Long-time beloved local sportswriter Garry Brown passed away in January at the age of 90. His legendary career spanned more than seven decades, with his first byline appearing in the 1950 edition of the Springfield Union News.
Brown’s work touched the lives of many in western Massachusetts over the years and Connecting Point’s Dave Fraser looks back at the writer’s remarkable life and impact through the eyes of some of those who knew him best.
Learn how Garry Brown helped keep the memory of Bunny Taliaferro and the Post 21 team’s memory alive in a digital exclusive interview.
Read the full transcript:
Zydalis Bauer, Connecting Point: Beloved longtime local sportswriter Garry Brown passed away recently at the age of 90. His legendary career spans more than seven decades, with his first byline appearing in the 1950 edition of the Springfield Union News.
Brown’s work touched the lives of many in western Massachusetts over the years and Connecting Point’s Dave Fraser takes a look back at the writer’s remarkable life and impact through the eyes of some of those who knew him best.
Cynthia Simison, The Springfield Republican: When you think of this newspaper has been around for almost 200 years, and when you think that Garry wrote for more than a third of that history, every week, every week, for seventy one years, pretty special.
Dave Fraser: Garry Brown began covering sports in this region when he was 18 years old for what was then the Springfield Morning Union. His coverage over the years has run the gamut from the pee-wee’s to the pros and everything in between.
But no matter the level of the athlete, he treated everyone he covered with the same respect.
Cynthia Simison: A kind, gentle, thoughtful person. And I think you saw that when he covered high school sports and youth baseball, that the people on the — whether it was a basketball court or the baseball diamond — they were the most important person.
Dave Fraser: Brown came from an era when people got their news and sports from the daily paper. For many years. He was the Red Sox beat writer, covering the 1967 Impossible Dream Team, as well as the 1975 and 1986 World Series teams.
And along with colleague Ron Chimelis, he covered the World Championship titles in 2004 and 2007.
Ron Chimelis, The Springfield Republican: We did that together. He preceded me by a few decades, but I was there for some of the good stuff. The two thousand four World Series we worked together.
His attention to detail was was remarkable, and I think that’s a great message. It’s easy to get sloppy when you’re on deadline, when you’re writing, it’s easy to make excuses for that, but there really is no excuse for that. Garry never, and I mean never once, allowed himself to get careless.
He cared about syntax. He cared about being eloquent. He cared about making it interesting. And to do it for as long as he did really showed his professionalism to me.
Dave Fraser: Brown showed that professionalism on the local level as well, covering high school sports. Daniel Dulchinos coached Chicopee Comp Baseball for 50 years and recalls the numerous conversations the two had during his career.
Dan Dulchinos, Former Chicopee Comp Baseball Coach: Outstanding person. He’s one of the top individuals that I have met in my life because of how he treats people, how he writes about them. He enjoyed everyone he talked about, wrote about, people that he saw play. He’s that type of person.
Dave Fraser: In 1973, Brown began a weekly column consisting of a hodgepodge of thoughts, random one liners, and opinions from the sporting world and everyday life. He called it “Hitting to all fields.”
Ron Chimelis: I was in high school in 1973, and the fact that it survived these many iterations of the newspaper, and the media, and of teams and still remained interesting.
People really were honored to be mentioned in “Hitting to all fields.” That was a big deal.
Cynthia Simison: There was something there for everybody, right down to Venus the Labrador retriever or, you know, Cookie the Shih-Tzu, who remembers this, honk if you love that, everybody could find something to smile or joke about in that column.
Dave Fraser: Brown’s final story for the Republican included thoughts from his longtime Wilbraham friend and former big league pitcher Mike Trombley on the election of David Ortiz into the Baseball Hall of Fame.
Mike Trombley, Former Professional Baseball Player: I learned that he wrote that letter, that article from the hospital. But I spoke to him, and just kind of shared with thoughts like we usually do some, you know, some jokes, some fun thoughts.
And very candid with me, and — and I really looked at him as like a second father, and I really, really enjoyed Garry Brown. You’re just a guy I’ll miss and just makes you feel good about yourself.
Dave Fraser: Garry Brown died peacefully on January 31st, just two days after his final column appeared in The Republican.
Ron Chimelis: He was a local icon. There was nobody like Garry. I don’t think there ever will be again.
