Appreciating Jim Murray

Some things just need to be said loudly. When I first wrote an essay for the Jim Murray Memorial Foundation Scholarship, I never could have dreamed up the weekend it would provide me. For your sake (and my own), I won't even attempt to describe my experience in a California desert town called La Quinta at a resort fresh out of a fantasy world (think Zoro meets the Pearly Gates, and you have this Mexican-flavored paradise). The one thing which I will say, however, is this -- there are no words to describe Jim Murray, a founding writer of SI, baseball Hall of Fame writer, and Pulitzer Prize winner (among many, many other things which anyone would gladly present in a glass case to house guests).

I attend the alma mater of Mr. Murray, Trinity College in Hartford (consider that little "Mr." my small conveyance of just how much respect I feel for him ... somehow calling him "Murray" feels disrespectful). He was a pioneer of his craft, and by craft I mean both sports journalism and writing in general. If the world of sports was a novel, nobody developed its characters better than Mr. Murray. He dove into the very soul of every player, coach, manager and executive to a depth that any other writer would feel lucky to achieve one-sixteenth of.

Mr. Murray wrote, "Nolan Ryan is more than an athletic marvel. He's a medical marvel. His glove should to go Cooperstown, but his arm should go to the Smithsonian." He compared legendary athletes to legendary dancers, smooth leapers and runners to classical musicians, and Cal Ripken to Grandpa Murray. And, in every word of it, it's like watching Mr. Murray write firsthand or chatting personally with Brooks Robinson. It's that alive.

And nothing I can possibly say to you will convey just how this man wrote or changed the face of writing -- not one single word I can write will do justice to all he accomplished.

So, to a pioneer and inspiration, I'll say two little ones -- Thank you.