The stories that are most unfamiliar, the ones that seem to come out of the blue about people that aren’t well known, usually come from producers that have really done a lot of homework and looked around. Other stories come from the correspondents. Frank Deford Read Quote
Quickness and momentum. You take the whole last generation of sports, listening to them, even reading about them, watching the games, analyzing them, arguing about them, instant-replaying them, second-guessing them, and all you’ll distill from them is quickness and momentum. Frank Deford Read Quote
To write long pieces – or not even long pieces – to write stuff like the columns of Red Smith and people like that – they’re different then what it is today. Everything today is based on x’s and o’s. Inside baseball, it’s all, ‘Who’s gonna win?’ or you’re comparing things – it’s not as thoughtful as it used to be. Frank Deford Read Quote
To compare writing an article for ‘Sports Illustrated’ to doing a piece for ‘Real Sports’, the article, it was all me. You know, I’m out there by myself with my pad and pencil. ‘Real Sports,’ I’ve got a producer, an assistant producer, and cameramen. It’s an individual game versus a team game. Frank Deford Read Quote
In days of yore, Opening Day of the baseball season was special, signifying that spring had come at last. Today, however, Opening Day sort of dribbles into existence, and the spiritual start of spring now belongs to the Masters golf tournament, where the azaleas and magnolias and dogwood bloom. Frank Deford Read Quote
Once again it is peaceful at Augusta National Golf Club, after some rather ugly stand-offs in recent years, when the club balked at changing its all-white, all-male membership tradition. African-Americans and female Americans are on the club manifest now along with other golf-Americans, and all is serene once again. Frank Deford Read Quote
Yes, the Masters is too stylish to be an American icon. It’s as out of character for Uncle Sam as a McDonald’s is for France. Frank Deford Read Quote
Despite the fact that every sport this side of badminton worries about concussions that result in brain damage, CTE, the National Hockey League refuses to accept the overwhelming medical science. Good grief – the NHL still permits fights. Frank Deford Read Quote
