Keepers of the Game

There was a time when the most prestigious job on a major newspaper belonged to the baseball beat writer, who enjoyed unparalleled longevity and influence within his profession. Through a variety of events and circumstances-television, expansion, technology, all-sports radio, lifestyle changes, and the Internet revolution-those days are long gone. The baseball beat writers endure, but as their jobs have changed, they face new challenges. Keepers of the Game celebrate the last generation of baseball writers whose careers were rooted in Teletype machines, train travel, and ten-team leagues and who wielded an influence and power within the game that are unthinkable today. Dennis D'Agostino brings together, for the first time, the personal histories of a group of journalists whose influence, power, and dedication to the game of baseball is now a thing of the past. Twenty-three vintage baseball beat writers tell their own stories in a first-person format, with an individual chapter devoted to each writer. Included among the interview subjects are nine winners of the Baseball Hall of Fame's J. G. Taylor Spink Award, the baseball writing profession's highest honor. They were the best of their breed, that last generation of writers who were the unquestioned gatekeepers of the national pastime. For decades, their words shaped the history of the game. Now their own stories are finally told.