No Cheering In the Press Box

This is an excellent oral history of sports and sports writing. In the 1970's Chicago sportswriter Jerome Holtzman placed his tape recorder in front of 18 old-time writers from the ¨Golden Age of Sports.¨ Nearly all were elderly, yet they spoke with passion and eloquence, providing vivid memories of baseball, boxing, football, newspapers, etc. Readers hear from Shriley Povich (75 years at the Washington Post, 1923-1998), Al Horwits, Paul Gallico (later a novelist), Ford Frick (later baseball commissioner), and a surprisingly apologetic Red Smith. Dan Drebinger, Fred Leib, and Marshall Hunt describe the Murderer's Row Yankees, and stars like Babe Ruth and Lou Gherig. Dan Daniels describes covering the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1909. We learn of the machinations of the Philadelphia Athletics, Connie Mack, train travel, etc. Even long-gone writers like Grantland Rice and Damon Runyon are reincarnated by the fond memories of their peers. The book should be of special interest to baseball fans (then the pre-eminent sport) and aspiring jounrnalists. It's a vivid, moving look at sports and sportswriting from a bygone era.

In the early 1970s, Jerome Holtzman interviewed 44 fellow sportswriters from the previous generation. He asked each to talk about his experiences covering sports. 18 of those reminiscences were published as NCITPB in 1973. Holtzman published a new edition, with 6 additional interviews, in 1995. The interviews were oral (ala Lawrence Ritter's The Glory of Their Times); reading them is akin to sitting in on the conversations. Like Ritter's book, we hope the original tapes become an audio version. Dan Daniel remembers covering the Dodgers in 1909. Marshall Hunt shares some Babe Ruth anecdotes. Al Laney speaks about Bernard Darwin, his primary influence as a writer. Shirley Povich relates how he was named sports editor of The Washington Post at 21; he still worked there at age 90. Some of these writers concentrated on sports for their entire careers (Fred Lieb, Red Smith); others branched out. John Kieran studied and wrote about the natural world. Paul Gallico left sports to write fiction, and made Hemingway jealous. Povich and Jimmy Cannon served as war correspondents during WWII. Holtzman does not intrude. He elicits observations and stories that are informative, humorous, and fascinating. In our instant access Internet age, Holtzman reminds us of the not-so-distant past when most news was delivered via newspapers or radio. His book is a wonderful look back at a bygone era with some of its primary recorders. This title is out of print but well worth finding, especially for fans of sports journalism.