It was an ideal day for football - too cold for the spectators and too cold for the players

My best girl is dead.

Look at him and you'd think he's 16. Talk to him and you think he's 26. Talk baseball with him, and you'd think he's 36.

I've had many writing heroes, writers who have influenced me. ...When I was very young as a sportswriter I knowingly and unashamedly imitated others ... But slowly, by what process I have no idea, your own writing tends to crystallize, to take shape. Yet you've learned some moves from all these guys and they are somehow incorporated into your own style. Pretty soon you're not imitating any longer.

The mark of great sportsmen is not how good they are at their best, but how good they are their worst.

We used to go after school every day, before and after sports practice, and we always played football in his backyard.