Halberstam dead

Jack Shafer offers up ... well, I'm not sure what it is. Maybe he comes not to praise Halberstam (who I admired, please note), but to bury him:

http://www.slate.com/id/2164960?nav=tap3

 

The Apple story's great.

 

That last story about the NY Times considering Halberstam so young that it didn't have a decent obit in the can for Tuesday's paper would explain the half-ass obit it used.

 

SI was caught right up on deadline, I"m sure. That they pushed something aside and got it in is admirable, I think.

I know they would have done a half-page or even a full page if they had the time for it. Halberstam was that big a guy, news and sports also, and if it wasn't given enough play in SI, you can bet the deadline, and only that, prevented something much better.

It's too bad, though. SI usually does a good job with obits if the timing is right.

And it would be great to hear Y.A. Tittle's reaction to all this. He was about to be interviewed for a great book, and then Mr. Halberstam dies on the way to his house.

I bet that woulda been a great book. And I can't believe Mr. Halberstam would die in an accident like that. He was a great one. Youngsters, take note of that. Read his stuff, sports or otherwise. He was that great.

 

I don't care who you are. You use your column space to take shots at a dead man, and you come off like a hack. I'm convinced Shafer posts here as at least five different antagonistic idiots.

 

You know, I don't think it's out of the question that they did a half-ass job on the obit because Halberstam, kind of like Molly Ivins, left the paper under less than amicable terms.

 

Sirs, Madames,

I met Halberstam once--back when he was researching his Jordan book, about which the less said the better. Asked him a couple of questions about MJ. He humoured me. I suspect he was probably more comfortable in the company of students than middle-aged hacks like myself (probably feared the likes of me would slow him down). His book on the four old Red Sox is a beautiful piece of work--so lyrical you forget just how good his reporting is. One of those things ... you get typed as a reporter and they think that you're not a phrase turner. In the obits he'll get his props as a reporting legend, but if The Teammates was the first thing you read, you'd say that he was a pretty slick wordsmith.

YHS, etc

 

That's a nice post, friendofthe . . .

I think most of what he wrote can stand as good examples for people getting into the profession of how to work a story. He was a very polished writer, but he gave himself a lot to work with. That, to me, is the secret of success. Good writing is often the result of good reporting. How many more times do you remember a story, or an article or a book, for the content, over how it was written?

 

Not to be completely contrarian but Shafer -- and Lemann -- are both right about him needing an editor on a lot of his books.

 

Stephen King being a decent paired entry from the fiction side ...

 

Is there someone, or more than one someone, gifted enough to gather Tittle and some others who would have been interviewed, and have a PBS-type roundtable discussion to talk about the game, the book, the what-if, and use the occasion as a tribute to Halberstam and a chance to give these subjects a chance to tell their story in a way that might illuminate us and extend the circle of respect for Halberstam?

 

Well, since we're coming up on the 50th anniversary of the game, I suspect a lot of someones will do just that.
Note to football historians -- was Tittle even on the Giants in 1958? I thought he was still with the 49ers.