04/29/24
July 14, 2023
Peter Gammons: Diamond Vision: It went so far that [UNC coach, Dean] Smith gave Peter this firm career advice: “You’re a good listener. You could write for a living.” So, it's Dean's fault that we got Peter Gammons as a sports writer. And only one of the greatest ever.
Joe Posnanski?
posted by rcade at 07:38 PM on July 14, 2023
A long and worthy read, thanks.
I know a guy who was at Fenway with Gammons for Game 6 of the 1975 Series. Gammons could recall the mementos this person had saved from that immortal game, right down to a pack of matches.
Years later I found out that my future wife was also at that game, so I went in to the arrangement well aware that she'd already had her breath taken away to the maximum extent possible.
Dick Stockton had a similar problem. He met his future wife Lesley Visser for the first time at Game 6 and later said something to the effect that no matter what joys transpired during the course of their marriage, meeting him would never be better than the second most memorable thing that happened to her that day.
posted by beaverboard at 09:57 PM on July 14, 2023
Or maybe it was Visser who said it about meeting Stockton.
posted by beaverboard at 10:16 PM on July 14, 2023
Gammons is possibly the last of the breed of sportswriters that are actually writers. It's a shame that the profession has become a tribe of keyboard killers and mouse manipulators who propose outlandish trade scenarios just to generate clicks. I cannot think of a name of a legitimate expert on a single sport who can also write.