When Sportswriting Can Be Called the Sweet Science

The Pulitzer Prizes were announced Monday. I didn’t win one. Again.

I was glad to see, however, that a sports story was honored. It was a poignant feature by Lisa Pollak of the Baltimore Sun about umpire John Hirschbeck, who lost one son, has another with the same illness and, unlike the fans Monday in Kansas City, knows that life is too short to obsess on Roberto Alomar.

For the second time in a week, I was reminded of how marvelous sportswriting can be. The press box at Santa Anita was dedicated Saturday to my late predecessor in this space, Allan Malamud, a few days after he was remembered in New York with the Boxing Writers Assn. of America’s A.J. Liebling Award.

There could be no better reward for a boxing writer than to be associated with Liebling, who brought the same style and substance to his art that Muhammad Ali did to his, floating like a butterfly and stinging like a bee.

Liebling said one great champion was all a man could expect in a lifetime.

His was Rocky Marciano.

Of Marciano, Liebling once wrote: “It is not customary for the champion to come in first, but Marciano has never been a stickler for protocol. . . . The champion doesn’t mind waiting five or ten minutes to give anyone a punch in the nose.”

On undersized, big-hearted Archie Moore, training to fight Marciano: “I thought of him as a lonely Ahab rehearsing to buck Herman Melville. . . . I did not think he could bring it off, but I wanted to be there when he tried. What would ‘Moby Dick’ be if Ahab had succeeded? Just another fish story.”

On anti-boxing crusaders: “Why isn’t there a campaign against ballet? It gives girls thick legs.”

Liebling’s boxing prose from the New Yorker was collected for an anthology. If you have a sports library, it isn’t complete without “The Sweet Science.”

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Jack Kent Cooke, who died Sunday, wasn’t a writer, but he, like Liebling, cared deeply about the English language, to the extent he made sure reporters knew how to punctuate his sentences. . . .

Responding once to a question about his Washington Redskins, Cooke said: “The club is in first-class hands. Colon. Edward Bennett Williams. Period.” . . .

Randy Newman, who composed “I Love L.A.” and other semi-serious songs, was asked by National Public Radio how he’d speed up baseball games if he were commissioner. “I’d lower Denver,” he said. . . .

But you can’t blame high altitude for that four-hour, 20-minute, nine-inning game in Chicago between the White Sox and Detroit. . . .

One of Cooke’s five marriages didn’t last that long. . . .

Free House, who won the Santa Anita Derby on Saturday, was named for “Nellie Dean’s Free House Bar” in Elstead Mill, England. . . .

A Kentucky Derby without Wayne Lukas, who has won the last two Triple Crown races and seven of the last eight? That would be as strange as an NCAA tournament without his old friend, Bob Knight. . . .

Gary Stevens was humble last week about his penchant for riding winners in big races after they’ve been jilted by other jockeys, crediting good luck and a good agent, Ron Anderson. . . .

Stevens knows how quickly racing fortunes can change, as he was reminded Thursday when Singspiel won the $4-million Dubai World Cup. Jerry Bailey rode the horse after you-know-who gave him up. “I feel like the biggest idiot in the world,” Stevens said. . . .

Wooden Award chairman Duke Llewellyn is still fuming about the snubs by Rick Pitino and Ron Mercer, who didn’t attend Friday’s ceremony at the L.A. Athletic Club. . . .

“Rick Pitino’s a fine coach, but there’s such a thing as good manners,” Llewellyn said. . . .

New York prep basketball standout Lamar Odom, who verbally committed Sunday to Nevada Las Vegas, said last summer he wanted to go to UCLA. But Steve Lavin had no chance to get him in school. In an attempt to elevate his grade-point average, Odom recently enrolled in his third high school since last fall. . . .

Tom Candiotti hasn’t adjusted to his role as a relief pitcher, but he has developed a sense of humor about it. He’s calling himself “Goose.” . . .

Sweden’s Annika Sorenstam has won three tournaments and finished second twice since getting married. . . .

Perhaps her LPGA Tour compatriot, Helen Alfredsson, should pay attention. She has been engaged for 10 years to Cal State Los Angeles soccer Coach Leo Cuellar.

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While wondering if Troy Percival couldn’t go back to drinking just a cup or two of coffee, I was thinking: The Lakers would be better off meeting Seattle in the playoffs than Portland or Phoenix, the Kings can host the Clippers’ annual lottery party, the Redskins’ new home should be named Jack Kent Cooke Stadium. Period.