
Bill Littlefield has been the host of Only A Game since the program began in 1993, but he 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 (Tuesday) in a line-up that included Frank Deford on Monday and Red Barber on Friday.
A graduate of Yale University and the Harvard Graduate School of Education, Bill taught English at Curry College for 39 years and served as writer-in-residence there.
Bill’s most recent book is “Take Me Out,” a collection of sports-and-games-related verse. For Library of America, he helped edit “The Top of His Game: The Best Sportswriting of W.C. Heinz,” and he wrote the introduction for the anthology.
Bill’s other books include "Only A Game," a collection of radio commentaries and magazine articles published by University of Nebraska Press in 2007; "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 1998). He was the guest editor of Houghton Mifflin’s Best American Sports Writing in 1998, and his work has appeared in the anthology.
Though his daughters long ago grew too old for him to continue coaching them, Bill still has nightmares about youth league basketball games in which he was allegedly an official.
Recently published

Finally, something Tom Brady isn't good at: Retirement
May the ghosts of quarterbacks gone and forgotten huddle above him, writes Bill Littlefield, protective if mystified.

How The WNBA Helped Democrats Regain Control Of The Senate
Players on the basketball team owned by ousted Georgia Sen. Kelly Loeffler agitated against her, writes Bill Littlefield, and likely deserve some of the credit for her defeat.

Littlefield: A Rhyme About Sports During A Pandemic
Bill Littlefield returns for one last view of the sports landscape ... in verse.

The World Series Apocalypse That Never Was
Transport your mind back to 2003 and imagine what it would have been like if the Red Sox and the Cubs had met in the World Series.

I'm Sorry To Say It: This Should Be An American Summer Without Baseball
I made a career out of covering sports, writes Bill Littlefield. But amid the pandemic and the fight for racial justice, now is not the time to bring them back....
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After Months Of No Pro Sports, Golf Is Back — With A Moment Of Silence
Its return this week will propel the game to previously unimagined popularity, writes Bill Littlefield. When baseball comes back, nobody will notice.

Tom Brady Interrupts This Public Health Emergency To Bring You Some News
New England fans who aren’t coughing into their elbows or running fevers no doubt wish the departing quarterback well, writes Bill Littlefield.

Meet Kobe Bryant's 'Muse': His High School English Teacher
Following Kobe Bryant's death, we re-visit our 2015 conversation with Jeanne Mastriano, his high school English teacher.

My Reaction To The MLB Sign Stealing Scandal? Meh.
Stealing signs is as old as baseball itself. Whether considered merely a mischievous stunt or a crime against the very soul of the nation, writes Bill Littlefield, this scandal too...

For Jailed Parolees In Mass., A Program That Gives Time Off For Good Reading
Bill Littlefield teaches a literature class to men on parole, sharing as equals their reactions to poems and stories with the folks they’ve previously known only as representatives of the...