Chapter 6: The Poetry Corner One of the marks of Out of Left Field was reader participation. Probably the most popular highjinx to come out of Gobbler's Nob, the name hung on my baronial estate in Roslyn Heights by colleague Eddie Comerford, was the annual Left Field Grab Bag. This was a grand giveaway . I would save all sorts of oddments that came to me or to the Newsday sports department or which I picked up along the way, and then distribute them at the end of the year. I wrote a column that included a questionaire which solicited readers' opinions on various topics and rewarded the best responses with the best prizes. No less than free Knicks and Rangers tickets were among the goodies distributed. I wrote that not everybody would win a prize, but in actuality I tried to send something out to anybody who responded to the column. I was able to do this because of the invaluable help of my crack staff: my wife, Bobbie, and daughters Nancy, Ann and Ellen. I devised an assembly line in our basement and we would address and stuff envelopes with such glittering rewards as press books, press passes, sports magazines, the tape gladiators stripped off their grass and mud-stained bodies after combat, photos and autographs. This was before the time of the collectable craze. In retrospect I suspect some of the things we gave out were worth a bob or two.
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It doesn't matter whether you win or lose-if there's no money on the game. |
