When I was a kid growing up in Brooklyn, we didn’t have things we take for granted today, like 4K TV’S, smartphones, and the internet.
We didn’t go online back then, we would go outside. We had rotary phones and when you dialed a number, you actually “dialed” a number. And the only multiplayer games I played were flipping cards, stickball, and baseball.
I really loved baseball. I loved playing it, I loved watching it and most of all, I loved reading about it. Aside from the Mets and Yankees, if you wanted to know what was going on in the rest of the NL or AL, you would have to read about it in Sports Illustrated or my absolute favorite — Baseball Digest.
I couldn’t wait each month for the latest issue of Baseball Digest to go on sale. I would read it cover to cover in one night and a dozen more times before the next issue came out. I loved doing their quizzes and of course the crossword puzzle, but it was all the stories and features packed within, that I loved the most.
The best articles were the ones that transported you the game itself or to some memorable moment that you could just visualize in your mind. They were written by baseball columnists and writers who really knew how to tell a great story and to do it with such flair and eloquence.
They always made it feel like you were right there, smack-dab in the middle of all the action. Those writers were the absolute best and the cream of the crop.
Marty Noble was one such writer… And tonight I was saddened to learn that he has passed away. He died Sunday evening while at a ballgame, according to his family. He was 70 years old.
Marty was an incredible storyteller who for many, many years, fed my addiction for the New York Mets. He was a brilliant journalist who wrote with such conviction, style, and eloquence.
He was the Ernest Hemingway of baseball writers and few if any were better at their craft than Marty Noble.
Marty’s passion for the Mets was on par with my own and I don’t say that lightly.
I’m gonna miss him.
Farewell Marty, rest in peace.
