Ray Fitzgerald

Ray Fitzgerald (1927 – August 3, 1982) was an American sports journalist. One of the first modern sports commentators, Fitzgerald gained his widest readership at The Boston Globe between 1965 and 1982. He won 12 Massachusetts Sportswriter of the Year awards (11 times at the Globe) from the National Sports Media Association in his career.

Early life Fitzgerald was born in Westfield, Massachusetts in 1927 the eldest of four children and namesake to his father, a realtor. A 1944 graduate of Westfield High School he was a star in baseball, basketball, and football.

Fitzgerald attended the University of Notre Dame on a baseball scholarship, graduating in 1949. He began his newspaper career that year at The Schenectady Union-Star while he continued his baseball career in semi-professional leagues. award before being hired by the Globe in 1965. then a young reporter covering high school sports at the Globe, happened to be sitting behind Fitzgerald in the Fenway press box that night, and as soon as Carbo homered and Fitzgerald ripped the half-finished column out of his typewriter so he could load a blank sheet, she reached down to rescue the early draft from the floor, something she has kept to this day. His never-to be-seen lede: "You could feel it slipping away...."

Instead the column that ran the next morning wondered: "How can there be a topper for what went on last night and early this morning in a ballyard gone mad, madder and maddest while watching well, the most exciting game of baseball I've ever seen." was published on the front page of the Globe next day.

Besides Tom Fitzgerald, Ray Fitzgerald worked with other notable Globe sportswriters Bud Collins, Will McDonough, Bob Ryan, Peter Gammons, Leigh Montville, and Dan Shaughnessy. Jackie MacMullan was hired at the Globe sports section shortly after Fitzgerald's death in 1982. New York Times sports writer George Vecsey said: "sports columnists also need a sense of humor and personal perception. Ray Fitzgerald had them all." Bill Simmons has said, "Ray Fitzgerald was my first favorite sports columnist... he was amazing."

Work Printers block of the Ray Fitzgerald column mug shot in the Boston Globe circa 1974 (courtesy of Dan Shaughnessy)Fitzgerald used a wry and observant sense of humor in his columns. Excerpts from a column he wrote when the recently retired Tom Fitzgerald was given the 1978 Lester Patrick Trophy for outstanding service to hockey in the USA show his wit:

Shaughnessy's 2020 column in the Globe offered many more examples of Fitzgerald's prose. Many of the best columns are collected in the book Touching All Bases: The Collected Ray Fitzgerald 1970-1982 published posthumously by Stephen Green Press.