Jerome Holtzman, 1926-2008
It was mainly as an excuse to post the photograph above that I started to note the death this weekend of "the Dean" of Chicago sportswriters, Jerome Holtzman. I lived in Chicago in 1989, the year the photo appeared in the Chicago Tribune, and a roommate from that time reminded me today, when passing on the news, that we had it prominently displayed on our apartment wall (it may, in fact, have been our only decoration). Holtzman's on the right, of course, next to Don Zimmer, best known for his altercations, two decades apart, with Red Sox pitchers Bill Lee (who called him "the Gerbil") and Pedro Martinez, for managing the Cubs to a rare division title that year, and for the metal plate put in his head after an early beaning that almost killed him. The glories of the photograph are self-evident; I don't think anything has ever made me want to be a sportswriter more than its portrait of pot-bellied fellowship.
But when reading around about Holtzman, I was reminded that his name was on the spine of one of my favorite books growing up. I had two paperbacks in my early teens that I read and read to the point that their covers fell off: The Book of Lists, and Fielder's Choice, an anthology of baseball fiction edited by Mr. Holtzman who, at the time, I didn't know from Adam. I haven't looked at that collection in decades, but it had a hell of a lineup, introducing me to Philip Roth, Bernard Malamud, Ring Lardner, James Thurber, Mordecai Richler, and Robert Coover, whose Universal Baseball Association, Inc., was one of the first things that hinted to me that at some point I might want to move on from made-up baseball leagues to more important things like, well, made-up stories. In fact, thinking of it now, that book (a gift from some wise relation) no doubt had as much influence as anything on my ending up doing what I do today. Whatever it is exactly that I do... --Tom
Listen to an interview with author John Grisham. He talks about his 22nd book, 
Lee Z. on July 22, 2008 at 04:27 PM
Yeah. Great photograph! :-D
Joe D. on July 22, 2008 at 08:12 PM
Great picture. Popeye has been a favorite in this household for years and so has Holtzman. Thanks!
David Horiuchi on July 22, 2008 at 09:07 PM
I too read Fielder's Choice when I was a kid
Michael Smith on July 23, 2008 at 08:51 AM
Never heard of him, but boy, the Book of Lists (and its sequels) were a major part of my childhood. They haunt me still. As I remember every list found a way to get Jack the Ripper in it.