‘Dear God . . . Here’s Mud in Your Eye’ --JOSEPH W. PITCHFORD, Bermuda Dunes

I learned to enjoy Allan Malamud’s column 22 years ago at the breakfast table with my father. . . .

I eagerly read his column as an adult. . . .

I learned Allan always reserved his final “Note on a Scorecard” for heartfelt obituaries when friends and colleagues passed away. . . .

I appreciated his gracious comments when my father passed away in December 1991. . . .

I wonder how Allan would write his own goodbye. . . .

“Sportswriting lost a passionate and genuine professional this week. His viewpoint was always insightful. His comments always above the belt. His column always the first read in the morning.”

CHRIS SCIBELLI

Son of Joe Scibelli

Los Angeles Rams, 1961-1975

*

When I went to USC journalism school they scolded me to break my habit of turning to the sports section first. I would learn to read the “real news” first, they said. Well, I confess: I still turn to sports first, and, rest his soul, the first story I would read every morning was Allan Malamud’s column. I don’t know when this habit started, but I am so sad it has to end. As one of his loyal, faceless readers, I will never forget this man I never met.

BELMA JOHNSON

Beverly Hills

*

A few years ago, when that year’s Rose Bowl Hall of Fame inductees were announced, Allan Malamud’s comments were something like “ . . . were good choices. But [he named his own choice whom I cannot remember] would have also been a good choice.”

I faxed him my choice (USC’s Amby Schindler) and said that he would have also been a good choice. Allan called my answering machine and said: “Amby would be deserving too, but they have a tough job and are doing very well.”

So hesitant to criticize. He could use the word but so cleverly. He could criticize and make you feel good about it--a trait that, in current times, too many writers are sadly in need of.

To know what is going on, everywhere, and put it into such simple form, day after day, was the rare gift Malamud had. The morning Times will indeed now seem very empty.

M.R. “ROSIE” ROSENLOF

Carson

*

I never read the Herald Examiner, so I didn’t come to know “Mud” until 1989. That first morning I read his column I remember thinking: “This is sportswriting? For crying out loud, I could do this.”

It wasn’t until weeks later that I noticed I was routinely turning to his column first thing every morning. He was so easy and entertaining to read. A year later I found myself copying that same style of using sports vignettes when I began to write the newsletter for the Amateur Athletic Foundation of Los Angeles.

Recently I saw the movie “Tin Cup.” At the very end when Mud came on screen I nudged my wife and said loudly enough for those around me to hear, “Honey, that’s Allan Malamud.” I don’t know how many others recognized him, but I wanted everyone to know that I did. She didn’t know who he was then, but when I woke her this morning with news of his death, she remembered him. That’s all any of us can do now.

STEVE RUTLEDGE

Santa Monica

*

I always complained whenever Allan Malamud went on vacation and “Notes on a Scorecard” was not in the paper: “Dammit! I should call those guys and tell them that Allan Malamud can’t go on vacation! I need my column!”

ROBYN R. ROGERS

Los Angeles

*

In 1956-58, I was a member (along with Allan) of the L.A. Examiner’s Scholastic Sports Assn. (SSA), an organization of 20 or so young fellows who were sports editors and writers of their high school newspapers. We met every Monday night at the Examiner offices to learn sportswriting under the tutelage of crusty Ralph Alexander of the Examiner. On Friday nights, we would take phone calls from field correspondents for high school football or basketball games to write short stories for the Examiner sports page.

We had quite a group of exceptional 14- to 17-year-olds, including Allan Malamud; Mitch Chortkoff, who became a noted sportswriter; Vic Holchak, who went on to report for ABC radio sports; Stan Sanders, the baby among us, who has become a leader in the L.A. community; Jeff Breslaw, founder of Penguin’s Frozen Yogurt, and me, Dave Tsoneff, former president of Thomas Bros. Maps and senior vice president of the Walt Disney Co.

One thing we all knew--Malamud was the star among us, the guy who really loved sports more than anything in life and who knew how to express that love with the written word. Mud as a 15- and 16-year-old already seemed to the rest of us to be an adult--a Damon Runyan character come to life.

Boy, was he special. He will be sorely missed.

DAVID P. TSONEFF

Huntington Beach

*

Angelenos, notably old-timers with memories about big games and sports people, mourn the loss of Allan Malamud. He was that rare columnist whose bits and pieces made the roar of the crowd and smell of a jersey alive for us all.

I found Bill Plaschke’s remembrance--that the beauty of Malamud’s column was that he wrote it by listening, then jotting in a tiny wrinkled notebook--insightful. The late Red Smith had the same disciplined memory.

JOE SCOTT

Los Angeles

*

I lost a friend on Monday. I never met him, never corresponded with him, never talked with him on the phone. He was a friend nevertheless. Four mornings a week, I awoke to read his column first with my morning coffee. When he had the day off I felt disappointed.

The column was wonderful. Insightful, easy to read, and a whole lot of information not available elsewhere packed into a few words. Oh yes, the opinion was there, but it was carefully labeled as such amid all the data.

He will be sorely missed. He left all of us a brick short.

MARSHALL LABOW

Los Angeles

*

When Los Angeles builds its next sports stadium, let’s not call it 3Com Park, AM-PM Minimart Field or L.A. Times Stadium. Simply name it Malamud Stadium. If San Diego can have Jack Murphy Stadium, why not? Fans can say they’re going to “the Mud” tonight. Maybe we can even name our new team the Mudslingers.

ERIC CORWIN

Los Angeles

*

Malamud’s column was always the first thing I turned to in the sports section. He was my favorite sportswriter because of his easy yet informative writing style, but mostly because he was the most knowledgeable writer I ever read in Los Angeles. His “Notes on a Scorecard” has often been imitated but never equaled.

MARK WHALEN

Pasadena

*

At the end of the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary, Allan Malamud threatened to call me in the middle of the night, when I was least expecting it, and tell me to meet him in the Archie Boyce Arena, where they had held most of the news conferences.

If he did, I told him, I’d make him sit through two complete showings of “Fever Pitch,” which even his Oscar-caliber performance couldn’t save from becoming the only movie ever to be awarded no stars by both Siskel and Ebert.

The way I figure it, Mud should be walking up to God any minute now and saying, “Nice place you’ve got here. . . . Seen any good movies lately? . . . And, hey, which way to the $2 window?”

RON RAPOPORT

Chicago

*

Great job on Malamud [Tuesday]. Allan, Mitch Chortkoff, Steve Bisheff, Avrum Dansky, Mike Waldner and I all came out of high schools and colleges in L.A. and went to work there in the early to middle ‘60s. Mud was what sportswriting used to be. We honor the memory of so many other people less deserving than Mud, so it is good to see The Times and other Southern California papers gave him the proper respect.

ART SPANDER

Oakland

*

Sept. 16, 6:03 a.m.: Walked to my front porch as I do every morning to get my copy of the L.A. Times and as I have done for the last 16 years, turned to Page 2 to get my fix of Allan Malamud’s Notes on a Scorecard.

6:04: Read, “Allan Malamud is on vacation.” Said to myself, “That guy took three days off, get back to work.” I hate these days.

6:40 p.m: Saw on TV that Allan Malamud had passed away.

6:41: I realized, even though I never met Columnist Mud, I lost a friend who used to talk to me four times a week. When I open the sports section, I will always remember my friend and the talks we had.

ALBERT PENA JR.

Montebello

*

After reading comments from Allan Malamud’s friends and colleagues I’ve gotten an insight into what a great human being he was. All his peers spoke of his “kindness.” I think as a tribute to Allan, we should all set the paper down for a second and remember to be kind to one another. Mud would have liked it.

PAUL J. ROBLES

Commerce

*

I can picture it now: Jim Healy and Allan Malamud in the press box of Heavenly Downs, debating the merits of one pony or another, some upcoming championship fight, the pennant race or a USC-UCLA game. “Is it true?” Healy would ask, as Malamud would simply sit and smile that beatific smile of his while uttering one pearl after another.

DANIEL LUBIN

San Pedro

*

Like most everybody, I hate getting out of bed in the morning. Allan Malamud for years made this endeavor acceptable.

I’ll miss you, you lousy Trojan.

MICHAEL HANNIN

Woodland Hills

*

Look-alikes: Allan Malamud and a world-class journalist.

MARK S. SCOTT

Long Beach