Prolific sportswriter, author of popular books, promotional director, raconteur, after-dinner speaker, and master of ceremonies, Tom Meany was known for his remarkable memory and his sharp repartee, "illumined," wrote Red Smith in the New York Herald Tribune (15 September 1964), "by his sometimes double-edged wit." In 1947, when Clint Hartung of the New York Giants was being given an unprecedented rookie buildup, Meany's quip was widely quoted: "Why bother to even play the season? He should go straight to Cooperstown." Having worked for a series of publications that went out of business, Meany was convinced that he had given them "the journalistic kiss of death." In baseball lore he will be remembered as the man who nicknamed Brooklyn Dodger owner Branch Rickey "the Mahatma." His most widely quoted line occurred in 1948, when Yankees owner Del Webb approached Bucky Harris at a party shortly after Webb had abruptly fired Harris as manager...