RIP Dave Anderson

The forum for general posting. Come join the madness. :)
Post Reply
Message
Author
User avatar
silverscreenselect
Posts: 23174
Joined: Mon Oct 08, 2007 11:21 pm
Contact:

RIP Dave Anderson

#1 Post by silverscreenselect » Thu Oct 04, 2018 12:05 pm

Pulitzer Prize winning sports columnist for the New York Times for over 40 years. Age 89.

Here's an autobiographical piece that sums up his career better than an obituary:

http://povichcenter.org/still-no-cheeri ... index.html
Check out our website: http://www.silverscreenvideos.com

User avatar
mellytu74
Posts: 9373
Joined: Mon Oct 08, 2007 7:02 pm
Location: Philadelphia, PA

Re: RIP Dave Anderson

#2 Post by mellytu74 » Fri Oct 05, 2018 10:13 am

The many ink-stained wretches who covered baseball were gathered at the bar the Sunday night before the MLB All-Star Game in Oakland in 1987.

I was the only woman at the bar for a long while - the guys were always interested in how their female colleagues' perspectives, so the chatter was lively. One good-for-a-distance topic was comparing notes on what ballplayers were jerks (i.e. some players were jerks to everyone, some were just jerks to women because they could be). Later on, the numbers dwindled and the conversation turned to ambitions and dreams.

For some reason, I asked Dave Anderson why there wasn't a collection of his columns. He said there was. I apologized. I did not know.

Two weeks later, a package arrives at the Fresno Bee sports department. In it was a copy of Sports of Our Times and the bio of Red Smith. Along with a lovely note from Dave Anderson.

The dedication on Sports of Our Times read, "Mary Ellen - Thanks for asking. All the best. Dave Anderson." We stayed in touch -- he was one of the first people who predicted I wouldn't go back to writing sports when I took what was going to be a one-year leave of absence -- but I saw him only once after that, a function of my leaving the business.

The book sets with my copies of A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (the 75-cent one I found when I shopped with my dad at the outdoor stall at the old Leary's Bookstore in Center City Philadelphia and the French version which I found in a Tahitian flea market on one of my Tic Tac Dough trips) and the Films of Myrna Loy and The Films of William Powell as treasured books that will go with me anywhere.

RIP, my friend.

Post Reply