Ron Drogo, (spnited), RIP

For those few who met them them both, I just talked with Dad Bobcat, who is about the same age as Ron. His thoughts: "I enjoyed meeting him in Toronto, staying out late drinking beers, and I enjoyed catching up with him in Cleveland. Ron lived life, and he enjoyed it. It's sad news, of course, but I'm glad you told me."

 

Curmudgeon with a heart of gold.
Online schtick.
Real.

Damn.

I feel cheated I didn't know him in person, and the testimonials here give me a new, bittersweet understanding of his online persona and most of his posts. Thank you to everyone who helped with that. Reading about Ron Drogo made me appreciate spnited in ways I wish I could have when he was still here. My earlier post, although written with sincere respect, was woefully ignorant about the Ron behind the gruff spnited, and I felt compelled to come back and say how touching it has been to read subsequent posts in the light of today.

Thanks for reminding me of what brought us together here in the first place: The love of telling stories, and the ability to tell them well when we've uncovered their core.

RIP, Ron. Never sign off, spnited.

 

From his sister, on Facebook:
"Thank you all. I am the "sister in the Poconos" and we loved and enjoyed spending time with him too. The outpouring of love is a beautiful testament to what everyone thought of him."

 

Saw the mention on Bubs' Facebook page and asked who the hell Ron Drogo was.

Only knew his SJ handle, but I loved it when someone made a chariot-racing joke about him.

RIP, spnited.

 

Never knew the man beyond reading his posts on here. The testimonials speak volumes. RIP

 

HOLY EFFIN' CRAP!! i'm just learning this now. i've known ron for about 38 years or so, when i starter covering college ball at the daily snooze. then would obviously see him often at baseball games or when he was filling in on the jets' beat. when i moved over to the star-ledger i think ron was already at the record; stories of his ex-wife calling to torture him at the ledger are legendary.

ron was one of several 'vets' in the major metro area who always treated a youngin' feeling his way up like a peer who deserved to be sharing the same press box. and he did the same here after i discovered SportsJournalists.com, letting me know i could always depend on him and/or the legendary dan castellano (known to y'all as 'casty33'), who was once the long-time king of the mets' beat representing the star-ledger, whose mets-yanks combo of casty and moss klein on the yanks gave the ledger the best baseball coverage in the n.y./n.j. area.

anyway, this isn't about them, it's about ron, whose presence here at SportsJournalists.com will be greatly missed, in general. and by me, personally. ron always at least acted as if he wasn't bored by my pm's about anything newsworthy going on in my life. and i know the love and support he's shown to both casty and myself -- each of whom has had their career derailed by m.s. -- was never taken for granted and will never be forgotten...

so if there are those here who just saw 'spnited' as a bitter, mean-spirited old man should know there could not be a more inaccurate description of the real 'spnited.' sorry to 'out' the true you, ron. guess you'll have to wait a tad longer to take it up with me in heaven's press box.

goddam, i'm shaking as i type this.

r.i.p., ron. r.i.p. :'( :'( :'(

--paul needell (i wouldn't 'out' myself for just any foof, right, ron?)

 

Never knew the man, just knew the screen name. Always wondered how I would feel if someone from this board that I had plenty of interaction with died, and it feels like losing a family member - except I totally mispronounced this family members' name (I said it like it's spelled, spa-nited).
RIP spnited.

 

And when a newbie would yell at him here and write "spirited" he'd rag on them for not reading -- or one of us would do it for him...
spirited... very, very appropriate...

 

Aw shit. That's such a huge loss to the NJ community and to ours. On the occasions I've been in the NYC area and read the paper, I think the Record's more than held its own against the bigger papers, and a lot of that was because of Ron's coverage.

My sincere condolences.

 

I feel like I lost a friend -- just by reading his posts, I felt like i knew him.

RIP. SportsJournalists.com just got a little less cool.