Verducci, Tom, Wolff, Alexander, McCallum, Jack, Smith, Gary, Wertheim, L. Jon, Elliott, Josh, Swift, E.M., Hoffer, Richard, Rushin, Steve, Habib, Daniel G., Shipnuck, Alan, Lidz, Franz, Kennedy, Kostya, Deford, Frank, Taylor, Phil, Murphy, Austin, Bamberger, Michael, Silver, Michael, Garrity, John, and Taro Greenfeld, Karl
The article presents recollections about some of the most notable events in sports over the past 50 years. No reporter dared ask Joe DiMaggio in 1941 how his record hitting streak was affecting his sex life. But 20 years later the question was fair game for Roger Maris during his quest for 61 home runs. Leaving behind innocence was the price for all those TV sets that had made their way, during those two decades, into 90% of American homes. In 1961 you could see for yourself the first man in space, the first live televised presidential news conference and the first televised run at Babe Ruth's record. The man who saved the NBA was not a seven-foot Stilt, a hick with a sweet jumper or an aerial acrobat with his own fragrance line. It was a short, dour man named Danny Biasone, owner of the Syracuse Nationals. After the 1953-54 season the league's nine owners were worried about poor ratings, rough play and reduced scoring. In the three decades since passage of the legislation--prohibiting discrimination on the basis of gender in educational institutions receiving federal money--the number of females competing in college sports has increased fivefold and the number in high school athletics has multiplied ninefold. Marvin Miller did more than change baseball. By molding the fledgling Major League Baseball Players Association into one of the most powerful trade unions in America, Miller created a model that was followed by professional athletes in basketball, football and hockey, fundamentally altering the economics of professional sports. Miller was chief negotiator and assistant to the president of the rough-and-tumble United Steelworkers Union when he was hired by the players' association in 1966.