George Vecsey, right, with his arm around New York writer Ray Robinson, author of “Iron Horse: Lou Gehrig in His Time.”
***
For those who might wonder what former New York Times sports columnist George Vecsey has been up to since accepting a company buyout in December 2011, I’m happy to report he is doing well, although he might take issue with such an upbeat description.
The former ``Sports of the Times’’ columnist tells me he spends a good part of his extra free time going to lunch with friends and has already put on 10 pounds, ``some retirement’’, he tells me. ``My semi-retirement is hell. I need a vacation from it’’, Vecsey says. Speaking of others like him who retired, Vecsey grumbled, `` most of us get our fingerprints changed and move to Boca Raton and change our names.’’
Aside from adjusting to retirement, and putting on a few well deserved extra pounds, Vecsey continues to write on a number of topics of interest to him on his website, from Mitt Romney and Roger Clemens to the Beatles, the U.S. Postal Service, to Loretta Lynn and Jeremy Lin. He always did have a diverse range. After all, he was a metro reporter and religion writer before beginning his second stint with the Times’ sports department in 1980. Vecsey originally landed at the Times in 1968 from Newsday in Long Island.
Devoted fans of the Times’ sports pages know that Vesey hasn’t exactly been put out to pasture. He still contributes two sports columns a month, as a contributor. In fact, in Thursday’s edition, he has a column about Gilad Shilat, the abducted Israeli soldier who is now turning his attention to sports writing.
In addition to his compelling columns (pure poetry) that he pounded out for the Times from 1982 through the end of 2011, Vecsey has written six national best-selling books, including “Stan Musial: An American Life,” published by Ballantine/ESPN Books in May of 2011.
The Jamaica, Queens native lives in Port Washington, Long Island, with his wife, Marianne Graham, an artist and teacher. They have three children and five grandchildren. Laura Vecsey has been a sports and political columnist in Albany, N.Y., Seattle, Baltimore and Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Corinna V. Wilson, an attorney, is vice president for programming at the Pennsylvania Cable Network; and David Vecsey is a copy editor at the New York Times.
-Bill Lucey
June 28, 2012
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