The Best of Hal Lebovitz
Great Sportswriting from Six Decades in Cleveland
by Hal Lebovitz
- Format: Softcover, 352 pages, 5.5 x 8.5 inches
- ISBN: 978-1-59851-023-2
- Price: $14.95
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Description
Here, collected for the first time, are the best columns and feature stories by Cleveland's greatest living sportswriter.
Hal Lebovitz is a true major league hall-of-famer. Enshrined in the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, he's still at the top of his game after six decades on the beat for the Cleveland News, the Plain Dealer, the News-Herald, and others.
Several generations of sports fans have grown up reading Hal Lebovitz on the sports pages.
Hal has covered just about every major sports event of the past 60 years, reporting on each with honest, straightforward words and firm opinions—and most likely a scoop on the competition.
He has written about the greats of living memory—Jim Brown, Bob Feller, Ted Williams, Woody Hayes . . . and the great moments—the Indians' 1948 playoff game, the Browns' 1964 championship season, Rocky Colavito's four consecutive home runs . . .
His writing has been featured 17 times in the annual Best Sports Stories and selected for numerous other anthologies. He has won countless writing awards and been inducted into 12 halls of fame.
“Ask Hal, the Referee,” his long-running column, also appeared nationally in the Sporting News, establishing Hal as one of the foremost experts on sports rule books. (Which explains why his home phone sometimes rings in the middle of a World Series game, the producers from NBC or Fox calling for an interpretation of an on-field ruling.)
Always, Hal has written for the fans. And for as long as anyone can remember, fans have been reading Hal for his particular take on events. His constant, steady presence in the local sports pages for so many decades has made Hal Lebovitz a legitimate icon in Cleveland sports—a guy who, with his typewriter, has been as remarkable and consistent and rare as a .400 hitter.
Reviews
- “I strongly endorse this book for anyone who loves Cleveland sports, or who simply wants to read a Hall of Fame writer at the top of his game.” — Akron Beacon Journal
- “Both sports fans and casual fans will enjoy Lebovitz's honest and straightforward style.” — Bedford Times-Register
- “A unique opportunity to become better acquainted with a brilliant writer, a keen observer of truths and lies, and a true Clevelander. This one shouldn't be missed.” — Currents
- “Lebovitz is a man who's compassionate about Cleveland and the sports teams affiliated with it. He's dedicated his life to bringing you the fan the honest straight forward truth about the world of sports . . .
If you love reading about the history of Cleveland sports, there is no better way to do it than through the words of Hal Lebovitz . . . Lebovitz is widely regarded as Cleveland's greatest living sportswriter.” — Cleveland.com - “[This] collection of columns from the Cleveland sportswriter's 55-year career is an educational walk through Cleveland sports history. Lebovitz, now nearing 90, gave fair, honest and genuinely warm treatment to some of Cleveland's greatest Black athletes, among them Luke Easter, Satchel Paige, Jim Brown, Paul Warfield, Jesse Owens and even George Hendrick.” — Call & Post
About Hal Lebovitz
Hal Lebovitz, who was inducted into the writer's wing of the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2000, was a sportswriter for more than six decades. He got his first job covering high school sports for the Cleveland News in 1942 and soon became a beat writer covering the Cleveland Browns and Cleveland Indians. He was hired by the Plain Dealer in 1960 to cover baseball and was that paper's sports editor from 1964–1982. “Ask Hal, the Referee,” his popular column on sports rules, began in 1957 and also appeared in the Sporting News. A former college athlete, he also coached baseball, basketball, and football and officiated all three sports, including a stint as a referee traveling with the Harlem Globetrotters. His sportswriting continued to appear regularly in the News-Herald (Lake County, Ohio), the Morning Journal (Lorain, Ohio), and several other newspapers, until his death, at age 89, in 2005. More About Hal Lebovitz
Contains References to:
Please Don't Cut a Boy, 1948 Indians, 1948 World Series, 1964 Browns, Bill Veeck, Blanton Collier, Bob Feller, Casey Stengal, Clark Kellogg, Cleveland Municipal Stadium, Cleveland Plain Dealer, Cleveland Press, Hal Lebovitz, Jim Brown, Lou Boudreau, Luke Easter, Paul Brown, Paul Warfield, Rocky Colavito, Satchel Paige, Ted Williams, Woody Hayes
Other books by Hal Lebovitz:
If you like The Best of Hal Lebovitz, then you should try:
- Heroes, Scamps, and Good Guys by Bob Dolgan
- The View from Pluto (hc) by Terry Pluto