| The Best & Worst of Bill Christine: Or, Fifty Years in the Sports Writing Game Written by Bill Christine Book Details Full Color Cover & B/W Interior Size: 6" x 9" Pages: Net Yet Determined Hardback ISBN: 978-0-9840418-4-8 ABOUT THIS BOOK Early in his career Bill Christine interviewed the legendary baseball player Jackie Robinson, while the retired ballplayer was stumping in an effort to get Richard Nixon elected president. Christine was there when the first African-American played in the Masters, and he wrote a biography of Roberto Clemente. From this auspicious start, he moved on to the Los Angeles Times where he covered horse racing for a quarter-century. He currently works for the Daily Racing Form and contributes articles to a variety of Internet websites. He has also taken the time to reflect on more than fifty years in the sports writing game. He doesn't remember quill and parchment, but his career does bridge the typewriter to the laptop. The Best & Worst of Bill Christine: Or, Fifty Years in the Sports Writing Game is the culmination of his efforts. The piece can be best described as part anthology, part potpourri, but for the most part a memoir. Along the way, Christine introduces us to a number of characters he met during his career. For instance, he recalls the gangster Buster Wortman, the balloon salesman Mister Diz, Tiny McHale and the gang at Heaney's bar in Queens,and the racing crowd at Esposito's across the street from Belmont Park. He also takes us back to the time he watched Dancer's Image lose the Kentucky Derby on a mysterious disqualification, and the days he spent covering Secretariat's sweep of the Triple Crown, as well as the incredible winning streaks of Cigar and Zenyatta. There are also intimate snapshots of Tennessee Williams and Duke Ellington at play. What do they have to do with sports? Nothing, but Christine asks that you not hold that against him. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Bill Christine, who was born in East St. Louis, Illinois, and educated at Southern Illinois University, wanted to be a movie critic, but when he panned "Separate Tables" for his college newspaper, and the real critics and the Oscar voters disagreed, he figured it was time for Plan B. That led to a fifty-year, prize-winning career in sports writing, marked by stops at newspapers in East St. Louis, Baltimore, Louisville, Pittsburgh (twice), Chicago, and Los Angeles. He was sports editor of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Along the way, he found time to work at a racetrack, and for the Thoroughbred Racing Associations, an international trade group. His final stop was at the Los Angeles Times, where he wrote about horses and horsemen for twenty-four years, winning a pair of Eclipse Awards and other accolades. Christine's "Roberto!" was a biography of the Pittsburgh Pirate Hall of Famer, Roberto Clemente. Besides baseball and horse racing, he has covered professional football, basketball and soccer, collegiate sports, and written about golf, tennis, boxing, bowling and, in what he jokingly describes as a “weak moment,” covered rowing and canoeing at the 1984 Olympic Games. Christine is the father of two adult daughters and is twice a grandfather. He continues to write, for the Daily Racing Form and other publications, and lives with his wife Pat in Redondo Beach, California. Before this book, Bill wrote a novel about a passel of characters who tried to connive their way to fortune in Baltimore in the 1960s. The working title for the piece was, "A First Novel in Need of a Publisher." |
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