Editorial Content for It's All About the Players: What I've Learned from Baseball's Best

You often hear about baseball lifers, people who almost always start off as players and spend their entire adult careers in the game. But there are others who should be included as well: broadcasters like Vin Scully, Red Barber and the just-retired Howie Rose, the radio voice of the New York Mets for almost 40 years.

Then there are the writers, such as Thomas Boswell and Shirley Povich, both of whom spent their entire careers with the Washington Post, and Wendell Smith, who covered Black baseball for decades and helped Jackie Robinson navigate the challenges when he broke the color line in 1947. And, of course, The New Yorker’s legendary Roger Angell, who wrote so eloquently about the national pastime almost all the way until his death at the age of 101.

Another gentleman who falls into this category is Peter Gammons, the iconic journalist for the Boston Globe. Gammons, who received the Baseball Writers' Association of America Award for Career Excellence in 2004, almost lost everything when he suffered a brain aneurysm two years later. There were fears that he would lose a lifetime of memories due to the injury. But thankfully for him and baseball fans everywhere, he pulled off a miracle.

"They say you should never meet your heroes. They will only disappoint you when they turn out to be human. I would take that chance with Peter Gammons."

That would have been a terrible loss for those who love to read about their favorite game. Perhaps that’s why Gammons chose to publish IT’S ALL ABOUT THE PLAYERS, as a thank-you for his recovery and to tell the stories of some of the amazing men --- both on the field and in the front office --- he met over his years covering the game.

Gammons does an awesome job, and not just as in great (which it is). When you’ve had as long a career as he has, and met as many wonderful people, it’s an awe-inspiring task to pick which of the thousands of stories to share. Some are more predictable: Cal Ripken Jr., who broke Lou Gehrig’s “iron man” record by playing in 2,632 consecutive games for the Baltimore Orioles; Carl Yastrzemski, who spent his entire 23-year career with the Boston Red Sox; and Ichiro Suzuki, who already had made his fame in Japan before deciding to take his talents to the Major Leagues.

There also are more recent contemporary figures like Bryce Harper, who made the cover of Sports Illustrated when he was just 16 years old and was hailed as the next best thing in baseball.

But it’s actually not all about the players. Gammons has enjoyed relationships (he never just seems to be writing about a subject) with some of the greatest behind-the-scenes folks who do much of the work in putting teams together. Among them are Theo Epstein, the general manager of both the Red Sox and the Chicago Cubs, who had gone without World Series appearances for decades before he took their respective helms. Not to mention the scouts who travel all over the world to find hidden gems like Albert Pujols, the future Hall of Famer who saw more than 400 players selected in the 1999 draft.

Gammons also has been influential with many of his younger media colleagues. According to the Hall of Fame’s website, “Writing with skill and flair in a style filled with allusions to cultural icons from Robert Frost to Warren Zevon, his effortless transition from print reporter to TV analyst helped open the door for many baseball writers at various electronic media outlets across the continent. While later generations grew to know him best as an electronic journalist, the hallmark of Gammons' career remained his service as a print reporter.”

Jayson Stark, one of the best baseball scribes of the last couple of decades, wrote an appropriately emotional afterword, praising Gammons for all of his accomplishments, as well as being a mentor for those who followed him.

They say you should never meet your heroes. They will only disappoint you when they turn out to be human. I would take that chance with Peter Gammons.