Host, Only A Game
Bill Littlefield wrote his first commentary for WBUR in 1984, and shortly thereafter his work began airing on NPR’s Morning Edition, where, for a few years, he hit second in a line-up that included Red Barber and Frank Deford.
A graduate of Yale University and the Harvard Graduate School of Education, Bill continues to teach one course each semester at Curry College, where he also serves as writer-in-residence.
Bill’s most recent book is “Only A Game.” He refuses to say where he got the title. Anyway, it’s a collection of radio commentaries and magazine articles published by University of Nebraska Press in 2007. His other books include "Fall Classics" (Crown Press, 2003), a collection of the best writing about the World Series which he edited with Richard Johnson; "The Circus in the Woods" (Houghton Mifflin, 2002); "Prospect" (Houghton Mifflin, 1989; paperback, 2000); "Baseball Days" (Houghton Mifflin, 1993; paperback Pond Press, 2000); "Champions: The Stories of Ten Remarkable Athletes" (Little, Brown, 1993; paperback, 1999), and "Keepers: Radio Stories from 'Only A Game' and Elsewhere" (Peninsula Press, 1999). He was the guest editor for Houghton Mifflin’s Best American Sports Writing in 1998.
Though his daughters have grown too old for Bill to coach them, he still has nightmares about youth league basketball games in which he was allegedly an official.
BOSTON — This week brought the news that Tiger Woods will return to pro golf in April at the Masters Tournament in Augusta, Ga. Commentator Bill Littlefield is among those curious about how a man who’s become notorious for all the wrong reasons will fare when he returns to the golf course.
BOSTON — College basketball’s Division 1 “March Madness” tips off next week. Though WBUR’s sports commentator, Bill Littlefield, will be watching all this play out on TV, he’s still marveling at a Division 3 game that got less attention earlier this season.
BOSTON — Football is for boys and cheerleading is for girls. Right? We are accustomed to thinking of most of our sports in terms of separation by gender. But every once in a while, that assumption gets dramatically challenged.
BOSTON — The New England Revolution is scheduled to open their season March 27 in Los Angeles. If all goes according to play, in their first home game, the Revs will host Toronto on April 10. But there is some suspense regarding whether the Revolution and 15 other teams that make up Major League Soccer will begin playing on time this spring.
BOSTON — The Winter Olympics present millions of people with the opportunity to pay rapt attention to figure skating and bobsledding, not to mention luge, skeleton, cross-country skiing and biathlon. All, of course, are sports — or are they?
Athletically and financially, there is pressure on Canada, as the host of the 2010 Winter Olympics, to be successful.
BOSTON — The 2010 Winter Olympics begin in Vancouver Friday night. Commentator Bill Littlefield is prepared to discuss some of the winners who have already brought home the gold.
BOSTON — As Super Bowl Sunday nears, there has been a lot of discussion of a commercial scheduled to air on that advertising day of days. The ad features Heisman Trophy-winning, University of Florida quarterback Tim Tebow and his mother, and is sponsored by Focus on the Family, an organization that opposes abortion. Objections to the commercial notwithstanding, WBUR’s sports commentator is not convinced that it is likely to constitute anything new.
WESTON, Mass. — Bill Koch excelled at competition in his day. The Brattleboro, Vt., native won a silver medal in Nordic skiing at the 1976 Winter Olympics. But these days, the youth ski league that bears his name is offering a balance of learning and fun for cross-country skiers between the ages of 3 and 14.
Over the past few weeks, coaches making lots of money at one university have moved on to make more money at other universities or in the professional ranks. For some reason, the annual shuffling of high-profile coaches has commentator Bill Littlefield thinking of a low-profile coach who was also something of a magician.
On Monday, Mark McGwire, he of the 70 homeruns in 1998, acknowledged that he’d used steroids throughout much of his baseball career. Very shortly thereafter, Major League Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig announced that “the so-called steroid era” was “a thing of the past.” That’s debatable.
When the year draws to a close, in the real world, there’s no overtime. But in the world of sports, there is some time to reflect. In poem form, WBUR’s Bill Littlefield does just that.
An unexpected and encouraging bit of year-end, sports-related analysis came in response to the glut of televised pro basketball on Christmas Day.
BOSTON — William Henry Lewis was among 18 men honored last week by the College Football Hall of Fame. To describe his induction as “belated” would be an understatement. Lewis played his football at Amherst and Harvard in the early 1890s and wound up accumulating a long list of achievements and distinctions.
BOSTON — As President Obama works to achieve consensus on such difficult issues as universal health care and the attempt to encourage the economy while presiding over two wars, he needs all the friends he can get. But Mr. Obama may feel he has been saddled with one he could do without.
BOSTON — Calling a man like Tiger Woods “troubled” is, well, troubling.
BOSTON — On Sunday, Major League Soccer will determine their champion, when the Los Angeles Galaxy and Real Salt Lake face each other in Seattle. The league is delighted with the presence of at least one of the teams in the championship game.
BOSTON — Even without the Red Sox, the World Series still holds Boston fans in its historic thrall.
BOSTON — Baseball’s post-season is underway. In a few weeks, two of the eight teams still in play will meet in the World Series. A recent book about the only perfect game ever pitched during the fall classic has rattled commentator Bill Littlefield, even though that game occurred over half a century ago.
BOSTON — A study by a National Football League commission released Wednesday shows former players have been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease and dementia much more frequently than their counterparts in the population at large. As the NFL tries to dispute those findings, WBUR Commentator Bill Littlefield tries to get some perspective.
