The late, great, Dave Halberstam

Not trying to bring a downer to the blog, but the sudden death of David Halberstam should be recognized.

http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20070423&content_id=1926013&vkey=news_mlb&fext=.jsp&c_id=mlb

While Dave is no longer with us, his writing and viewpoints will continue to educate and entertain. His works on baseball alone are about SO much more than just hitting, pitching, and running the bases. They are about sociology, culture, American history, relationships, drama and art, and the overall humanity that surrounds the great game. His viewpoints come from someone who really understood the big picture of sports and society, and their direct influence on one another. (Check out his writings about Jackie Robinson.) Furthermore, his well-rounded writings and research on politics, wars, the 'real' 1950s, and a number of other topics were usually spot-on. The Bill Russell segment in his 1950s documentary is awesome, and, as mentioned in the article, he won the Pulitzer for his journalism covering the early days of the Vietnam War way back in 1964.(!) (He also wrote a book called," The Education of a Coach", which is all about how Bill Belichick became Bill Belichick.)

But it is his stories and memories of baseball in another time, place, and era that will indeed live on, woven into our American quilt alongside the game he was so passionate about, giving us a clearer perspective of what baseball and America were really like back then, in order to better understand where they, and we, are today.




(dont miss the pesky article Pesky saddened by Halberstam's death )