"A New York Treasure" --Village Voice

BGS 2012: Gold Rush

Bronx Banter turned ten in November and to celebrate I thought it’d be cool to reprint a few classic articles. I figured we’d run five pieces but one thing led to another and now we’ve got a series cooking with three feature stories each week. The idea is to present great magazine and newspaper writing that you can’t find on-line.

In case you’ve missed any of them, here’s a complete listing of what we’ve got so far. And we’re going to keep this moving in 2013. Already, we’ve got gems lined up from the likes of Richard Price, Jack Mann, Larry Merchant, Richard Hoffer, Diane K. Shah, Tom Junod, Rich Cohen, John Schulian, Paul Solotaroff, Leigh Montville, Dan Jenkins, Gary Cartwright, Tom Boswell, Pat Jordan, Ira Berkow, and Tony Kornheiser.

The Banter Gold Standard:

“The End of Lenny Bruce” by Dick Schaap

“The Strange and Mysterious Death of Mrs. Jerry Lee Lewis” by Richard Ben Cramer

“Furry’s Blues” by Stanley Booth

The Boxing Gym”

“The Impression”

“Seven Scenes from the life of a Quiet Champion”
by Pete Dexter

“The Best-Kept Secret in American Journalism is Murray Kempton” by David Owen

Jimmy Cannon and Murray Kempton on Don Larsen and Sal Maglie

“The Life and Loves of the Real McCoy” by John Lardner

“L.T. and the Home Team” by John Ed Bradley

“Sympathy for the Devi”l by Joe Flaherty

“North Hollywood Forty” by Peter Gent

“The Clear Line” by Luc Sante

“Thieves of Time” by Charlie Pierce

“The Killing of Gus Hasford” by Grover Lewis:

“Brownsville Bum” by W.C. Heinz

“Quitting the Paper” by Paul Hemphill

And while you are digging through the archives, check out this compilation of previous Banter Reprints:

Richard Ben Cramer

The Ballad of Johnny France

Serious Business (Yankee Stadium)

 

Pete Dexter

Dying for Art’s Sake (LeRoy Neiman)

No Trespassing (Jim Brown)

The Apprenticeship of Randall Cobb (Tex Cobb)

Two for Toozday (John Matuszak)

LeeRoy, He Ain’t Here No More (LeeRoy Yarbrough)

The Old Man and the River (Norman Maclean)

 

W.C. Heinz

One Throw (Short Story)

The Happiest Hooligan of them All (Pepper Martin)

Death of a Racehorse

Speaking of Sports (Howard Cosell)

Maybe Tomorrow, Maybe the Next Day (Jeremy Vernon)

 

Pat Jordan

Trouble in Paradise (Steve and Cyndy Garvey)

Breaking the Wall (Burt Reynolds)

Bad (Rorion Gracie)

The Curious Childhood of an 11-Year Old Beauty Queen

The Horse Lovers (TV movie of the week)

Inside Marilyn Chambers

A Different Drummer

Running Cars

The Haircut

Dad’s Last Visit

 

George Kimball

Opening Day at Fenway Park

Fighting and Drinking with the Rats at Yankee Stadium

 

Carlo Rotella

Bedtime Story (Marvin Hagler)

 

John Schulian

One Night Only (Levon Helm)

My Ears are Bent (Joseph Mitchell)

No Regrets: A Hard-Boiled Life (James Crumley)

The Professional (George Kimball)

Jack Mann (An Appreciation by John Schulian, Tom Callahan, and Dave McKenna)

Bet a Million (Vic Ziegel)

 

Robert Ward

Reggie Jackson in No-Man’s Land 

[Photo Via: Ari Takes Pictures]

5 comments

1 Mr OK Jazz Tokyo   ~  Dec 26, 2012 5:19 pm

Really enjoying this series though am falling behind a bit. Need to spend an afternoon during the winter break with my laptop and some beers.

Oh AB, I know Pat Jordan is your buddy but man, his Yankees piece was really lame..the same old '96-2001 Yanks had grit and guts and were winners' but 'A-Rod's a bum' schtick..I expected better! :)

2 Alex Belth   ~  Dec 26, 2012 7:17 pm

1) You're telling me. Welcome to my long-running argument with Patty. LOL

3 Mr OK Jazz Tokyo   ~  Dec 26, 2012 7:33 pm

[2] Haha, it's funny because it seemed out of character based on the (little) I have read of Jordan.

BTW, great history of Fire Joe Morgan out now at a website called The Classical (I think). Worth checking out, really miss that site!

4 Mr OK Jazz Tokyo   ~  Dec 26, 2012 7:35 pm

Oh..and looks like Andruw Jones may not be coming over to Japan after the latest incident. Innocent til proven guilty of course.. used to really like the guy but the accusation is pretty awful.

5 Alex Belth   ~  Dec 26, 2012 8:33 pm

4) Yeah, if the reports are correct it's not good at all. Douche bag.

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"This ain't football. We do this every day."
--Earl Weaver