Thoughts on Peter Gammons

Back when I was in high school, I admired and revered Peter Gammons. He was my hero. I wanted to be him. Long given up my professional baseball dreams, I merely wanted to learn as much as I could about the game, to be the smartest source of baseball knowledge there was, and to be able to put it into text eloquently.

So I listened and read with the utmost attention to everything he wrote and said. I researched him, I even applied to wear he went to college (UNC), figuring that whatever school he went to must be great to turn out a talent such as he.

Well now I'm not studying journalism, let alone sports journalism. All I have is this ill-read baseball blog mostly for my own use, and not much else. But my dee p respect for Peter Gammons remains undaunted. There was never a better baseball analyst/reporter, and he's largely credited for revolutionizing the field of baseball journalism.

He never blurred the lines between reporting and color commentary, as too many baseball journalist do today, but was able to talk eloquently on both fronts. He was notoriously a gentleman, a man liked by executives, players, and reporters alike.

I'm a good writer, but not a great one. And it's not like I know Gammons personally. So it's hard to convey how someone who doesn't know I exist means so much me. I wish I could write a column like the one Buster Olney wrote below:

http://insider.espn.go.com/espn/blog/index?entryID=4733669&name=olney_buster&action=upsell&appRedirect=http%3a%2f%2finsider.espn.go.com%2fespn%2fblog%2findex%3fentryID%3d4733669%26name%3dolney_buster

No, he's not leaving the game entirely, but the fact is that it will take quite the individual to fill his shoes, and right not, baseball feels a little empty without his ubiquitous words.