RIP to one of our own, one of our best -- Craig Stanke

I go back and look around this thread a few times a year.
It reminds me how great it was to have Craig and Ron here every night.

 

I think everyone here treasures this thread, even if they hate that it had to be posted at all. The reasons justified the end, though.

It's a great thread about a great person, and now, for a great person.

Thanks for coming here, Amy, and getting to know a lot of us a little bit, and for letting us get to know you. Craig's presence here, and yours, was and is our privilege.

I'm thinking of Craig today, of course, but I find myself thinking more about you. I hope you're recovering and finding some happiness again, and I hope maybe we've even helped to provide a little bit of it. Take care and be gentle with yourself today.

 

Saw you mention this on Facebook Moddy, and yeaj. Couldn't believe it's been that long. Can't think of much else to say.

 

Good grief. I never saw this, and I had no idea who SF was. I didn't know him personally, either, but I certainly respected his observations on here, and I wondered why he no longer posted. Wow. Hate that he's gone. There have always been a certain few members here whom I greatly respected their opinion, and SF was definitely one of them. Life is short. Damn.

 

A little while ago I reread this Facebook post from Frank Ridgeway (Craig Schmidt), on the first anniversary of Craig's death:

Irritable Editor's Grievance of the Week: people dying young.

Who chafed me: God.

We take a week’s break from nitpicking semantics to honor a most unusual friend, CBS Sports deputy managing editor Craig Stanke, who died last May at age 56. He ran in a Memorial Day 5K, did some work, then died in his sleep in his girlfriend Amy’s bed. I wanted to honor him now because I know Amy is gonna be in for a rough end of May.

When I say unusual friend, let’s say it was a product of the computer age. In the 1980s we knew some of the same people and worked for different newspapers in the same city, San Diego, and in 1990 we had our lone phone conversation when I asked Craig to hire me at the Los Angles Times, which did not happen. Approximately 10 years passed before an early incarnation of SportsJournalists.com’s message board sprouted. Both Craigs loved to talk shop and about the nuances of language and journalism ethics. I never cut and pasted our public interactions on that message board to total them, but the private messages ran 150 pages with this man I’d never actually met. Not all of it was about the biz. We both had some personal issues during those 10 years and trusted each other sight unseen. Now some of the others at SportsJournalism.com would refer to Craig and Craig and some others as “Voices of Reason.” I suppose if Craig and I were essentially the same product on the store shelf, Stanke’s label would likely say, “80 percent less grumpy!” He had that gift of disagreeing without being disagreeable.

We finally got to be colleagues during the final few years of his life when we moonlighted/freelanced for an online operation that doesn’t pay well, but money comes in handy if you’re the kind of freaks of nature who edit very quickly. It was interesting to watch his mind work because no matter the pay rate, he wanted the article to be true, useful and readable and I am wired the same way. It was an honor to consider myself a kindred spirit of this legend. I miss him all the time, although the virtual friendship with Amy is of some consolation because she’s smart, funny and easy to communicate with about a wide range of issues.

My major regret is not having started Irritable Editor a few years earlier. Amy and I agree that Stanke would have loved it and would have had plenty to say about a lot of stuff, which would have been enjoyable and enlightening for those who read this space. I mourn that you didn’t have the chance to experience this remarkable man. RIP, Craig. You had a lot left to offer this world.

 

God chafed us pretty good again when Craig Schmidt died young.

 

Once I knew who he was, I just automatically assumed it was South Florida.

 

It was South Florida.

I wasn't going to bring the thread back this year (my Facebook friends were the lucky recipients of one of the most depressing posts ever) but since it's here, I have a long shot question.

Does anyone have a copy of the column Scott Miller wrote? His and Swanny's have been purged from the cbssports.com system. I thought I kept everything but I only have the outdated links.

Scott will check his files but he didn't sound optimistic.

 

Here you go, Amy:

Veteran CBSSports.com editor Stanke dies at 56

and

Stanke, a giant in journalism, a friend in every way, gone too soon