Keepers of the Game: When the Baseball Beat was the Best Job on the Paper Hardcover – February 1, 2013

In the preface of Keepers of the Game, New York Times columnist and former baseball beat writer Dave Anderson says that baseball beat writers are "members of a rare and hallowed herd who worked in a rare and hallowed era." Being a baseball beat writer was "the most prestigious, most sought after, most read and most competitive job on a major newspaper."They were the primary source of baseball news, opinion and analysis. But that world no longer exists.Anderson adds, "Men whose careers were rooted in teletype machines and 10-team leagues were the game's last true custodians and guardians, yielding a single influence that would be unthinkable today."Author Dennis D'Agostino interviews 23 long-time baseball beat writers, including nine winners of the Baseball Hall of Fame's J.G. Taylor Spink Award, the baseball writing profession's highest honor. D'Agostino selected the writers based on their longevity on the baseball beat, their historic reach and influence.If you've been a baseball fan anything during the past five decades, many of these writers will be familiar to you--Peter Gammons, Maury Allen, Stan Hochman, Bill Madden, Phil Pepe, Hal Bock among others. While you may not have read them every day, many of them were correspondents for The Sporting News.Here are some of the most interesting observations from the writers:Maury Allen: "It's never going to be like it was in our time--the fun, the entertainment, the joy, the thrill."Hal Bock: "I like to quote Red Smith, who said, 'Baseball is only dull to people with dull minds.'"Tracy Ringolsby: "Newspapers did a poor job of seeing the future and adapting to it."Phil Pepe: "There will never be another Dick Young. He was a trailblazer, a pioneer and a leader."Dave van Dyck: "I have never written a story for a fan. I write stories for my job and my bosses.""I don't think the game has ever changed as much as it has over the past 30 years."Nick Peters: "I never wanted to get close to the players."Bill Madden: "The All-Star Game and the World Series have become marketing events."Stan Hochman: "Gene Mauch was the most eloquent baseball guy I've been around.'Bob Hertzel: "The guys who took Pork Chop Hill in the Korean War had an easier job than interviewing Bob Gibson after a tough loss."The writers share how they got started in journalism and on the baseball beat, their major influences, memorable scoops and unforgettable characters. Although D'Agostino obviously asked many of the same questions to the writers, he doesn't use a formula in writing the chapters, all of which are interesting.The consensus of the writers is that the baseball beat isn't as much fun as it used to be and that writers seldom ever get that one-on-one opportunity with players like in the past.If you're a long time baseball fan or ever dreamed of being a baseball beat writer, this is a great read.

My secret fantasy job over the years was to be a sportswriter for one of the New York dailies back in the 1950s. It always seemed to be a romantic profession for the frustrated athlete who never quite made it beyond high school ball, but genuinely loved the game. After having read D'Agostino's excellent compendium of some of our nation's most celebrated baseball writers, I'm more convinced than ever how true that is (or was). Riding the rails with the team you cover, enjoying the camaraderie of the dining car or press box with fellow scribes, it's all here in this great book. It isn't the same any more as D'Agostino lets his subjects describe the transformation to the modern era of digital journalism. The romance is all but gone (how sad). The stars of his book are an amazing collection of characters, from the reserved gentlemen of the press to the obnoxious and arrogant egotists. Thank you, Dennis D'Agostino, for keeping my dream alive!

To be personal for a moment, back when I was in high school, I enjoyed attending sporting events. Yet, while I enjoyed sitting in the stands with family and friends, if given I choice I probably often would have gone to sit somewhere else. I would have asked to listen in on the really smart, witty people - the press box.Here I am, 45 years later, and I still often feel that way.Apparently Dennis D'Agostino has the same feeling I did. He's carried on conversations with some of the top baseball writers in the country over the years, and collected them here. "Keepers of the Game" is, ahem, a keeper.The idea, as the author freely admits, is not original. Jerome Holtzman, himself a legendary baseball writer from Chicago, did a book of such interviews with the people from his business that he considered legends some time ago. Most old-school baseball writers have a copy or at least read it, although it has to be ancient history to the new kids on the beat.D'Agostino started with a list of Spink Award winners, which is the writing equivalent of going into the Hall of Fame. In fact, winners are honored at Cooperstown with the other inductees. He talked to as many of the living recipients as possible. Then he added some other top writers who probably are just as worthy as the winners in most cases, and he had 23 chapters for a book.The passage of time is very striking when reviewing the observations of these fine reporters. Some of the bylines will be familiar to readers of the late, great print edition of the Sporting News, which used to take weekly reports from reporters in the major-league cities. It was always exciting to read those "out-of-town" stories; it was like being in that city and reading the best in the business during the visit. Alas, the Sporting News essentially couldn't figure out a way to keep going in the Internet age, and evolved into just a website. So in a sense, we're missing that sort of information source ... unless you want to contribute to all sorts of newspapers' paywalls in an effort to get the stories. A pity.Then there's the matter of how the business changed in such a short time. Some of the true veterans here would write up stories on typewriters and then give to a Western Union representative to send back to the home city via dots and dashes. From there it would be carried to the newspaper's home office. Took hours in some cases. That slowly evolved into the telecopier, which turned into the Tandy portable computer, and into the laptop.And all of the men listed say how the business has become much more demanding today, a 24-hour operation thanks to blogs, Twitter, etc. Add that to grueling travel, as it's rare for reporters to fly on team planes any more, and it's exhausting to cover a baseball team these days. Some would do it all over again, others wouldn't put so anxious to do it for decades no matter how much they loved the job and the game.It's amazing how many of the "breaking into the business" stories are similar. They seemed to all be writers in high school, did practically everything to get into the business, stumbled into the baseball beat for one reason or another, and stayed there.But from there, the stories do take different paths. It's Peter Gammons telling how he called 253 hotels in Virginia searching for the Red Sox general manager, who when found gave him the scoop that Boston wasn't going to sign free agent Jim Hunter. It's Stan Hochman of Philadelphia, taking a break from baseball to interview the cast of "The Night of the Iguana." He taught Richard Burton about baseball. There's the time Bob Hertzel heard Sparky Anderson describe the Reds as "they" in a phone call, and deduced that the longtime skipper in Cincinnati had just lost his job.The young people out there might not be able to relate to this type of material, and think some of the biographies reads the same way after a while. So, mostly for being targeted at a rather limited niche, this gets "only" four stars. Meanwhile, for those who are interested to pick this up and even glance at it, they're are in for the easiest of enjoyable reads.As an editor said to a 40-year-veteran of newspaper, "I could listen to you 'old-timers' all day." Here, you can do just that.

Those were the days when writers knew baseball, when the eye test revealed capabilities and value of players and games without too-probing stats to sway the flow of a good story, when writers could actually write interestingly and knowledgeably, and never mind some's protestations to the contrary. You are asked, however, to judge for yourself chapter 19; this refers to 22 other talented and creative contributors who could make their portables sing. All of it is presented well in this book, edited and assembled by an author, Dennis D'Agstino, who also knew the game from within.

I found this book fascinating. It is a look back to the day when baseball was simpler, and the writers worked hard to be connected. These writers kept us posted on all of the workiings of the clubs we followed. Their experiences are a joy to read about.