Tennis Journalist, Historian Bud Collins Dies

American tennis writer and sportscaster Bud Collins, who called himself a “scribbler and a babbler,” has died at age 86.

Collins, who died Friday at his home in Brookline, Massachusetts, was credited with paving the way for newspaper reporters to move into broadcasting, becoming a familiar face to U.S. television audiences with his “Breakfast at Wimbledon” coverage on NBC.

He made one of his final public appearances last September in New York, when the media center at the U.S. Open was dedicated in his honor. A plaque for him reads: “Journalist, Commentator, Historian, Mentor, Friend.”

Collins wrote several books, including The Education of a Tennis Player (with Rod Laver, 1971), Evonne! On the Move (with Evonne Goolagong Cawley, 1974), and a memoir, My Life With the Pros (1989).

He also wrote several tennis encyclopedias, including The Modern Encyclopedia of Tennis, The Bud Collins Tennis Encyclopedia, and Total Tennis, which became an authoritative standard in the sport.

Collins was married to photographer Anita Ruthling Klaussen.

Famed U.S. Sports Artist Neiman Dies

American artist LeRoy Neiman, who gained fame with his vibrantly colored paintings and sketches of high-profile sporting events and athletes, died in New York City, Wednesday, nearly two weeks after celebrating his 91st birthday.
Neiman won millions of fans with his impressionistic paintings of numerous Super Bowls and Olympic Games, producing many of his iconic paintings on live television, which also earned him notoriety for his flamboyant image, including his trademark handlebar mustache. He eventually became the official artist of the 1980 and 1984 Olympic Winter Games and the 1984 Summer Games.

Other sporting events Neiman captured on canvas included numerous heavyweight boxing matches and the 1972 world chess championship match between American Bobby Fisher and Russian Boris Spassky. Neiman also created portraits of such figures as boxing legend Muhammed Ali and football star Joe Namath.

He first drew public notice in the 1950s, when he became a contributing artist for the adult men's magazine Playboy. His series for the magazine's “Man at His Leisure” took him to events held in some of the world's most glamorous places, including the Grand Prix auto race in Monaco, the steeplechase horse races in London, and the running of the bulls in Pamploma, Spain.

(Photo by Creative Stuff. David McLane with Neiman and the mural he created for Triple Crown of Polo, 2005.)

First American Baseball Star in Japan, Wally Kaname Yonamine, Dies at 85

Wally Yonamine, 1951.

First American Baseball Star in Japan, Wally Kaname Yonamine, Dies at 85
Wednesday, 2 March 2011

The first American to play professional baseball in Japan after World War Two and changed Japanese baseball forever, has died.

Wally Kaname Yonamine was 85 when he died of prostate cancer earlier this week in his native Hawaii.

Yonamine played professional football for the San Francisco 49rs when an injury forced him to give up the game and turn his talents to baseball.

After several years in the U.S. Pacific Coast League, Yonamine moved to Japan in 1951 and signed with the Yomiuri Giants, the premier Japanese team.

Yonamine shocked the Japanese by introducing the aggressive American-style of play to the more genteel and sedate Japanese game. Fans reacted with boos and rocks and also resented his U.S. heritage.

Yonamine helped lead the Giants to the 1951 championship and other players adopted the American style while teams signed more and more Americans.

Yonamine later became a coach and manager and a member of the Japanese baseball hall of fame.