Sportwriter's Life

by Gerald Eskenazi

Overview

A Sportswriter's Life is a revealing look at the people and events that were part of the history of sports from a perspective usually unavailable to the public. Eskenazi's inside stories of sports are not always flattering, but they are always amusing, touching, and revealing. This entertaining volume will be enjoyed by anyone with an interest in reporting, sports, or just a good story.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780826262608
Publisher:	University of Missouri Press
Publication date:	03/31/2004
Series:	Sports & American Culture , #1
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	224
File size:	1 MB
Age Range:	14 Years

Table of Contents

	Acknowledgments	ix
1.	The Written Word	1
2.	The End of Reporting as We Know It	17
3.	Tricks of the Trade	34
4.	Dealing with Icons	45
5.	The Women	56
6.	Present at the Creation	67
7.	The Electronic Village	80
8.	The Craft (Or Is it Art?) of Writing	88
9.	The Press of a Button	109
10.	Last Call for Brooklyn	131
11.	Northern Exposure	143
12.	Stories that Readers Only Knew the Half Of	151
13.	Money	169
14.	On the Road, from Po' Boys to Chateaubriand	175
15.	Do-Overs	192
16.	Deep Ghost	199

What People are Saying About This

Bill Parcells

Jerry Eskenazi is a consummate professional-an honest and honorable man in a field where those elements are too often overlooked. He has never forgotten the importance of having a sense of fairness, a sense of humor, and a genuine passion for his profession. Jerry always understood that it is the games, and the athletes who compete, that make people want to read the sports page. He has earned an elite level of trust from his readers and the sports figures he covers, because he writes what he sees. He knows what he's doing, and he prepares for each assignment in a way that displays his appreciation and respect for athletic competition and the personalities involved. (Head Coach, Dallas Cowboys )

Marv Albert

From the glory days of Joe Namath, to the Rangers' quest for a Stanley Cup, to the whacky world of boxing, Jerry Eskenazi has captured these wonderful moments. It's a great read by a premier reporter. (Voice of the New York Knicks and NBA on TNT)

Editorial Reviews

Eskenazi reflects upon his 41-year career at the newspaper and analyzes the changing nature of sports journalism. He also gives entertaining glimpses of sports luminaries like Muhammad Ali, Joe DiMaggio, Willie Mays and Joe Namath, to whom Eskenazi endeared himself when he confessed he didn't know a thing about football. — Carolyn T. Hughes

The New York Times

After a number of journalism recollections have hit it big, along comes this wistful barbershop memoir from one of the country's longest-running sportswriters. Eskenazi, a retired New York Times reporter whose name readers of the paper will associate with hockey, soccer, boxing and the New York Jets, takes readers through his 40-year career at the newspaper, beginning with his days as a college-dropout copyboy (long before the Times even had a stand-alone sports section) to his retirement in 2000. Two-parts reminiscence, one-part journalism manual, the book is filled with colorful anecdotes that he often uses to illustrate a larger point. He talks revealingly, for instance, about how an interviewing technique yielded Muhammad Ali's IQ and how he buttered up ego-driven stars like Reggie Jackson. At times, reading Eskenazi can feel like listening to a stubbornly backward-looking grandfather; he is fond of reminding you of a time before computers ("These lucky stiffs [now in the press box] have an electric outlet at their desks") and openly questions tenets of New Journalism that have long been commonplace in sports sections, with statements like "there was a certain solidity to what we in the business call the inverted pyramid." But he balances that with an insider's view and a knack for storytelling. He will also occasionally offer an argument (his riff on how today's sportswriters get hysterically caught up in the controversy of the moment only to forget it the next day is particularly dead-on), making this not only an evocation of a time gone by but a document of how reporting in this country has changed. Aided by Eskenazi's low-key sense of humor, the book feels like a day in a bar next to a garrulous and unexpectedly absorbing companion-warm, informative and likable. (Mar.) Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

Publishers Weekly

Eskenazi (Gang Green) recounts the more than 40 years he spent reporting on sports, from darts to the Super Bowl, for the New York Times. Other, perhaps better known, longtime reporters (Dick Schaap and Leonard Koppett come to mind) have weighed in on the subject of the sportswriting life in recent years, but Eskenazi's book establishes a firm place in the literature. Like Schaap and Koppett, he shares anecdotes about the figures, famous and not so famous, he has covered and laments that there is much less opportunity to rub shoulders with them than a half century ago. Eskenazi also devotes valuable time to the subject of journalism- the art of the interview, the crafting of the story, the ethical conflicts journalists often face, and the editorial rules that often constrain them (to eliminate the possibility of a catastrophic typo, the staid Times early in his career strongly urged reporters covering hockey to avoid the word puck). This is a worthwhile read for both the sports fan and the budding newspaper writer. Recommended for medium to large public libraries.-Jim Burns, Jacksonville P.L., FL Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

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