The Red Smith Reader

Red Smith (1905-1982) began as a sports writer in 1927, became a sports columnist in 1939, and then kept writing columns until he passed away. He once admitted, "The columns don't write themselves." So Smith worked hard and wrote thousands of very good ones for the Philadelphia Record, New York Herald Tribune, and New York Times. This book is a compilation of over 130 of his best pieces. Smith wrote with great wit and skill, seldom hitting too hard, but always making his points while basing his opinions on facts and common sense. Smith was a very humane writer, and willing to take on powerful interests and sacred sporting cows. Whether writing about semi-literate college players, arrogant owners, show-off superstars, or his beloved baseball, Red Smith had the right stuff.

Contains 131 columns (many of which were never collected in a book before) by one of the best sportswriters around. Whether he is writing about the murders at the Olympics of 1972 (berating the officials for letting the games continue as planned afterwards) or about Willie Mays who walked away "grinning" from a difficult, near disastrous game with the Oakland A's near the end of his career ("Strictly speaking, Willie never lost the game and never won it") Smith is at the top of his form in this collection.