As 2009 winds down, I want to pay tribute to my favorite baseball reporter, Peter Gammons, who has made a unique contribution to baseball over the past 40 years.
Gammons, a Hall of Fame member, just left ESPN after 20 years, and will start in new part-time jobs in 2010 with MLB Network and New England Sports Network (NESN), the cable station that covers the Red Sox.
It’s rare to be able to single out one reporter who has influenced you in a significant way, but, I feel I can say that about Peter Gammons.
Gammons has had a tremendous influence on my own appreciation of baseball. I’ve always found his enthusiasm infectious. In fact, sometimes, he cannot contain his own enthusiasm and intrigue as he’s reporting on some baseball development. He spontaneously, excitedly adds nuggets of information as he updates his television audience.
Like many New Englanders, I was lucky enough to read Gammons’ Sunday notes column in the Sunday edition of the Boston Globe years ago. I would pounce on that section eager to learn of any news tidbits or developments impacting the Red Sox. Red Sox fans grew accustomed to Gammons’ strengths, which, to this day, stand out in a world of sportswriting that may be technologically advanced, but is often lacking a thoroughness or originality.
First, Gammons has always been a damned good reporter on baseball. He always found out FAR more than other reporters. To say he “got more scoops” would be the understatement of the century. I don’t think I can identify any other reporter who has covered one of the major sports who has so consistently out-reported his peers by such a large margin.
For Gammons, that superlative reporting has always applied to the Red Sox. Because Gammons got his start on the Boston Globe and is from this area, he always has made it his business to keep his first-hand knowledge of the Sox at the highest level. He used to share his insights and updates about the struggles of Red Sox management, the players and their farm system.
What’s remarkable is that while at ESPN reporting on all of baseball, Gammons OFTEN – and, I mean, a countless number of occasions - has reported original material on the Red Sox, routinely ”scooping” the baseball writers from the Globe, Boston Herald and all other Boston media.
One example, in recent years, illustrates this: Gammons once reported that Sox’ Japanese pitcher Daisuke Matsuzaka had found it difficult to grip and throw the baseball in the US because it was a bit larger than the baseball in Japan. This was fascinating, important news to any Red Sox fan, but, I didn’t find anyone but Gammons providing this information. Another time, Gammons quoted Sox pitching coach John Farrell as saying that he and Dice-K had decided he should use less of his many different pitches in order to be more effective.
This typifies Gammons’ contributions. He ventures into areas that no other reporters even attempt to go. He’s the one who doesn’t let important ground go uncovered while others sit back and add nothing.
As the years have passed, I’ve realized the extent to which Gammons has built and maintained such a rich array of sources. I think he’s been able to maintain those sources partly because of the kind of person he is. People like and respect him. They know he loves baseball, and, they enjoy opening up to him. Gammons has sources at every level — whether it’s GMs, pitching coaches, scouts or guys familiar with who’s coming up at the Cape Cod League.
Of course, I’ve noticed Gammons’ flaws and mistakes over time, also. I think he’s chosen to be a bit easy on some of the steroid abusers, for example. On occasion, he wrote endlessly about a few hot Red Sox prospects, who eventually didn’t make it in the big leagues. (Frank Rodriguez comes to mind) Sometimes, I think Gammons has gotten so close to a few players that it distorted his capacity to report objectively on them. (Alex Rodriguez, for example, who chose to speak to Gammons first to admit his use of steroids) Sometimes Gammons has seemed to reverse himself rather dramatically on certain people in baseball. (Dan Duquette, for example)
Sometimes, I’ve wondered how Gammons can avoid being overly influenced by his apparent close relationships with Sox GM Theo Epstein or Yanks GM Brian Cashman. How can he report objectively on the Sox and Yanks? I’ve wondered. Yet, in the end, when I consider Gammons’ contributions, his flaws or mistakes are ridiculously overshadowed.
Once in the late 1980s, as my brother and I were leaving Fenway Park after the Red Sox had lost a close game, by chance, we found ourselves walking in proximity to Gammons, who was heading out himself – probably on his way to interview a ball player. My brother spontaneously asked him what he thought about how the game ended. Gammons, without a moment’s hesitation, made a spontaneous, specific remark about closer Lee Smith’s inability to throw inside. Then, he disappeared into the crowd. I recalled thinking: “Gammons was just as intense and enthusiastic then as he is on television.”
Gammons has always pursued the details about baseball. Often, unsurprisingly, Gammons has shared his expertise about pitchers, commenting on how or why a pitcher was effective or ineffective in a big playoff game, for instance. It’s the details, after all, that make baseball so fun to follow.
I can think of times I’ve waited in my car, in the parking lot at the grocery store before going in just so I could hear Gammons’ guest spot on a radio sports talk show. “I’ve got to hear Gammons,” I’d tell my daughter, who eventually realized that the “Gammons” name had special meaning
Now, Gammons is so respected that his colleagues openly defer to him whenever a major development unfolds in baseball. Everyone wants to know: “What does Peter think?”
Gammons has reached that status through a lot of hard work, and, he’s someone who deserves it.
I am fortunate that I’ll see Gammons frequently on NESN in 2010. We need more sportswriters like him.
