmeling and was much criticized for it. He died a year later. He had been in ill health since the death of his wife a year before. Had been best known for his work with the Evening Mail. Wife: Josephine.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------New York Times' obituary,--------Washington Post obituary,
-------------------Appeared in 1889 book-------------------------------------June 23, 1933, pp. 17.------------- June 23, 1933, pp. 15.

[Bill Burgess]

Walter O. Eschwege

Born: January 18, 1865, Brooklyn, NY
Died: June 3, 1903, Brooklyn, NY, age 38

Brooklyn sports writer;
Brooklyn, NY, 4-year old, (July 19, 1870 census)(listed Eschweg)
Brooklyn, NY, 16-year old, (June 17, 1880 census)
Sporting Times, 1886 (covered Brooklyn athletic/baseball)
New York Press, spring, 1888 (covered Brooklyn baseball)
New York World, Brooklyn baseball correspondent)
5'6, brown eyes.

Father: James, born Hamberg, Germany, 1830? (lawyer); Mother: Agustus, born Hamberg, Germany, 1835?;

---------------------Appeared in 1889 book-------------------------New York Times' obituary, June 4, 1903, pp. 9.

[Bill Burgess]

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[Bill Burgess]

-------------------------------Some Prominent, Modern Sports Writers.

Joseph Lawrence Reichler---AKA Joe Reichler

Born: January 1, 1916, New York City, NY
Died: December 12, 1989, Roslyn Heights, NY, age 73,---d. at home of cancer.

New York sports writer;
Brooklyn, NY, salesman, meat, (April 4, 1940 census)
Elias Sports Bureau, 1942 - 1943
Associated Press, 1943 - 1966
Commissioner's Office PR Director, February, 1966 - 1974
Special assisant to Commissioner, 1974 - 1985
Vice-President of Major League Productions. Spink Award, 1980.

Wife: Ricky, born New York, 1914?; Son: Paul;
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Joe Reichler and Milton Richman were the recipients of the 1980 J.G. Taylor Spink Award.

Joe Reichler was a long-time fact-ferreting and trade-sniffing AP baseball writer and historian. He authored over a dozen books, including The History Of Baseball: Its Great Players, Teams And Managers, The Great All-Time Baseball Record Book, Baseball's Great Moments, and the Ronald Encyclopedia of Baseball.

Reichler, a knowledgeable and opinionated baseball fan with a vast background in the game, was the confidant of countless players, managers, coaches, and officials. He left his job as the number one baseball writer in the country to become the Public Relations Director for Baseball Commissioner William Eckert from 1966-69. He later was a special assistant to Commissioner Bowie Kuhn and was the Vice President and General Manager of Baseball's Film Division.

Sporting News' obituary, January 2, 1989, pp. 65.----------------------------------------------1990 Baseball Guide death notice.




------with Stan Musial, May 31, 1954---With Jackie Robinson, October 9, 1956, at World Series.------With Ted Williams, March 10, 1942.

[Bill Burgess]

Allison Danzig

Born: February 27, 1898, Waco, TX
Died: January 27, 1987, Ramsey, NJ, age 88

Brooklyn / New York sports writer;
Waco, TX, 2-year old, (June 5, 1900 census)(listed Abe Danzig)
Brooklyn, NY, 12-year old, (April 18, 1910 census)(listed as Abraham Danzig)
Queens, NY, writer, newspaper, (April 2, 1930 census)
Roslyn Estates, NY, reporter, N. Y. Times, (April 10, 1940 census)
Graduated Cornell University (Ithaca, NY), 1916 - 1921; interrupted by WW1, 1918-19
Brooklyn Daily Eagle, sports writer, 1921 - 1923
New York Times, 1923 - 1968
Authored 8 sports history books. Has received honors from many sports: baseball, football, tennis, rowing, & colleges/Universities.

Father: Morris, born Russia, August, 1895; Mother: Ethel (Estell) Harvish, born Russia, May, 1871; Wife: Dorothy Charlette Chapman, born Illinois, 1900?, Allison married Dorothy, 1923; Daughter: Dorothy S., born New York, 1925?; Daughter: Marion C., born New York, 1930?; Son: Allison C., born New York, 1933?;

Such self-inflicted punishment provided a good education for Danzig's career choice: journalism. He spent two years at the Brooklyn Eagle, before coming to 43rd Street as a tennis writer for the New York Times. Since at the time sports in America ran according to the seasons, Danzig chopped up his schedule into four distinct realms. In the summer he covered tennis (and when in England golf); in the fall college football; in the winter squash and more obscure racquet sports like squash tennis, racquets and court tennis; in the spring rowing. Dotting this routine were special events. Danzig wrote the lead story for the Times on every Olympic Game from 1932 to 1960 and covered the Army-Navy football game every November for thirty-five years. He wrote or edited six other books besides The Racquet Game, including his monumental History of American Football (1956). He was most known as a tennis writer—he coined the phrase the Grand Slam in 1933—and was the first journalist inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in Newport, Rhode Island.

The byline of Allison Danzig might have been feared—"Danzig's opinion on the quality of a match had the imprimatur of a theatre critic" wrote Gene Scott— but the man himself was a true gentleman. He brought his wife Dorothy breakfast in bed every day until he died at age eighty-eight in 1987. He neatly dressed in a suit and tie. In summer he could be seen in a seersucker suit, taking notes on an envelope or banging away at his beige Smith-Corona (which is now displayed in Newport). Because of his penchant for thoroughness and stylish prose, he was known as "the last man our of the press box" His friends called him Al or Danny.

Or sometimes things less printable. In 1935, the story goes, Danzig covered the Ohio State-Notre Dame football game and afterwards went out for a drink with fellow scribes Grantland Rice and Henry McLemore. Rice and McLemore got thoroughly sloshed in their cups and late that night Danzig kindly helped them onto the train back to New York. They woke up the following morning as the train pulled into Grand Central Station and thanked Danzig profusely for taking care of them. But then McLemore grimaced and said, "Jeez, Granny, didn't we drive to Columbus?"

Squash was a welcomed respite in between the rigors of the football and tennis seasons. His first book, The Racquet Game, was a brilliantly researched and written history of court tennis, racquets, squash tennis and squash in the U.S., and still, seventy years later, the only published history of U.S. squash we've got. Bert Rawlins, the former national squash champion, wrote the foreword; it was published by Macmillan. "Mr. Danzig's knowledge of his subjects is only equaled by his modesty in writing what should be a classic in America and Canada," wrote the Times Literary Supplement in London in May 1930.

"Al was a lovely man, a good friend of mine," says Hunter Lott, who started playing squash tournaments in the mid-1930s. "He was a vintage guy. Everyone loved to chat with him in the gallery or at the luncheons. He had a reputation as a famous reporter, and New Yorkers love famous reporters."

To close, here is one example of Danzig's squash writing, a lead article in the Times under his byline, on the quarterfinals of the Harry Cowles tournament, 24 January 1954:

"[Henri] Salaun, recent winner of the first open championship, in which he defeated Hashim Khan, Pakistan's hitherto invincible player, in the final, had the staying power and control to overcome [Ernie] Howard's killing speed. It seemed that the lean young Canadian's blistering attack down the sidewalls would carry all before it, as it did in the amateur championships a year ago. But after leading two games to one, Howard lost his control in the fourth and found the telltale repeatedly as Salaun kept him under relentless pressure with the fury of his own hitting. In the fifth and final game the Canadian regained his accuracy. The two played on even terms to 6—all and then Howard went ahead at 9—6. It looked like Howard's match as he hammered the ball with fine length from both forehand and backhand and mixed in an occasional corner shot. But the Boston youth now showed his marvelous powers of endurance in the prolonged rallies. Howard's control broke under the strain. Salaun evened the count at 9—all, went ahead at 14—10 and, after yielding the next point, scored on a beautiful winner down the backhand wall to end the match."
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Allison Danzig (Sportswriter. Born, Waco, Tex., Feb. 27, 1898; died, Ridgewood, N.J., Jan. 27, 1987.) After graduating from Cornell, where he played football under Gil Dobie despite his diminutive size, Allison Danzig began his newspaper career with the Brooklyn Eagle in 1921. Danzig moved to The New York Times in 1923 and was, by 1930, a regular on the college football beat. He also developed other, more surprising, specialties, including golf and, especially, tennis. Danzig was to become the most influential writer in America on racquet sports. At a dinner in his honor, retiring Times sports editor Jim Roach (q.v.) accused Danzig of “inventing” world court tennis champion Pierre Etchebaster, since no other U.S. writer ever wrote about him. (Etchebaster was, of course, quite real.) Danzig never got too far from his affinity for college football. His 1956 book, The History of American Football, was considered the major work on the sport for decades. After 45 years at The Times, Danzig retired in 1968 at the start of the Open era in tennis. (The Bill Shannon Biographical Dictionary of New York Sports is an open database of sports biographies maintained by Jordan Sprechman and Marty Appel.)

November, 1948, attending Army/Navy football game.

Anne Morrisy, 21, sports editor of The Cornell Daily Sun and the first woman to hold
the job in the newspaper's 75 year history, takes up her binoculars during the Cornell-Yale
game October 16th, as she sits in the Yale press box next to the New York Time's Allison Danzig.
Miss Morrisy is the first woman sports editor ever to sit in the Yale Bowl press box.
The only damper on Miss Morrisy's delight at shattering the long standing Yale male
tradition was seeing her alma mater tradition 47-21 by Yale.

-------------------------------------------------------Biographical Dictionary of American Sports: Outdoors: Communications and Media, 1988.---Sporting News' obituary, February 16, 1987, pp. 45.

[Bill Burgess]

Milton Saul Richman

Born: January 29, 1922, Bronx, NY
Died: June 9, 1986, New York City, NY, age 64,---d. at his Manhattan apartment of a heart attack.

New York sports writer;
Bronx, NY, 8-year old, (April 16, 1930 census)
Minor league Baseball player, 1939 - 1941
WWII
United Press (United Press International, 1944 - 1986, sports columnist, 1946 - 1986, sports editor, 1972 - 1985, Senior editor, 1985 - 1986.
Committe on baeball bets, Baseball's Hall of Fame, Hall of Fame as writer, 1981. Handled all sports.

Father: Samuel Abraham Richman, born August 27, 1892, Kanentz, Russia, died January 15, 1965, NYC, immigrated to US 1900; Mother: Clara G., born in Russia around 1898. She immigrated to US 1910. Clara married Samuel around 1919. Mother Clara died in New York April 3, 1975.

Milt tried to be a player, and upon not making the grade, turned to the next best thing. Writing it. Took it up on his release from the Army in 1944. His sports column was entitled, 'Today's Sports Parade'. His reputation for integrity led to his receiving many scoops.
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Milton Richman and Joe Reichler were the recipients of the 1980 J.G. Taylor Spink Award.

A brief effort as a minor league infielder provided Milton Richman common ground for establishing a unique rapport with ballplayers. His longtime tenure with UPI was marked by his top reputation as a consistently hard working story breaker and as a scrupulously honest and fair newspaperman.

Richman was a man of great depth, warmth and integrity, and was always willing to share with others. Sartorially correct, soft-spoken and articulate, Richman's byline was a symbol of thorough and accurate reporting for many decades.

wikipedia page---From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Milton Richman (January 29, 1922 – June 9, 1986) was an American sports columnist and sports editor for United Press International who was inducted into the Writer's Wing of the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum.

During World War II, Richman played in the minor league organization of the St. Louis Browns.

He spent 42 years with United Press International, one of only two jobs he had in his working career. He became a columnist in 1964, and continued to write his sports column after UPI named him as its sports editor from 1972 to 1985.

He was honored by the Press Club of Atlantic City with the National Headliner Award in 1957. He received nominations for the Pulitzer Prize in both 1957 and 1981. Richman was inducted into the Writer's Wing of the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in 1981.

He was survived by his brother, Arthur Richman, who also worked as a sportswriter, and later in the front offices of both the New York Mets and New York Yankees.

References
1. "MILTON RICHMAN", The New York Times, June 10, 1986. Accessed March 26, 2009.
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A baseball specialist, Mr. Richman had been a columnist since 1964 and served as U.P.I.'s sports editor from 1972 to 1985 while still writing a column.

He was voted into the Writers' Wing of baseball's Hall of Fame in 1981. He won the National Headliners' Award in 1957 and was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize in 1957 and 1981. Mr. Richman spent 42 years at U.P.I. and had only one other job. He was a minor league player in the St. Louis Browns' organization for a brief period during World War II. He is survived by his brother, Arthur, transportation director for the New York Mets. Richman died in his Manhattan apartment, only hours after having been honored as sports journalist of 1986 by B'nai B'rith.
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Milton Richman turned a childhood love of baseball into a lifetime of award-winning sports reporting, editing and commentary for United Press International.

In 1944, Milton joined United Press as a copy boy and quickly gravitated to the sports department, and was named UPI´s sports columnist in 1964. He became the wire service´s sports editor in 1972 and a senior editor in 1985. In the latter capacity he continued to write the popular “Today´s Sports Parade” column. Richman´s last column appeared in newspapers the day prior to his death in 1986

Richman received many honors during his 42 year career, including his 1981 induction into the writers´ wing at the baseball hall of fame

Roland Hemond, former White Sox General Manager said of Richman, “He was an honorable guy. He would call you when he thought you were under distress or disappointment. He would offer you words of encouragement in trying times. I had high regard for his integrity and his love of the game and people. He really had the human side of the game at heart.”
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Milton Richman (Sportswriter. Born, The Bronx, Jan. 29, 1922; died, New York, June 9, 1986.) Giving up his hope for a major league baseball career, Milton Richman joined United Press in New York as a sportswriter in December 1944. Richman covered many sports but concentrated mainly on baseball from 1946 on. In the days of three wire services (A.P., U.P., I.N.S.), his contacts in baseball helped make U.P. a formidable competitor. (I.N.S. was absorbed by U.P. in 1958 to produce U.P.I.) Even after he succeeded Oscar Fraley (q.v.) as writer of U.P.I.’s signature “Sports Parade” column in 1965, Richman remained largely focused on baseball. He also never lost his competitive desire and would challenge men half his age to sprints in the halls of The News building on East 42nd Street in Manhattan, where U.P.I. was then headquartered. Those who accepted were invariably defeated. In 1972, Richman was elevated to sports editor but remained U.P.I.’s principal columnist, a role he was to fill until his death. He became senior editor in 1985. His younger brother, Arthur (q.v.) was a baseball writer at the Daily Mirror and later an executive with the Mets and Yankees. (The Bill Shannon Biographical Dictionary of New York Sports is an open database of sports biographies maintained by Jordan Sprechman and Marty Appel.)

1997 Baseball Guide death notice.--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------1984.

Sporting News' obituary, June 23, 1986, pp. 49.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------1974.

[Bill Burgess]

Raymond W. Kelly---AKA Ray Kelly

Born: December 6, 1913, Philadelphia, PA
Died: November 22, 1988, Philadelphia, PA, age 74,--d. heart attack at home, died at Nazareth Hospital, Philadelphia, PA. Cremated.

Philadelphia sports writer;
Philadelphia, PA, 6-year old, (January 7, 1920 census)
Philadelphia, PA, 16-year old, stenciler, shipping plant, (April 5, 1930 census)
Philadelphia, PA, clerk, steam ship, Co., (April 2, 1940 census)
Philadelphia Evening Bulletin, copy boy/minor sports, 1929 - 1941
World War II
Philadelphia Evening Bulletin, beat writer for the PHil. A's, 1946 - 1954, then for the Philles, 1954 - 1979
Philadelphia local papers, 1979 - 1988

Father: William T., born Pennsylvania 1875?; Mother: Mary S., born Pennsylvania, 1879?.

Ray Kelly and Bob Hunter were the recipients of the 1988 J.G. Taylor Spink Award.

Ray Kelly was a newspaperman for fifty years. He began as a copyboy in 1929 at the age of 15 with the Philadelphia Evening Bulletin—having left school as a seventh grader during the depression. An obvious aptitude for the profession eventually led to his being assigned to cover minor sports but it was not until his return from the U.S. Army following World War II that he became a baseball beat writer—first for the Athletics until their departure from Philadelphia and then for the Phillies—until his retirement in 1979. He continued to work for various local papers until his death on November 22, 1988.

Kelly was an outstanding soccer player during the 1930s and one of his assignments for the Bulletin was to cover a semi-pro championship soccer match in which (unknown to the newspaper) he was also a participant. He ended up scoring the winning goal, but to protect his job with the paper, he attributed the score to a teammate in his game story the next day.

Kelly was past-president of both the Philadelphia and national chapters of the Baseball Writers' Association of America.

Sporting News' obituary, December 12, 1988, pp. 58.


1962, All-Star Game: Morris Siegel, Ray Kelly, Bob Addie.-------------------------------------------------------------------June, 1966: Ray Kelly, Jr. and his father, Ray Kelly, Sr.

[Bill Burgess]

Wilfred Charles Heinz---AKA Bill Heinz

Born: January 11, 1915, Mt. Vernon, NY
Died: February 27, 2008, Bennington, VT, age 93

New York sports writer;
Mt. Vernon, NY, 15-year old, (April 3, 1930 census)
Mt. Vernon, NY, reporter, newspaper, (April 4, 1940 census)
Graduated Middlebury College (Middlebury, VT), 1937
New York Sun, sports writer, 1938? - January 4, 1950

Father: Frederick S. S., born New York, 1883?; Mother: Elizabeth, born New York, 1892?;

New York Sun (late 30's), worked as city desk reporter before becoming a war correspondent, then wrote a column, “The Sport Scene.” When The Sun went out of business in 1950, Mr. Heinz concentrated on magazine work.

Boston Globe Obituary:
Former sports writer Bill Heinz dies at 93, by Wilson Ring, Associated Press Writer / February 27, 2008

MONTPELIER, Vt.—W.C. "Bill" Heinz, who witnessed the Normandy invasion on D-Day, covered some of the greatest sports moments of his time and helped write the book "MASH," died Wednesday. He was 93.

more stories like this Heinz, a graduate of Middlebury College, is credited with helping create a "you-are-there" style of reporting that influenced a generation of journalists.

"It was one of the thrills of my life that I got to know him in his later years," said New York Daily News sports columnist Mike Lupica. "To my mind, he was the greatest living World War II newspaper correspondent and the greatest living sports writer. He was an amazing figure."

Longtime New York columnist Jimmy Breslin said Heinz's piece about a New York boxer called "The Brownsville Bum," originally published in 1951, was "probably the best piece I read in 50 years."

Born Wilfred Charles Heinz on Jan. 11, 1915 in Mount Vernon, N.Y., he attended Middlebury College and after graduation in 1937 went to work as a copy boy at the New York Sun.

He got his break after writing a feature story about women who rode the subway into Manhattan every night to clean the offices of New York's rich and powerful.

"I so much wanted to be a newspaper man," he said during a 2002 interview with the Associated Press.

During the war, he was chosen by the Sun to be a war correspondent and covered the invasion of Normandy from a battleship. He stayed with the troops until the end of the war.

After the war, he was given a column at the Sun called "The Sports Scene."

"He was a brilliant, incisive war correspondent," said Joe Goldstein, a veteran New York publicist.

In 1948, Heinz was at Yankee Stadium for a reunion of the 1923 New York Yankees that turned out to be Babe Ruth's farewell, two months before dying of throat cancer.

"The Babe started to undress," he wrote. "His friends helped him. They hung up his clothes and helped him into the parts of his uniform. When he had them on he sat down again to put on his spiked shoes, and when he did this the photographers who had followed him moved in. They took pictures of him in uniform putting on his shoes, for this would be the last time."

Of Heinz' 1958 boxing novel, "The Professional," Ernest Hemingway once wrote: "The only good novel about a fighter I've ever read, and an excellent first novel in its own right."

Heinz also helped legendary Green Bay Packers coach Vince Lombardi write the book "Run to Daylight," which was later made into a movie, and wrote about boxing, horse racing and other sports after leaving daily journalism in 1950 when the Sun folded.

In the mid-1960s, Heinz worked with Maine physician H. Richard Hornberger and helped prepare for publication the book MASH, which was published under the pseudonym Richard Hooker. The book spawned the hit 1971 movie and television series.

In his later years, sports reporters visited Heinz at his Bennington home to hear his recollections. He was featured in Sports Illustrated, Esquire, Vanity Fair, on ESPN, in newspapers and in other magazines.

In 2001, Heinz was inducted into the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Hall of Fame, and in 2004 to the International Boxing Hall of Fame.

In the Associated Press interview, Heinz said writing about athletes brought him closer to the heroes he yearned to emulate.

"If I could be around them, some of the glory might rub off," he said.

"Games mean so damn much," Heinz said. "We need these releases. It's not sacrilegious after 9/11 for a release and maybe abate some of the tension."

He had been in declining health for several years and died at the assisted living facility where he'd lived since 2002, said his daughter, Gayl Heinz, of Amesbury, Mass.

Heinz's wife, Elizabeth Bartlett Bailey, died in 2002. His death came 44 years to the day after the death of a daughter, Barbara Bailey Heinz, said Gayl Heinz. He is survived by Gayl Bailey Heinz, her husband, Gerald Pantalone, and one grandchild.

No services are planned, although a memorial service could be held at some future date, Gayl Heinz said.
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W.C. Heinz (Sportswriter. Born, Mount Vernon, N.Y., Jan. 11, 1915.) Justly celebrated as one of the most perceptive writers in the field, Wilfred Charles Heinz spent over a dozen years on the staff of the original New York Sun. Following the demise of The Sun on Jan. 4, 1950, Heinz focused on his freelance work and authored several books, including The Professional (1958), The Surgeon (1963), Emergency (1974), and Once They Heard the Cheers (1979). He also continued magazine work, which was published in a dozen national magazines, including Collier’s, Sport, LOOK, Esquire, and the Saturday Evening Post. His book American Mirror (1982) is a collection of his newspaper and magazine writing. His best known sports book is doubtless Run to Daylight with Vince Lombardi, then head coach of the Green Bay Packers. Heinz joined The Sun following his graduation from Middlebury (Vt.) College in 1937 as a messenger. He rose to reporter, then feature writer and, in 1943, a war correspondent. Heinz covered the Normandy landings and the subsequent action in Europe. At war’s end, in 1945, he asked to be assigned to the sports staff. Heinz covered several sports but specialized in boxing with emphasis on its human drama. He also co-wrote, with H. Richard Hornberger, the book M.A.S.H. under the joint pseudonym Richard Hooker and edited The Fireside Book of Boxing (1961). (The Bill Shannon Biographical Dictionary of New York Sports is an open database of sports biographies maintained by Jordan Sprechman and Marty Appel.)