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.
