Red Smith came to write about sports somewhat by accident. Even so, few have done it better or exerted greater influence on sports journalism in the twentieth century. His career spanned fifty-four years, beginning in 1927. During this time, Smith reported on sports from almost every continent in the world, from Africa to Australia.

Although he wrote for New York newspapers for thirty years, his column was syndicated around the world. In 1951, six years after he joined his first New York newspaper, the New York Herald Tribune, Smith's column went to twenty-four newspapers in the United States and foreign countries; by 1962, his readership reached 15 million in more than 100 newspapers. At the time of his death in January 1982, Smith's syndicated column went to 275 United States newspapers and to 225 papers in thirty other countries.

To Red Smith readers, a good many of whom were not, even by loose definition, sports fans...