Bill Littlefield

Last updated

William Littlefield (born July 1948) is an American radio personality and sportswriter. He was the host of National Public Radio and WBUR's Only A Game program from its beginning in 1993 to July 2018, covering mainstream and offbeat United States and international sports. Littlefield joined NPR in 1984. [1]

Contents

A graduate of Phillips Academy, Yale University and the Harvard University Graduate School of Education, Littlefield taught English at Curry College for 39 years and was a writer-in-residence there. [2]

“Take Me Out”, Bill's collection of sport-and-games-related doggerel, was published in 2014, and in January 2015, Library of America published The Best of W.C. Heinz, which Bill edited, and for which he wrote the introduction. His other books include Only A Game and Keepers, both collections of his radio and magazine work. Littlefield has also authored three novels, Prospect and The Circus in the Woods, and Baseball Days and Champions: Stories of Ten Remarkable Athletes. He was the guest editor for Houghton Mifflin’s Best American Sports Writing in 1998, and his essay “The Gym At Third and Ross” was featured in the 2013 edition. He also writes a bi-monthly column in The Boston Globe in which he reviews sports books.[ citation needed ]

In addition to penning his own books, Littlefield served as the guest editor of the 1998 edition of The Best American Sports Writing .

Books

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Charley Steiner</span> American sportscaster and journalist

Charley Steiner is an American sportscaster and broadcast journalist. He is currently the radio play-by-play announcer for the Major League Baseball's Los Angeles Dodgers, paired with Rick Monday.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">ESPY Award</span> Excellence in Sports Performance Yearly Awards Event

An ESPY Award is an accolade currently presented by the American broadcast television network ABC except 2020, and previously ESPN, to recognize individual and team athletic achievement and other sports-related performance during the calendar year preceding a given annual ceremony. The first ESPYs were awarded in 1993. Because of the ceremony's rescheduling prior to the 2002 iteration thereof, awards presented in 2002 were for achievement and performances during the seventeen-plus previous months. As the similarly styled Grammy, Emmy, Academy Award, and Tony, the ESPYs are hosted by a contemporary celebrity; the style, though, is lighter, more relaxed and self-referential than many other awards shows, with comedic sketches usually included.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Grantland Rice</span> American sportswriter (1880–1954)

Henry Grantland Rice was an early 20th-century American sportswriter known for his elegant prose. His writing was published in newspapers around the country and broadcast on the radio.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Curt Gowdy</span> American sportscaster

Curtis Edward Gowdy was an American sportscaster. He called Boston Red Sox games on radio and TV for 15 years, and then covered many nationally televised sporting events, primarily for NBC Sports and ABC Sports in the 1960s and 1970s. He coined the nickname "The Granddaddy of Them All" for the Rose Bowl Game, taking the moniker from the Cheyenne Frontier Days in his native Wyoming.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jim Kaat</span> American baseball player and analyst

James Lee Kaat is an American former professional baseball player and television sports commentator. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a left-handed pitcher for the Washington Senators / Minnesota Twins (1959–1973), Chicago White Sox (1973–1975), Philadelphia Phillies (1976–1979), New York Yankees (1979–1980), and St. Louis Cardinals (1980–1983). His playing career spanned 25 years.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michael Kay (sports broadcaster)</span> American sportscaster

Michael Kay is an American sports broadcaster who is the television play-by-play broadcaster of the New York Yankees and host of CenterStage on the YES Network, and the host of The Michael Kay Show heard on WEPN-FM in New York City and simulcast on ESPN Xtra on XM Satellite Radio. Kay also works on the MLB on ESPN.

Michael Lupica is an author and former American newspaper columnist, best known for his provocative commentary on sports in the New York Daily News and his appearances on ESPN.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tim Green</span> American football player (born 1963)

Timothy John Green is a former professional American football player, a radio and television personality, and a best-selling author. He was a linebacker and defensive end with the Atlanta Falcons of the National Football League (NFL), a commentator for National Public Radio, and the former host of the 2005 revival of A Current Affair produced by 20th Television. In November 2018, Green announced that he was diagnosed with ALS.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bill Stern</span> American actor and sportscaster (1907–1971)

Bill Stern was an American actor and sportscaster who announced the nation's first remote sports broadcast and the first telecast of a baseball game. In 1984, Stern was part of the American Sportscasters Association Hall of Fame's inaugural class which included sportscasting legends Red Barber, Don Dunphy, Ted Husing and Graham McNamee. He was inducted into the National Radio Hall of Fame (1988) and has a star in the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Richard Edward Stokvis, known professionally as Dick Stockton, is an American retired sportscaster. Stockton began his career in Philadelphia, then moved to Pittsburgh, where he worked as the sports director for KDKA-TV. In Boston, he called Celtics games for WBZ-TV and Red Sox games for WSBK-TV before transitioning to national broadcasting, which included calling the 1975 World Series for NBC and later, the NBA Finals for CBS. In a career that spanned over five decades, Stockton worked for several different networks, most prominently CBS Sports, Fox Sports, and Turner Sports.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fred Hickman</span> American broadcaster (1956–2022)

Frederick Hickman was an American sports broadcaster with CNN, TBS, YES Network, and ESPN. He was later an anchor and managing editor for the evening newscast of the African-American cable news channel Black News Channel. Hickman was an original co-host of the CNN show Sports Tonight in 1980. He received CableACE awards in 1989 and 1993, and was a New York Sports Emmy Award Winner in 2004.

Lesley Candace Visser is an American sportscaster, television and radio personality, and sportswriter. Visser is the first female NFL analyst on TV, and the only sportscaster in history who has worked on Final Four, NBA Finals, World Series, Triple Crown, Monday Night Football, the Olympics, the Super Bowl, the World Figure Skating Championships and the U.S. Open network broadcasts. Visser, who was voted the No. 1 Female Sportscaster of all time in a poll taken by the American Sportscasters Association, was inducted into the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association's Hall of Fame in 2015 and the International Sports Hall of Fame in 2020.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mark Schlereth</span> American football player and sportscaster (born 1966)

Mark Fremont Schlereth is an American former professional football player who is a television and radio sportscaster. Schlereth played guard in the National Football League (NFL) for 12 seasons (1989–2000) with the Washington Redskins and Denver Broncos. He is currently a football analyst for Fox Sports, appearing on FS1, and other programs. He also co-hosted Sedano & Stink with Jorge Sedano from 7–10 p.m. ET on ESPN Radio until late March 2015 when he left the program to pursue other broadcast opportunities. He also appeared on the soap opera Guiding Light, and 2012's Red Dawn remake.

Wilfred Charles Heinz was an American sportswriter, war correspondent, journalist, and author.

John Sickels is an American baseball writer who specializes in minor league baseball and amateur baseball.

Rick Wolff was an American book editor, author, college coach, broadcaster, and onetime professional baseball player. He was the son of Hall of Fame Sportscaster Bob Wolff. He was Senior Executive Editor at Large with Kevin Anderson and Associates and hosted "The Sports Edge" on WFAN Sports Radio.

David Sims is an American sportscaster. He currently is the television play-by-play commentator for the Seattle Mariners. Sims was the 2018, 2019 and 2020 National Sports Media Association's Washington state Sportscaster of the Year. He is in his 16th season as the co-host of Basketball and Beyond with Coach K on Sirius XM Satellite Radio. In 2009 Sims was also the television play-by-play host for the UFL on Versus.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tomohito Ito</span> Japanese baseball player

Tomohito Ito is a Japanese former professional baseball player from Kyoto, Japan. He played for the Yakult Swallows from 1993–2003 before retiring. He currently works as a pitching coach for the Tokyo Yakult Swallows.

Only a Game was a weekly sports program distributed by National Public Radio and hosted formerly by Bill Littlefield. It was hosted and produced by Karen Given. The show was produced at WBUR in Boston and aired on 264 affiliate stations around the country every Saturday. The program was one hour long.

References

  1. "Bill Littlefield: Host, Only A Game". National Public Radio. Archived from the original on 22 April 2010. Retrieved 27 May 2010.
  2. https://www.wbur.org/inside/2018/06/07/wbur-announces-retirement-of-only-a-game-host-bill-littlefield WBUR Announces Retirement Of 'Only A Game' Host Bill Littlefield