Longtime Los Angeles sports reporter Joe Resnick dies at 62

Joe Resnick, a correspondent who covered Los Angeles sports for the Associated Press for more than three decades, died Sunday after a six-month struggle with cancer. He was 62.

Resnick died at home under hospice care, according to close friend Ed Munson.

A 1976 graduate of Emerson College, Resnick was a constant presence at all professional and college sports in the Los Angeles area. His first love was baseball, and there weren’t many Dodgers or Angels games played without him being in the press box. He lived in Downey because it was approximately halfway between the Dodgers and Angels stadiums.

He freelanced for many of the nation’s largest newspapers and also worked at Hollywood Park and for Fox Sports, and was a press volunteer at the Los Angeles Olympics.

“I worked with him for 25 years, and no one prepared for a game like Joe did,” said John Nadel, a sports writer for the Associated Press in Los Angeles for 32 years who retired in 2009. “There was no one who took the job more seriously and cared more about it than Joe. He will be missed.”

Two weeks ago, he was presented with the Bob Hunter Award by the Los Angeles chapter of the Baseball Writers Assn. of America, an honor for meritorious coverage of baseball.

A native of Brooklyn, Resnick moved to Los Angeles in 1984 after working in the Associated Press’ New York sports office for five years. Of the many events he covered for the Associated Press, he was most recognized for his handling of the West Coast Conference playoff game in 1990 when Hank Gathers of Loyola Marymount collapsed and died on the court.

Resnick is survived by an uncle and two nieces. Services were pending.

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