Please Help Jones Help W.C. Heinz...

....by signing the petition on the Journalism Board. Jones seeks to remedy a terrible mistake. That the APSE Red Smith award has never been given to W.C. Heinz is an oversight we can all help correct. So please visit the J-Board to sign your name in service of this great man. And stop by the Writers' Workshop to read his seminal "Death of a Racehorse", too. Thanks.

 

Oh yeah - now you need us so you come crawling to our side of the board.

Hey everyone jpmacg is throwing a party at writers workshop- finger sandwiches and punch for all - men wear your favoirite bow tie.

 

.....and horseblanket tweed hacking jacket, too please, with those nifty suede patches at the elbow. First writer to bring in a boiled shirtfront or a briar pipe receives an additional watercress sandwich gratis. Jones assures me he's spiked the punch. He just won't say with what.

 

Punchbowl? I thought that was a sink.

Anyhoo... Thanks to jgmacg for the support -- and to everybody who has signed the petition so far. Much appreciated. I sincerely hope this comes to something, so if you haven't taken a look, please take ten minutes out of your day to give Mr. Heinz a much-deserved boost.

Thanks again.

 

I signed the petition, Jonesy. Should it become necessary to give you an actual signature, just send me a PM and you'll have it.

 

I wonder if Heinz actually gives a flip about the award.

 

I've spoken to Heinz's publisher at DaCapo Press... He told me that Heinz is appreciative of even the smallest gesture, usually taking the time to respond even to short notes of appreciation. Although I'm certain he would ever campaign for the Red Smith Award, I feel safe in saying that he would be honored by it.

Perhaps Dave Kindred could weigh in on what the Red Smith Award means to its recipients.

 

Did Heinz and Smith ever work together at the same paper?

 

I don't believe so. I'm pretty sure Smith, when he was in New York, wrote at the Herald-Tribune and much later, the Times. Heinz was at the Sun.

I stand to be corrected, however.

 

Not being a journalist I won't sign the petition but I've read some of his stuff. It's brilliant.

He also collaborated with Richard Hooker on the novel M*A*S*H

 

Hey JR... I don't think it matters if you're not a sportsjournalist. You can say that in your post if you'd like. (Not presuming that you will post, but again, if you'd like to, I don't see anything wrong with that.)

 

It's worth noting, at least for the purpose of bouncing this thread back up the board, if not for posterity and the symmetry of history, that Mr. Smith and Mr. Heinz were best friends.

And while Mr. Heinz is a very modest man - a "middle-class artist," as he'd put it - the honor of the award would not be lost on him.