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Dave Anderson, a distinguished sports writer whose elegant descriptive prose won a Pulitzer Prize for his comments as a columnist for the New York Times, died Thursday. He was 89 years old.
He died in an assisted living center in Cresskill, New Jersey, the Times reported. He worked in the newspaper from 1966 to 2007.
A baseball, NFL, boxing and golf specialist, Anderson has written 21 books, received the 1994 Red Smith Award for outstanding contributions to sports journalism from Associated Press Sports editors and was inducted into the Temple of the Renowned national sports writers and broadcasters in 1990. He was known for his warmth towards friends and strangers and for his unfailing politeness.
His Pulitzer quoted six columns from 1980. The most memorable was "The Food on a Table at the Run," describing the scene at George Steinbrenner's Yankee Stadium office, when the New York owner expelled the rookie manager Dick Howser while he remained two years at his contract.
New York scored 103-59 in the regular season but was swept 3-0 by Kansas City in the AL Championship series. Steinbrenner gave the implausible explanation that Howser had decided to leave baseball for real estate development in Florida. Howser and his successor, Gene Michael, were on hand for the announcement.
"Yesterday, near George Steinbrenner's office door at Yankee Stadium, there were two trays of roast beef, turkey and ham roast sandwiches, each with a toothpick," Anderson wrote then. As soon as 14 invited journalists entered his office for the execution of Dick Howser as manager and Gene Michael's transfer from general manager to postmaster, Steinbrenner, the main owner of the Yankees looked around him . " Does any one want sandwiches? "We have a lot of sandwiches here."
After describing the delicate scene and distorted explanations, Anderson finished his 1,000-word speech by quoting what Steinbrenner said after Howser left the room: "Nobody ate sandwiches."
Anderson was born in Troy, New York, on May 6, 1929, attended Xavier High School and received a BA in English Literature from Holy Cross.
A few months after graduating in 1951, he became an office worker for the Brooklyn Eagle and began playing baseball the following year, when he received the # 457 Baseball Writers & # 397 card. Association of America. He would rank first in 2001.
When Harold C. Burr, the famous composer of the Dodgers at Eagle, broke his hip during a fall in a Cincinnati hotel on a road trip in 1953, sports writer Lou Niss charged Anderson with replace it.
"I've learned this profession in self-defense, I've mostly kept my mouth shut," wrote Anderson in an article for an unpublished book on the history of BBWAA, written by Bill Shannon . "I listened to other writers interviewing manager Charlie Dressen and the players I read what each of them had written, if only to compare their stories of the day to I had taken the right angle in the afternoon, had I forgotten something, and did Dick Young beat everyone? "
Young was a baseball writer for the New York Daily News. He was known for his coverage, which included the comments of players before and after the game at a time when most journalists refused to talk to athletes.
"During those years, Dick Young was the only writer in the morning to visit the clubhouse regularly after a game," Anderson wrote in the unpublished book. "Harold Rosenthal and Roger Kahn, who covered for the Herald Tribune, went there from time to time, but the other writers of the morning paper rarely went there, Michael Gaven of the Journal-American usually went there." Bill Roeder of the World-Telegram Sun, Sid Friedlander of the Post and Jack Lang of Long Island Press have always been there, and I've always followed them, how could you not do it? "
Anderson was about to leave for spring training in 1955 when members of the Newspaper Guild's Eagle hit and the paper folded. He was hired by the New York Journal-American to write a sports column in Brooklyn.
Ten years later, he moved to the Times and became a sports columnist in 1971 alongside Red Smith. He was involved in a controversy in 2002 when the Daily News announced that the Times was refusing to publish articles by Anderson and Harvey Araton about the Augusta Golf Club's refusal to admit women.
A Times editorial said: "Tiger Woods, who has won the Masters three times, could just choose to stay home in April." After the Daily News, Times editors said they did not publish the article because editor Howell Raines thought it gave the appearance of internal quarrels with the editorial board. The column then followed with the advance: "Please, let Tiger Woods play golf."
Anderson retired as a full-time columnist in 2007, reducing his workload to about 18 chronicles a year early.
Anderson, who lived in Tenafly, New Jersey, is survived by his sons Stephen and Mark, as well as his daughters, Jo and Jean-Marie, the Times said.
In his article for the unpublished book, Anderson recalled covering the Dodgers' last game at Ebbets Field in 1957 before moving to Los Angeles.
"After the match, in the press on the floor, Bill Roeder and I were the last to finish our afternoon stories," wrote Anderson. "After handing them over to the Western Union teletype operator, we took the small elevator up to the ground level and walked behind the marble rotunda to the small door located at the front of the house. 39, entrance of the night watchman.
"When we approached the door, I stopped and let Bill Roeder walk through it, and I realized that I would be the last baseball writer to leave Ebbets Field after the last Dodger match. Put it on my gravestone. "
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