- Jim Murray
On August 16th, 1998, just before Midnight, the world lost one of the Great Ones. Not an athlete or a rock star. Nor an actor or famous director. The world lost a sportswriter. Not just any old sportswriter. Likely the greatest ever to pick up a pencil and put it to paper. The world lost James “Jim” Patrick Murray. And the sports page will never be the same again.
Now, I know you’re used to seeing music news here but today I had to deviate from the norm for just a moment to reflect on the career of someone that touched many lives for 37 years as a columnist for the Los Angeles Times. Jim, as everyone called him, was a Pulitzer Prize winner. He was inducted into the writer’s wing of the Baseball Hall of Fame. He’s in the Boxing Hall of Fame. You’d be hard pressed to find a Hall of Fame of Sport that Jim isn’t in. He was all that and more. Oh yeah, he was also my step-father to the very end.
On August 17th, just after midnight on the 16th, I got the news. The end of an era. The loss of a loved one. The passing of a legend. Now, I knew Jim. We talked over cereal. We played golf. He took me to see the Dodgers, the Kings , the Lakers and the Clippers. The very first baseball game Jim took me to was in 1986 in New York City when the Mets played the Red Sox in the World Series. Yes…it was the game when Bill Buckner let the ball go between his legs.
We shared crossword puzzles. I’d answer the ones that were Pop Culture for him and he’d answer the ones that were beyond my years for me. Jim’s wit and humor carried beyond the sports page and into his daily life. Never did a day with Jim go by that you didn’t find yourself laughing outloud at least a half a dozen times.
For those unfamiliar with Jim’s prose, here’s a few I love:
On St. Louis: “…had a bond issue recently and the local papers campaigned for it on a slogan PROGRESS OR DECAY, and decay won in a landslide.”
On Cincinnati: “They still haven’t finished the freeway outside the ballpark . . . it’s Kentucky’s turn to use the cement mixer.”
On the Indy 500: “Gentlemen, start your coffins.”
On Ricky Henderson: “His strike zone is as small as Hitler’s heart.”
On Magic Johnson: “Giving ‘Magic’ the basketball is like giving Hitler an army, Jesse James a gang, or Genghis Knan a horse. Devastation. Havoc.”
And to quote Jim on any number of occasions following a sporting event. “Well, no one ran the wrong way…again.”
When asked how it went following completion of a column, Jim would comment, “It was a knife fight.” He always won the fight.
That was Jim Murray.
The Jim Murray Memorial Foundation continues to perpetuate the legacy of the worlds most beloved sportswriter through journalism scholarships for college students. To date the foundation has awarded 73 scholarships for over $350,000. If you’d like more info on the foundation or would like to donate to the cause, the website is www.jimmurrayfoundation.org.
