Sad story - respected sports writer dies

I am glad Mr. Batterson lived a happy and fulfilling life. May he R.I.P.

However my grandfather worked at seven newspapers and five of his children spent at least part of their professional careers as journalists. They all seemed to enjoy the craft and a couple truly loved it. I had an uncle who never drew a dime out of his IRA because he free lanced until a week before his death at age 82. He seemed to live a happy and interesting life though now that I think about it he never married.

But not one of them ever loved the business. Does any journalist?

 

On the other hand, I watched four different sports desk editors get rushed to the hospital with heart scares on deadline on four different nights at one of my stops. Management's message to the rest of us each time basically was: "Ahhh, let's all buckle down and get back to work. We still have deadlines to make, so everyone just pick up his work and spread it around."

 

Never told this story to anyone before:

There used to be a guy in every decent-sized market who was referred to as the local “baseball man,” even though he never played beyond high school, if that far. And in Birmingham, that was Ben Cook.

He had been on the Braves beat for a time over in Atlanta. But he was a child of the West End and his heart belonged to Rickwood Field, where he grew up. He became the PA announcer for the Barons, a columnist for the Post-Herald, then moved over to write for the News. Wrote five books. Did two different shows to get the first sports talk radio station up and going here, including co-hosting afternoon drive. He was also an editor for Lindy’s season preview magazines and even used to lead group trips for locals to the likes of Fenway, Wrigley and Yankee Stadium.

His last year or so, he started picking up part-time shifts writing prep sports capsules at our call center for AL.com. The guy who covered Aaron’s 715th homer and Bear Bryant’s 315th win was now waging verbal war with a balky content upload system in order to publish three paragraphs on a Tuesday night basketball game witnessed by 50 souls up on Sand Mountain.

There’s a chain of used bookstores started in Birmingham called Second & Charles. Up front they have a department where you can drop off books you are interested in selling and take a number. While you wait and pretend to be interested in what’s on the shelves, employees in the back evaluate your haul and then call your number when finished to tell you what if anything the store is willing to offer. Sometimes this is a nice way to make a few extra bucks from cleaning and sometimes the rent is too damn high and you grow a little desperate.

One day the rent was too damn high, so I picked out as many books as I thought I could live without and stood in line at Second & Charles. There in line, I traded glances and nods - but no words - with my co-worker, Birmingham’s baseball man, who was holding a couple of armfuls of his lifetime memories, for which he would receive pennies on the dollar.

Weeks later several of us from the call center sat together at his funeral, listening to his former radio co-host deliver the eulogy. Then we went to work that night, with the All-Star Game from Cincinnati playing in the background.

 

Dixiehack, That writing was a work of art. Sorry about your friend.

 

This story could basically be about me. I was married before, got divorced and missed my own sell-by date because I was interested in other things. Should I be sad? Probably not. I don't have any family to leave anything to, but after I die that won't be my problem.

 

My two kids will have to fight over my Wet Leg debut album (and the rest of my crates of LPs).

Unless my wife dumps them along with the boxes of newspapers about 10 minutes after I kick the bucket …

 

Same here, except never married, and I still enjoy the job most of the time. Long ago, I had a cousin ask who, when I told him "probably 70% of the time," say: "That's 70% more than I enjoy mine. I hate it from the time I get in the car in the morning until I get back home."

 

Send it here. I kinda suspect our musical tastes are similar enough.

 

The business? Hated it at the end. SID work?

The business can have it moments as well.

I've had a lot of time to think about things , and God forgive me for name-dropping, but I had an one-on-one with LeBron and he said one thing that has always stood out..."when you love the game, the game gives back."

I've worked in Madison Square Garden and I've worked in Moore Gym.

I've been to New York City and I've been to Itta Bena Mississippi.

I've worked national championships and I've worked inter squad scrimmages.

I've worked games from one side of the country to the other and in my case I did it in 24 hours

I've seen athletes go from their first practice to their enshrinement.

My good friends, when you had that kind of range in your life, it means you've had a hell of a run. Not to mention the incredible friends and colleagues along the way through who say they're praying for me as I'm going through all this

LeBron was right.

I've been blessed.