Sid!

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Sid!
Author Sid Hartman with Patrick Reusse
Cover artist Andrea Rud
Country United States
Language English
Genre(s) Autobiography
Publisher Voyageur Press
Publication date August 1997
Media type Print (Hardcover)
Pages 304 (hardcover edition)
ISBN ISBN 0-89658-352-X

Sid!: The Sports Legends, the Inside Scoops, and the Close Personal Friends is an autobiography of Star Tribune sports columnist Sid Hartman. Voyageur Press of Stillwater, Minnesota published the book in 1997.

The autobiography follows Hartman from his newspaper-selling days in Minneapolis, Minnesota to his days working in the newspaper industry. It covers almost every aspect about Minnesota sports from 1940 onward.

Contents

[edit] Overview

This book discusses many of the events in the Minnesota sports scene from 1940 onward. He talks about the Minneapolis Lakers, which he was a co-owner of. He then goes on to the Minnesota Twins and the Minnesota Vikings. He goes in-depth on the Metrodome ideas, and then talks about the success (or lack thereof) of Minnesota teams from 1980s to 1997. Then he talks about his personal life.

In 2007, Voyageur Press released a revised paperback edition of the book, including a new epilogue by Hartman and Reusse discussing the last ten years in Minnesota sports.

[edit] Summary

The book starts by talking about Sid as a kid. Sid did the news run in West Minneapolis after dropping out of high school as a junior. Sid's first reporting job was for the Gophers and was a big supporter of the Lakers.

The story then progresses to sports, when pro basketball came to Minnesota. He told how newspapers had interest in sports coming to town because it would sell newspapers. He also says that the Lakers had a huge dynasty from 1947-1957 with Mikel and Mikkelson.

He goes on to say that the Twins were a very good team when they even though they thought differently. The Vikings came in 1961 and had a shabby team until Bud Grant came in. He brought the Vikings to 4 Super Bowls and would trust Sid with his life.

He then transitions into saying that the Twins weren't as popular in the 1970s as they were in the 1960s. He says that the biggest mistake Calvin Griffith made was firing Martin. Many practical jokes were played on Sid, and Sid may have been the reason that only a few reporters are allowed to talk to officials.

Then the books goes on to say that the only way the Viking would stay in Minnesota was if a new stadium was built. Calvin was against a dome. Sid was getting death threats in phone calls. They built the Metrodome for football and had the minimum requirements for baseball.

Holtz came to the Gophers and was a great coach in the Gophers football organization. He brought many spectators to games to watch and got a winning season. He left for Notre Dame.

He notes that the Twins were on the verge of going to Tampa Bay when Carl Pohlad bought the Twins after Twin Cities business owners bought the cheap seats for games to get Calvin Griffith to resign. After that, the Twins did well. They won the World Series in 1987 and 1991. The Twin Cities got a lot of sporting events in 1991-1992. They had the US Open, the Twins made it to the World Series, the Super Bowl was held in the Metrodome, and the North Stars made it to the Stanley Cup Finals.

He goes on to talk about Herb Brooks and that coached the North Stars and the US Olympic team. In 1980 his Olympic team got the gold medal in hockey.

He talks about the 1997 Gopher basketball team and their success made it to the Final Four.

[edit] Contents

  • Foreword by Bud Grant
  • Foreword by Bob Knight
  • Preface by Patrick Reusse
  • Chapter 1: Getting the Scoop
  • Chapter 2: The North Side and Newspaper Alley
  • Chapter 3: Breaking into the Business
  • Chapter 4: A Reporter's First Love
  • Chapter 5: Running the Lakers
  • Chapter 6: Becoming Big League
  • Chapter 7: Calvin and the Twins
  • Chapter 8: Max Winter and the Vikings
  • Chapter 9: Bud Grant
  • Chapter 10: The Vikings' Town
  • Chapter 11: Building the Metrodome
  • Chapter 12: Lou Holtz
  • Chapter 13: From Buyout to the World Series
  • Chapter 14: Sports Capital of the World
  • Chapter 15: The Hockey State
  • Chapter 16: Hoops: Almost a Career
  • Chapter 17: The Final Four
  • Chapter 18: Hasley, Cedric, and 'CCO
  • Chapter 19: Close Personal Friends
  • Chapter 20: The Private Side of Life
  • Chapter 21: Jottings
  • Chapter 22: They Say
  • Epilogue
  • Index

[edit] Quotations

[edit] Foreword by Bud Grant

  • "Sid's goal has not changed from the first day I met him" Every time he writes a column, he wants to have something in there no one else has. And when someone else has a scoop or story, he is devastated. Sid reacts to that the same way a great coach or great athlete reacts to defeat.

[edit] Foreword by Bob Knight

  • "If you apply that word [professional] to sports reporting, there are only a handful of sports writers in history who could be thought of as professionals. Sid Hartman is one."

[edit] Foreword by Patrick Reusse

  • "You will hear...[staff] asking whether we still need Sid.

And then this happens: The University of Minnesota, in the process of selecting a new president, cuts the list to three finalists. The editors want the names for the next morning's Star Tribune. The education reporters and political reporters-the combined reporting forces of this massive newsroom-cannot come up with the names. What are the editors going to do now? They are going to do exactly what newspaper editors in Minneapolis have been doing for more than five decades. They are going to find Sid Hartman and ask for help. Fifteen minutes later, the editors have the three names.

[edit] Chapter 1: Getting the Scoop

  • "After a few years, Devine wasn't feeling well, nor was his wife. He went to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester for an examination. I bumped into the doctor a week later and asked him, "What's wrong with Devine?"

The doctor said "I can't give you any details, but Devine has a rare disease." "What's that?" "Notre Dame-itis," the doctor said."

[edit] Chapter 2: The North Side and Newspaper Alley

  • "To sell newspapers, it was important to get the good spots first. Even if you got there first, some of the older hawkers might decide they wanted the corner and threaten to kick the crap out of you. I was the smallest kid out there selling newspapers. I was chased off a few corners, but I also knew the downtown cops. They took a liking to me and protected me."

[edit] Chapter 3: Breaking into the Business

  • "Legend has it that Walters, in his copy-boy days, saw my book on a desk one night while I was at dinner. He ran to the Xerox machine and photocopied the numbers. Some day, I'll have to ask Walters if that is true."

[edit] Chapter 4: A Reporter's First Love

  • "Wilkinson had gotten into coaching by accident. After getting out of the Navy, he wound up on Jim Tatum's coaching staff at Oklahoma....Then Tatum surprised everyone by quitting and going to Maryland, and Oklahoma offered the job to Wilkinson."

[edit] Chapter 5: Running the Lakers

  • "The deal with Mikan was this: Once we had him signed, he always gave us more than our money's worth."

[edit] Chapter 6: Becoming Big League

  • "After Wofner took the money, Swan said, "Sid, if these games don't draw, we're both going to be looking for jobs."

[edit] Chapter 7: Calvin and the Twins

  • "The biggest shock about getting major league baseball was this: We wound up with a good ballclub. We thought we were getting this lousy team, and by 1962, the second season, the Twins were in the pennant race."

[edit] Chapter 8: Max Winter and the Vikings

  • "The Tribune had a small newshole-usually three pages with fourteen or fifteen columns-for sports during the week. Klobuchar wanted to fill up twelve of those columns by writing three, four stories a day on the Vikings."

[edit] Chapter 9: Bud Grant

  • "The surprise to everyone was that Grant, only twenty-nine, wanted the job. One thing that helped Bud to convince Boivin and team President Jim Russel to hire him as coach was when Wayne Robinson said he would come to Winnipeg to play for Grant."

[edit] Chapter 10: The Vikings' Town

  • "Paul Giel reminded me again what friendship means. He came to my mother's funeral. The regents had to wait."

[edit] Chapter 11: Building the Metrodome

  • "I don't think Calvin ever wanted the Metrodome to be built. By then, he wanted to move to a warm-weather location and get his bank account back to where it had been before he fired Billy Martin

[edit] Chapter 12: Lou Holtz

  • "I went to Notre Dame for one of Holtz's first games in fall 1986. He invited me to attend the Mass that the football team went to on the morning of a game. When the players stood during Mass, I would stand. When they knelt, I would kneel. I was kneeling and somebody poked me in the back. It was Moose Krause, the former Notre Dame athletic director and a longtime friend of mine. Krause said: "Sid, I knew us Catholics would get you, sooner or later.""

[edit] Chapter 13: From Buyout to the World Series

  • "Kelly had a terrific relationship with his first group of Twins. He had managed to most of them somewhere along the line in the Twins farm system. When they were rookies in 1982, he was the first-base coach, and he was their buddy."

[edit] Chapter 14: Sports Capital of the World

  • "For Minnesota, the World Series came in the middle of a stretch of eleven months that has never been duplicated by another city. We had the Stanley Cup finals with the North Stars in May 1991. We had the U.S. Open at Hazeltine in June. We had the World Series in October, then the Super Bowl in January 1992, and then the NCAA Final Four in early April 1992"

[edit] Chapter 15: The Hockey State

  • "Miracle on Ice. It did more than make Herbie Brooks a national hero. It made the announcer, Al Michaels, a hero. He has been living off that "Do you believe in miracles?" for almost twenty years.

[edit] Chapter 16: Hoops: Almost a Career

  • "There were accusations o0f big cash payments, but it was never proved. The NCAA settled for doing what it does best when it wants to get someone: It piled up dozens of Mickey Mouse allegations."

[edit] Chapter 17: The Final Four

  • "The Final Four has become my favorite event to cover....For someone who writes a column like I do, with a lot of notes and the need for a lot of contacts, nothing can top the Final Four."

[edit] Chapter 18: Hasley, Cedric, and 'CCO

  • "Hasley Hall was the most beloved character this area has ever had. He was a terrific announcer and the most popular master of ceremonies-for sports dinners, charity dinners, college and high school athletic banquets-of all time."

[edit] Chapter 19: Close Personal Friends

  • "Knight and Williams are two identical personalities: men's men, fierce competitors, demanding of themselves."

[edit] Chapter 20: The Private Side of Life

  • "At Oak Ridge, there is a pond in front of the first tee. You need to hit the ball maybe seventy-five yards to carry the pond....Berger would get up at the membership meeting and in his thickest Jewish accent say: " Vat do ve need that lake on the first hole for? Der are more balls in der than Vilson's got."

That was Wilson-as in the sporting goods company.

[edit] Chapter 21: Jottings

  • "Al Kaline had his 3,000th hit for the Detroit Tigers, and I called him the next morning. Later, when other reporters called, Kaline said: "I'm not taking any more calls this morning. I talked to two people this morning-the President and Sid Hartman."

[edit] Chapter 22: They Say

  • "If you have ridden in a car driven by Sid, you know that his many years of navigating in Twin Cities traffic with moderate success is proof positive of guardian angels"

[edit] Release details

Original edition:

Hartman, Sid; Patrick Reusse [August 1997]. Sid!: The Sports Legends, the Inside Scoops, and the Close Personal Friends (Autobiography) (in English), Stillwater, MN: Voyageur Press, 304. ISBN 0-89658-352-X. 

44 pictures

Revised edition:

Hartman, Sid; Patrick Reusse [April 2007]. Sid!: The Sports Legends, the Inside Scoops, and the Close Personal Friends (Autobiography) (in English), Stillwater, MN: Voyageur Press, 320. ISBN 978-0-7603-3190-3. 

48 pictures