Image:
amazon.com.
SPORTS QUOTESQuotes by "Red" Smith.
You don't want to be lousy during the World Series. If you've got to be lousy, let it be June. And believe me, I was very lousy yesterday. I had nothing to say, and, by God, I said it.
("Sportswriting's Poet Laureate," p. 63, Sport (March 1978). Article by Harry Stein.)
.
I think it's the real world. The people we're writing about in professional sports, they're suffering and living and dying and loving and trying to make their way through life just as the brick layers and politicians are. (Quoted in Ira Berkow's column, p. 18, The New York Times (January 16, 1982).)
.
If this bureau had a prayer for use around horse parks, it would go something like this: Lead us not among bleeding-hearts to whom horses are cute or sweet or adorable, and deliver us from horse-lovers. Amen.... With that established, let's talk about the death of Seabiscuit the other night. It isn't mawkish to say, there was a racehorse, a horse that gave race fans as much pleasure as any that ever lived and one that will be remembered as long and as warmly.
("A Horse You Had to Like," The New York Times (May 20, 1947).)
.
I've always had the notion that people go to spectator sports to have fun and then they grab the paper to read about it and have fun again.
(A personal recollection that originally appeared in No Cheering in the Press Box by Jerome Holtzman. The Red Smith Reader, "I'd Like to Be Called a Good Reporter," Random House (1982).)
.
A bibulation of sports writers, a yammer of radio announcers, a guilt of umpires, an indigence of writers.
("A Bouquet for Red Smith," p. 137, Mademoiselle (May 1957).)
.
For 350 years we have been taught that reading maketh a full man, conference a ready man and writing an exact man. Football's place is to add a patina of character, a deference to the rules and a respect for authority.
( "Bowls of Boodle," The New York Times (January 1, 1982).)
.
It's no accident that of all the monuments left of the Greco- Roman culture the biggest is the ballpark, the Colosseum, the Yankee Stadium of ancient times.
(Walter Wellesley (Red) Smith (1905-1982), U.S. author, sports cQuoted in Ira Berkow's column, p. 18, The New York Times (January 16, 1982).)
.
In the eighth, Hermanski smashed a drive to the scoreboard. Henrich backed against the board and leaped either four or fourteen feet into the air. He stayed aloft so long he looked like an empty uniform hanging in its locker. When he came down he had the ball.
( "Next to Godliness" (October 3, 1947). The Red Smith Reader, ch. 4, Random House (1982). Gene Hermanski played for the Brooklyn Dodgers. Tommy Henrich played for the New York Yankees. Smith was writing about the 1947 World Series games that the Yankees won 4 games to 3.)
=====================
Image: jennreese.com
