Red Smith on Baseball: The Game's Greatest Writer on the Game's Greatest Years

by Red Smith

"August Adolphus Busch Jr., the new president of the Cardinals, is a chubby gentleman called Gussie, about the size of a St. Louis brewer. He has horn-rimmed glasses, a zillion dollars and an air of pleased bewilderment. He rides to the hounds and travels by bus." It's not hard to pluck a memorable passage from the sportswriting of Red Smith. In more than fifty years as a newspaperman, notably with the New York Herald Tribune and the New York Times , he earned a reputation as the best writer ever to confront the game of baseball―astute, clever, witty, and stylish. In this bountiful selection of his most memorable columns―175 of them, from 1941 to 1981―baseball fans can recapture some of baseball's greatest moments and most unforgettable characters. Jackie Robinson's debut is here, and so is Hank Greenberg hitting home runs; Enos Slaughter scoring the winning run in the seventh game of the 1946 World Series; Stan Musial, Ted Williams, Joe DiMaggio, Lou Boudreau; the sly antics of Charles Dillon Stengel; Durocher's lip; Mickey Mantle and Yogi Berra, and scores of others. It's a baseball feast. Readers who are not baseball fans will have to be satisfied with just wonderful writing. With 14 black-and-white photographs.

Genres: Baseball, Sports, Nonfiction, Journalism

376 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2000

About the author

Walter Wellesley "Red" Smith (September 25, 1905 – January 15, 1982) was an American sportswriter. Smith’s journalistic career spans over five decades and his work influenced an entire generation of writers. Smith became the second sports columnist ever to win the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished commentary in 1976. Writing in 1989, sportswriter David Halberstam called Smith "the greatest sportswriter of the two eras."

Reviews

[Steve · Rating 4 out of 5]

I can see the fascination in the way Mr. Smith performed his duties and the book does provide an interesting perspective to the game from the 1940s to the 1980s. His style seemed unique at times, somewhat in the mode of a storyteller looking for the different angle in a subject the beat reporters would overlook. This carried through most of the columns I read - almost to the point of becoming repetitive.

I tend to believe his best materials were done in the eras of the 40s, 50s and early 60s, but nearly always focused on baseball in New York; not surprising since that was his primary audience. Lots of columns on the Giants, Yankees and Dodgers during the days when the subways connected the Polo Grounds, Yankee Stadium and Ebbets Field.

Yes, you'd see the columns on the activities when Philadelphia and Boston both fielded two franchises, the brotherly comparisons of brothers Joe and Dom DiMaggio, and some national-level columns as baseball evolved from predominantly northeastern business through a couple expansions in Smith's journalistic lifetime.

I found the perspective interesting and at times amusing. You can appreciate Smith's love of the game, the insider's perspective of the business during the post WWII era, and the rise of stars who would eventually fill the halls of Cooperstown, NY. But the selected collection did focus much on the three franchises of New York. For the fan of the Yankees, Dodgers and Giants, it was a great view into the past. You can appreciate the style of Smith as an innovator of the sports column who set the example for many sports columnists to follow. One would wonder what Mr. Smith would think of the baseball business 40 years later. One can only guess if his columns would contain the same focus.

[Henry Sturcke · Rating 4 out of 5]

Roger Angell is the greatest writer ever on baseball, but he wrote his essays for the demanding standards and generous deadlines of the New Yorker. Writing for a newspaper is another challenge, and I don't know of another writer who consistently excelled in that format more than Red Smith. But he loses a star for the repetitive variations on the theme of the end of season pile-up on the pitcher's mound at the end of the last game of the World Series, as well as for worshiping at the altars of Dimaggio and Stengel, although perhaps perpetuating those cults was the price of access in those days. Nearly docked the book another star because of the sloppy copy-editing, as well as for the painful irony of the dust-jacket photo. Dodger Stadium, Los Angeles? Did the book designer read Smith's excoriating lacerations of O'Malley in the run-up to absconding from Brooklyn? Apparently not. Aside from these gaffes, recommended for anyone who loves good writing and the ineffable beauty of baseball.

[Mark · Rating 5 out of 5]

Required reading for a baseball fan. Red Smith's voice and style is rich and as alluring as any stanza of poetry or piece of music.

Also, though, it's a peek at notable moments in history, like, the breaking of the color line by Jackie Robinson, Bobby Thomson's "Shot Heard Around The World," Ed "Whitey" Ford's notable coming out party in the World Series, the scouting of Henry Aaron, Mickey Mantle's rookie year and more.

Smith, for being an old timer, proves to be a progressive fellow, although he supported integration in the game more than he did the designated hitter.

[Jon Aingeru · Rating 4 out of 5]

Awesome writing. It's like travelling through 40 years of baseball

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

Best baseball writer I've ever read. Classic lines that make you laugh out loud.

[Billy Reed · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had the privilege of knowing Red. He's still the standard for graceful, intelligent sports writing.

[Patrick · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was OK. If you're a Brooklyn Dodgers or Yankees fan, you'd probably think it was great. His writing was a little hard to follow at times.