Lede Time II
Posted on Nov 11, 2009 3:36 pm
By Alex Belth
More memorable ledes…
This, perhaps the most famous of them, comes from Grantland Rice:
Outlined against a blue, gray October sky the Four Horsemen rode again.
Dick Young on the Brooklyn Dodgers choking:
The tree that grows in Brooklyn is an apple tree and the apples are in the throats of the Dodgers.
Joe Trimble on Don Larson’s Perfecto:
The imperfect man pitched the perfect game.
Shirley Povich, on the same game:
The million-to-one shot came in. Hell froze over. A month of Sundays hit the calendar. Don Larsen today pitched a no-hit, no-run, no-man-reach-first game in a World Series.
Roger Kahn, after the Yankees won Game Seven of the 1952 Serious:
Every year is next year for the Yankees.
Barbara Long on the second Ali-Liston fight:
I loved the minute of it.
Bob Considine on Louis-Schemling:
Listen to this, buddy, for it comes from a guy whose palms are still wet, whose throat is still dry, and whose jaw is still agape from the utter shock of watching Joe Louis knock out Max Schmeling.
Tom Keegan on the Mets collapsing during the 1998 season:
If Bobby Valentine knew his team one day would disgrace baseball as badly as it did last night at Turner Field he never would have invented the game in the first place.
Mark Kram on the Thrilla in Manilla:
It was only a moment, sliding past the eyes like the sudden shifting of light and shadow, but long years from now, it will remain a pure and moving glimpse of hard reality, and if Muhammad Ali could have turned his eyes upon himself, what first and final truth would he have seen? He had been led up the winding, red-carpeted staircase by Imelda Marcos, the First Lady of the Philippines, as the guest of honor at the Malacañang Palace. Soft music drifted in from the terrace as the beautiful Imelda guided the massive and still heavyweight champion of the world to the long buffet ornamented by huge candelabra. The two whispered, and then she stopped and filled his plate, and as he waited the candles threw an eerie light across the face of a man who only a few hours before had survived the ultimate inquisition of himself and his art.
Tomorrow…WC Heinz on Bummy Davis.
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Shirley Povich’s memorable piece on Larsen’s perfect game is blown-up as a large poster at “Shirley Povich Field” in suburban DC. You should also read his piece covering Lou Gehrig’s farewell. Classic stuff.
Here was the lede for the Gehrig piece:
I saw strong men weep this afternoon, expressionless umpires swallow hard, and emotion pump the hearts and glaze the eyes of 61,000 baseball fans at Yankee Stadium.
Not too shabby.
That is pretty good. What’s amazing is how many of these were written on deadline. The entire Kram piece was written on deadline even though it was for SI. Remarkable.
July of 1939 and Povich, an out-of-town sportswriter, refers to the Yanks as the “highest-salaried prima donnas of baseball.”
The more things change….
[1] I just read the Larsen perfect game article for the first time. Good stuff.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/sports/longterm/general/povich/launch/larsen.htm
[3] Thanks for the classic reading. I love that Secretariat one from earlier. I’ve read it dozens of times over the years. I wonder if Arod’s related. : )
[0] And I just realized you linked the Povich article. D’oh! Sorry bout that.
I think one of the coolest things is that Don Larsen and David Wells both went to the same HS. Then later on they both pitched for the Yankees. Then they both pitched perfect games. And on top of that Joe Trimble’s Lede on Don Larson’s Perfecto could have and maybe should have been used again for David Wells.
MVP: Joe Mauer (Teixeira 2nd, Jeter 3rd)
Cy Young: Zack Greinke (CC 3rd)
In the NL, Pujols, Carpenter. Hm, and Wainwright was second in the Cy. No wonder everyone was so worried about the Cardinals…
Varitek exercises his option to stay with the Red Sox.
[8] Where did you get that from?
[8] Huh? The voting on those things isn’t supposed to be announced for until what, next week?
[9] I’m not surprised.
It’s the Internet BWAA awards.
:b
[9] I guess $3m is the price of being somewhere you are not wanted.
stumbled across this and it made my night:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lsG_jgM4eKs
OK people… this is too strange. Frightening.
http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=4642952
As ESPN goes, this is actually a pretty decent article.
Milton Bradley anyone?
http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/columns/story?columnist=crasnick_jerry&id=4637105
Going back to the earlier thread abotu Matsui & the Sawx, someone linked to Nikkan sports homepage. I wouldn’t trust the tabloids here if they headlined “Humans breathe air in order to live!”. Especially the sports tabloids..they once reported Ichiro was caught in a blackmail S&M scandal with high-class Vancouver prostitutes..about as likely as Matsui signing to play OF in Boston!
How many days til pitchers and catchers?
Did you know Hank Aaron never struck out 100 times?
Amazing how the game has changed.
[19] Really?? Is it possible for Hank Aaron to actually be under-rated now? Most consistent player ever?
1956 Yogi Berra 30 home runs, 29 strike-outs…
Berra in 1950, TWELVE strike outs! This is not possible..
Baseball Refernce helps you get through the off-season.
[17] You are absolutely right about the sports tabloids here, but Ichiro is no choirboy. Did I tell you the story about my friend seeing him entering the Park Hyatt with some hottie and trying to squeeze in the elevator with them? When the bellhop made sure nobody else got in, my friend says to him, “So I guess that elevator is reserved for Ichiro and his wife.” The bellhop says back, “That’s not his wife.” I love the fact that Mr. Zen falls prey to the sins of the flesh like the rest of us, including A-God.