A Career Filled With Twists and (Left) Turns

It’s Christmas morning, and rather than ruin the day with any mention of the Dodgers, my gift to you today is a newspaper gem, Shavenau Glick.

You know him better, of course, as Shav, maybe the first victim of a newspaper cutback -- when an editor shortened his name years ago to save space.

Shav has been writing about motorsports for the Times forever. A former poker-playing buddy, I believe, of Johannes Gutenberg, he has survived the death of his wife of 41 years, the passing of his stepson, the loss of a lung, losing two chunks of his head to melanoma, being stabbed in the belly while on assignment and working for Sports Editor Bill Dwyre.

He’s 85 now, and had hotel reservations for the NASCAR race in Daytona in February, but recently they’ve begun to carry him out of places on a stretcher because of dizziness, “unpredictable as an earthquake,” Shav explained, which can be annoying for a newspaperman on deadline.

So on Jan. 16, the only writer for a general-circulation daily newspaper enshrined in the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America will turn in his laptop, his ID badge and call it a career, after 52 years with the Los Angeles Mirror and Times.

It’s a considerable setback for motorsports readers who prefer a little extra meat in their stories, thanks to someone who has been there for every flat tire.

It’s an even bigger loss for those who have worked with the easygoing soul, watching the old newspaperman still get excited about the next person to be interviewed, the next story to write.

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The Glick highlight reel, which stretches back to silent movies, has an “ESPN Classic” feel to it. At 12, he was sitting in the Coliseum watching Babe Didrikson Zaharias win an Olympic gold medal in the javelin; 52 years later, in1984, The Times had him covering the first women’s Olympic cycling event.

He was Jackie Robinson’s classmate at Pasadena Junior College, later his golf buddy, and he recalls with fondness watching Ted Williams play in high school. He interviewed thousands of people, singling out Richard Petty, Jack Nicklaus and Dinah Shore as his favorites.

It’s quite the resume, all right. The Pomona Raceway named its press box after him, and when he didn’t have the proper credentials a few years back, he was unable to talk his way into the Shav Glick Media Center. He enjoys telling the story, which tells you a lot about him.

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I HAD ASKED Chick Hearn and Jim Murray why they were working so late in life and when I asked Glick, I got pretty much the same answer I’d gotten from them.

“I don’t know,” he said. “I have relatives who think I’ve been on vacation all my life, going to places like Daytona, but those are 10-hour days where I’m busting my butt.

“I know when my mother turned 40, I told her, ‘You’ve got to be kidding -- you’re 40! That’s ancient.’ Well, I guess 85 is pretty ancient, but I don’t consider myself old. I’m not as sure-footed as I used to be, but I know people who are 60 who are older than me.”

He began dating a young chick three years ago, Doris, who is now 71, and they’ll be going to the Kentucky Derby, one of the few events Shav hasn’t covered. But before he begins the next chapter in his life, I wanted to know what advice he’d give to a young journalist today.

“Get out of the newspaper business,” he said -- this coming from a man who by his own admission would continue working if his health allowed him.

It’s the contradiction, of course, that accounts for Glick’s biggest contribution to the business. He understands its pitfalls, but he’s been here every day for the last half-century, typewriter and hot metal type to computer and Internet.

It’s been fun, he says, but lately a little exasperating. A few of his stories recently appeared on latimes.com/sportsextra rather than in print, the byproduct of more newspaper cutbacks, and tough on someone used to starting the day with newspaper in hand.

But then in his next breath he is talking about the story he did on “drifting,” and although I have no idea, either, he said he got “hyped” doing it, his curiosity driving him to “go see it for myself.”

He said he always strove to be “fair,” but it’s hard to describe his incredible staying power in the business without dwelling on his enthusiasm and curiosity.

“The gearheads love the machinery, but I don’t,” he said. “My thing has always been people. I’ve got a supercross advance to write before I go, and I’m really eager to interview Bubba Stewart. ... “

I interrupted, teasing that it might be funny if the newspaper wound up running his final story on the Internet, but he didn’t laugh.

“That would piss me off,” he said, obviously the passion still running deep for a job well done. “I’m writing to be in print.”

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These people also live among you:

Bradley A. Luster: “I will be celebrating my company’s 40th anniversary in L.A. next year and in honor of that I will join the fun and offer $100 for each Clipper win for Mattel Children’s Hospital at UCLA. I challenge my Guardian Friends to match my pledge.”

The Deleray Family (Alicia, John, Zack, Jimmy and Jake): “We’d like to donate $10 per Clippers win and $20 for each playoff win to the Children’s Hospital. We don’t exactly have the income of Corey Maggette and Donald Sterling, so for us, this is a lot of money. ...”

That’s $1,810 in donations for the kids for each Clipper win.

Merry Christmas, indeed.

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T.J. Simers can be reached at t.j.simers@latimes.com. To read previous columns by Simers, go to latimes.com/simers.