There were a lot of things that turned little Rob Neyer into medium Rob Neyer, but one of those things was a book wrapped in a bright yellow cover, with no dustjacket:
An Amazin’ man leaves us
I believe my mom presented me with that exact book when I was six or seven years old. I would love to report that I spent my entire summer between the second and third grade memorizing every word. I did not do that. But the book did serve as my entrée into the world of sports information, a world that I found (and still find) immensely comforting.
Wednesday, the author of that wonderful tome left us ...
Bill Mazer, who was a voice and face of sports coverage in New York for decades, pioneering sports-talk radio and becoming a television fixture while earning the nickname the Amazin’ for his encyclopedic recall of sports facts and figures, died on Wednesday in Danbury, Conn. He was 92.
--snip--
When Mr. Mazer retired in 2009, he had spent more than 60 years in broadcasting — 20 of them as a nightly sports anchor and the host of the weekend roundup "Sports Extra" on WNEW-TV, Channel 5. Before then he had been a host of sports-talk radio when the very idea of the format was new.
I grew up in the Midwest and never knew any of that. I just knew him as the guy who did the yellow book. Keith Olbermann didn't grow up in the Midwest, and knew Mazer as much more. From Wednesday night's show:
Man, I hope I die before Olbermann and he’s willing to say nice things about me.
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