When Gammo Speaks, We Listen

In a column published on ESPN.com yesterday, Hall of Fame sportswriter and broadcaster Peter Gammons sounded off on his weekend trip to Cooperstown, the Much Ado About Manny mess of last weekend and the brutal reality of Rafael Palmeiro’s fall from grace—and the vast conspiracy (told ya!) growing around it.

Also, here is a link to a transcript of Gammons’ HOF induction speech from last Saturday, which provides and excellent compliment to the aforementioned article. Though I’m too young to remember Gammons’ much ballyhooed On Baseball columns in the Sunday Boston Globe in the late 70s, I still revel in his accounts of his halcyon days as a beat writer and columnist for the old Globe. I, unfortunately, am a child of petulant Gordon Edes take on the column, which, while serviceable, contains little of the wit, decorum and deep inside dirt that Gammons made his mark reporting. But, of course, Boston’s loss and mine was the known universe’s gain as Gammo’s smiling mug is now beamed to hungry baseball fans around the world via ESPN’s Baseball Tonight and ESPN.com.

To get an idea of the effect that Gammons has had on his profession, check out the usually glib and pessimistic Dan “Curly Haired Boyfriend” Shaunessey’s take on the great man’s words, specifically this excerpt from Gammons’ story after Game 7 of the ’75 World Series:

''We have postponed autumn long enough now. There are storm windows to put in, wood to chop for the whistling months ahead. The floorboards are getting awfully cold in the morning, the cider sweet. Where Lynn dove and El Tiante stood will be frozen soon, and while it is now 43 years for Thomas A. Yawkey and 57 for New England, the fugue that was the 1975 baseball season will play in our heads until next we meet at the Fens again."

Now tell me that doesn’t make the hair on your arm stand up too!