WASHINGTON -- "I have fought the good fight, I have
finished my course, I have kept the faith." The words are those of St. Paul
the Apostle, but they strike me as words that could have been written by
Jim Murray, the Los Angeles Times' sports writer who died last week.
Murray specialized in the staccato rhythmic lead that I think I hear in
the apostle's words.
I never knew Jim Murray, but I tried to make his writing familiar to myself
and to colleagues and students I have worked with. Stated simply, reading
Jim Murray was a liberal arts education with a wry smile in every take.
The L.A. Times has posted on its web site a memorial
tribute* to the late writer, apparently
inviting every staff member -- and many competing sportswriters -- who ever
had an encounter with Murray to tell his or her favorite anecdote. [*Ed.
Note, April 2003: Unfortunately, that memorial tribute is no longer
posted at the Times.]
I've scoured the site. The best tributes are those that recall Murray's
words: his quips, his reflections, his put-downs, his cheer-ups, his passions.
Here's my gleaning from the sample:
"Somebody had to sit on the curb and watch the parade go by." - On
the occasion of his being inducted into the writer's wing of the baseball
Hall of Fame in 1987.
"This is going to make it a little easier on the guy who writes my obit."
- On the occasion of his being awarded the Pulitzer Prize for commentary
in 1990.
"I never thought you could win a Pulitzer just for quoting Tommy Lasorda
correctly." - Later reflecting on his having won the prize.
"I try not to bore people, basically." - In response to a television
interviewer's request that he describe his job.
"A column is more than a demanding mistress. It is a raging master. It
consumes you. It is insatiable. It becomes more than you. You are not a person;
you are a publicly owned facility. Available on demand." - From his 1993
autobiography.
"Columns are like riding a tiger, you'd like to get off, but you have
no idea how." - When asked if he thought of retiring.
"Never make a friend in this business, because some day you may wind
up writing about him." - In response to a request from his journalist-nephew
for professional advice.
"Charlie Sifford is a golfer, an American, a gentleman. He is not, however,
a Caucasian. Until 1961, this seriously interfered with his life, liberty
and pursuit of happiness, to say nothing of his occupation -- because golf
was a 'Members Only' club till then . . .
Charlie was almost 40 years old before he got to play with the big boys.
You can make book Arnold Palmer couldn't have overcome a handicap like that."
- Written about Sifford, who became the first black golfer to play in a PGA
event, and lamenting that Sifford never was invited to play in the Master's
tournament. [Ed. note, April 2003: Thanks to
T.J. Auclair, golf journalist, for clarifying the stimulus of this quotation.]
"Throughout the history of civilization, there have been syllables of
terror handed down from generation to generation. 'Geronimo,' for example,
could be counted on to empty one fort after another in the old West . . .
In the littler world of golf, 'Hogan' elicited much the same effect. Nothing
could paralyze a field of golfers as much as this whispered collection of
syllables. Strong men bogeyed when they heard this dreaded name. Sam Snead
once said the only thing he feared on a golf course was lightning -- and
Ben Hogan." - Murray loved golf -- and Ben Hogan.
"My late wife always used to say, 'If Jim ever gets to heaven and Ben
Hogan isn't there, he ain't staying.' " - Following Hogan's funeral.
"God put the World Series in perspective here in San Francisco Tuesday
night.
"He shook the ballpark, like a dog would a rag, just minutes before the
start of Game 3.
"A baseball game is about as trivial a pursuit as you can imagine when nature
is in a rage. The earth growled, heaved and, suddenly, a World Series that
had been as deadly dull as a chess game in a firehouse became more wildly
exciting than you would want." - When an earthquake disrupted the 1989
World Series at Candlestick Park in San Francisco.
"Listen, Dwyre. The last time I looked, this was a pretty big news story.
I've been out interviewing people, I had to drive halfway to San Jose to
find a phone that worked and now the damn Hell's Angels are going to take
over this phone booth if I don't get somebody to take some dictation pretty
soon." - To L.A. Times Sports Editor Bill Dwyre after Murray had been
out of contact with the office for several hours following the 1989 earthquake.
"I have abandoned my great shining sea for the ease and access of the
city. I have left the ramparts for the soft center. I have left my love for
my comforts. I have left the sunset land and wild acres for the sedate, the
secure.
"I have traded whitecaps for white houses. I shall never be exactly the
same person again ... " - On leaving his home in Malibu.
"Watching Shoe ride a horse was like watching Gene Kelly dance or Gauguin
paint. It was art. You had the feeling he could win the Kentucky Derby on
a Brahma bull.'" - On jockey Willie Shoemaker.
"Not at all, as long as you take me back there first and introduce me
to Joe DiMaggio." - When actress Marilyn Monroe asked to be excused from
the table she and Murray were sharing so she could meet a friend who had
just entered the restaurant.
"Ladies and gentlemen, meet Danica Erin Skeoch (pronounced 'Skee-oh'),
the only person who has come between me and 'Monday Night Football.' I mean,
I will even turn off the Rams to take her for a stroll. I'd rather watch
her than Bo Derek. Or Lynn Swann.
"This was our first Christmas together, and we've got a lot to do. This
year it was the fur coat and muff but, next year, it might be a basketball
or the autobiography of Ty Cobb. She's getting old. She's almost 1."
- On his granddaughter.
"I suppose I never grew up. That's all right with me. That's the nice
thing about sports. You can be Peter Pan." - Reflecting on his career
in his autobiography.
"I covered the circus. I felt privileged to have done so. Sure, I helped
keep the hype going, the calliope playing. I can live with that. It's what
I am.
"I would have made a lousy president.' - In the same book.
"No, Jackie, I wish we could see you again." - Spoken to an aging
and almost blind baseball legend Jackie Robinson who greeted Murray by saying,
"Oh, Jim, I wish I could see you again."
"OK, bang the drum slowly, professor. Muffle the cymbals and the laugh
track. You might say that Old Blue Eye is back. But that's as funny as this
is going to get.
"I feel I owe my friends an explanation as to where I've been all these
weeks. Believe me, I would rather have been in a press box." - After
being away from his column for an eye operation.
"I just hope my eyesight outlives my heart." - Spoken frequently
after his eye operation.
"He wasn't a sports writer, he was a writer." - Saluting New York
Times' sports columnist Red Smith just after Smith's death, with what Murray
considered the ultimate compliment.