Sports Biblio Digest, 3.10.19: The Raucous (and Savage) Wit of Dan Jenkins
News, Views and Reviews About Sports Books, History and Culture
Also in This Issue: Tom Seaver and Dementia; Dave Parker’s Playlist; Building Dodger Stadium; Saving the Astrodome; Basketball Photography at the National Building Museum; The Original Indiana Pacers; Remembering Don Newcombe and Ted Lindsay
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I’m just going to let the tributes to Dan Jenkins flow below from so many writers whose words need no more emphasis from me.
The writer who helped make Sports Illustrated a household name and wrote several first-rate sports-related novels died this week at the age of 89, after suffering from congestive heart failure, among other ailments.
Even toward the end of his life, Jenkins’ inimitable humor was always on display, and another novel was in progress. His most robust words, written over the course of more than 50 years at newspapers and magazines, and in more than a dozen books (fiction and non-fiction), were devoted to college football and golf.
After the publication of “His Ownself,” his “semi-memoir” from 2014, Jenkins gave this interview to Texas Monthly magazine, acknowledging his love for deadlines:
“It’s my nature. Newspapers did it for me. You know, ‘have typewriter, will travel.’
“I’ve seen it, absorbed it, and now it’s time for me to do it. And do it as quick as I can to get to the bar before it closed.”
Before posting this week’s remembrances, here’s Bryan Curtis’ 2014 Grantland profile of the outspoken Jenkins, who rarely apologized for what—and how—he wrote, and in later years, posted on social media.
“Here’s what it was like to read a Jenkins golf story in real time. No false nostalgia here, unless you’re nostalgic for cigarettes. The year was 1969. The Masters had just ended. Jenkins hovered over his typewriter in Augusta with a Winston sticking out of his mouth. Walter Bingham, his editor, was waiting in the Sports Illustrated office in New York. He would read Jenkins’s words page by page as they came over the wire. It was a sports story in installments.”
And:
“Jenkins’s controversial tweet about Y.E. Yang four years ago? That was a Fort Worth overheard. Or Jenkins doing his version of one. He didn’t care about the ensuing controversy. In fact, he stuck a rant about political correctness into his His Ownself. His editor warned him the rant might offend people.
“ ‘Fuck people,’ Jenkins said.”
Obituary from Curtis at The Ringer:
“Dan succeeded in making the sport of golf both interesting and weird. He helped turn college football into a national pastime. He pulverized athletes with a single line. Greg Norman,’ he once wrote, ‘always looks like the guy you send out to kill James Bond, not Jack Nicklaus.’ Dan Jenkins was the fucking man.”
Associated Press golf writer Doug Ferguson:
“He lived for a short time in Ponte Vedra Beach, where he got his first taste of Florida football. This was before Steve Spurrier became head coach, before the mighty Gators had won so much as an SEC title. ‘They have the attitude of Alabama and the accomplishments of Wake Forest,’ Jenkins said.”
From Ivan Maisel, college football writer for ESPN.com:
“He had the idea and the gall to take on all of Notre Dame Nation when he mocked Ara Parseghian, coach of the No. 1 Irish, for settling for a 10-10 tie against No. 2 Michigan State in 1966. The story began, ‘Old Notre Dame will tie over all,’ a brilliant takedown of the Irish fight song.”
From acerbic Bay Area sports columnist Ray Ratto, writing now for Deadspin:
“If you’re one of the generation that regards reading with the same affection as open sores, start with Jenkins anyway. Accept that the subject matter might not be your idea of fun, or that some of his characters could make your brain grind, and just let the words do their languid magic. I didn’t regard what he wrote he as a primer on the life you should lead, because I never thought that’s what he was trying to do. I read him because he could sing the damned language better than anyone else of his time.”
From fellow golf writer Tom Callahan:
“As truthfully tough as Jenkins could be in print, he had a heart. Settling into a steamy Medinah press tent under a killer Monday deadline, he had just begun to bang out the dull tale of Lou Graham’s playoff victory over John Mahaffey in the 1975 Open when, tapped on the shoulder, Jenkins spun around to find Graham’s wife, Patsy. ‘Be nice, Dan,’ she beseeched him softly. ‘He’s really a good guy.’ So charmed was Jenkins, he left out a voice he had overheard in the gallery, whispering, “Where does Lou Graham get all those faded shirts?”
From Michael Bamberger, another fellow golfing and Sports Illustrated scribe:
“I sent him a manuscript and followed with a call in 1986, looking for a blurb for a book I had written, about a brief stint caddying on Tour. It’s impossible that he read it — why would he? I described it to him. With barely a pause he said, ‘Here, for a change, is an Ivy Leaguer carrying the bags of other people.’ “
Some excerpts of Jenkins’ best work:
From Golf Digest in 2003: “The Best Things in Golf;”
His fake interview with Tiger Woods (who never wanted anything to do with Jenkins), also from Golf Digest;
From Sports Illustrated in 1963, shortly after he had left the Dallas Times-Herald, “The Disciples of St. Darrell on a Wild Weekend,” about the fandom for the University of Texas football team.
From Sally Jenkins, sports columnist for The Washington Post, about her father:
“Growing up I thought everybody’s father drank 10 cups of coffee and smoked three packs a day, and wrote novels on vacations, and got hate mail from Notre Damers, and wore Gucci loafers with no socks, and swore like a janitor every time he put up the Christmas tree, and became the most influential sportswriter of his generation.”
Tom Watson wrote to her after her dad’s death and told her the following:
“ ‘Your Dad made me laugh and think at the same time.’ No one has had a truer insight into him.”
And:
“He preferred brevity, loathed false sentiment, prized candor and humor above all character traits, and was a free speech absolutist. Privately, he was a lenient, adoring and adored man.”
Humor and sarcasm aside, Jenkins’ wisdom for young and aspiring writers, remains utterly timeless:
“My advice doesn’t change with electricity. Be accurate first, then entertain if it comes natural. Never sell out a fact for a gag. Your job is to inform above all else. Know what to leave out. Don’t try to force-feed an anecdote if it doesn’t fit your piece, no matter how much it amuses you. Save it for another time. Have a conviction about what you cover. Read all the good writers that came before you and made the profession worth being part of—Lardner, Smith, Runyon, etc. Don’t just cover a beat, care-take it. Keep in mind you know more about the subject than your readers or editors. You’re close to it, they aren’t. I think I can say in all honesty that I’ve never written a sentence I didn’t believe, even if it happened to be funny.”
A Few Good Reads
From The New York Times: Tom Seaver Will Always Be the Essential Met, by Michael Powell;
From the Charlotte Observer: Dementia is stealing Carl Scheer’s memories, but not his all-star basketball legacy, by Scott Fowler;
From ESPN.com: How former ref Tim Donaghy conspired to fix NBA games, by Scott Eden;
From Pre-War Cards: A chance meeting is probably the only reason a special Babe Ruth card was created;
From FanGraphs: The Cobra Playlist, by Dave Parker and Dave Jordan;
From These Football Times: How Bob Marley’s Love of Football Made the Game Beautiful, by Edd Norval;
From Hardball Talk: New Rangers park will have artificial turf, by Craig Calcaterra;
From Dezeen: Hoops photography exhibition shows basketball's universal appeal, by Dan Howarth.
Sports Book News
A review of “We Changed the Game,” about the original Indiana Pacers,
at the advent of American Basketball Association;
From Kirkus Reviews, a sneak peak at “Doc, Donnie, the Kid and Billy Brawl,” about the Mets and Yankees during the 1985 baseball season, to be published in April by the University of Nebraska Press;
From Richard Hershberger’s “Strike Four: The Evolution of Baseball,” published this week by Rowman & Littlefield, the foreword by John Thorn;
Longtime baseball-and-numbers writer Diane Firstman (of the Value Over Replacement Grit blog) is taking at stab at great names in the history of the game with a tentatively due out in the summer of 2020: "Hall of Name: Baseball's Most Magnificent Monikers from 'The Only Nolan' to 'Van Lingle Mungo' and More.” Suggestions welcome at greatnamesbaseballbook@gmail.com.
Now Hear This
From the 99 Percent Invisible architecture and design program, an interview with Jerald Podair, author of the 2017 book “City of Dreams,” about the building of Dodger Stadium;
From the New Books in Sports podcast, “Saving the Astrodome” authors Robert Trumpbour and Kenneth Womack discuss the history of the domed stadium and civic efforts to preserve it after it was abandoned as an active venue for sports and other events.
Passings
From Joe Posnanski: Don Newcombe, Baseball Hero;
From Dodger Thoughts: Don Newcombe, 1926-2019, by Jon Weisman;
From Detroit News: Red Wing fans say goodbye to Ted Lindsay, by Gregg Krupa.
I mentioned a couple weeks ago I would be stepping away from the newsletter when I got word my mother had gone into hospice care. She passed away from complications from lung cancer a few days after I posted that message, and her funeral was last week. At some point I'd like to write here about what she meant to me as I played sports as a kid and became a sportswriter as an adult, because it's quite an unusual story. I'm just emotionally drained and the realization she's gone is just beginning to sink in. I was oddly comforted writing her obituary for the funeral home, but penning something along the lines of Sally Jenkins above is out of my reach for the moment. I commend her for her way with words, especially in the wake of losing a parent.
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This is Digest issue No. 158, published March 10, 2019.
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