'Life from the Press Box' by Jim Street

By: Jeff Shelley


Now-retired journalist Jim Street penned this memoir about his lengthy career as a sportswriter. The oversized book features Street's adventures during his 40 years in the press box and many photos he's kept on file over the decades.

Street [full disclosure: he's a colleague and friend] takes readers on a chronological journey from his days as a baseball-loving teenager at Butte Valley High School in Dorris, Calif., to a stint in Vietnam where his job was to write - without a byline - about infantry patrols, to a later life as a sportswriter.

In one memorable passage about the war, Street writes: "My job was to write about these missions. One time, an officer came up to me after such a mission and told me to write that 15 Viet Cong had been killed. I told him that I was there and not a shot was fired. He said, 'Soldier, write what I tell you to write!' "

Street's fondest memory of Vietnam was an assignment to cover one of Bob Hope's famed USO shows. Several years later after his discharge, Street got to personally thank the great comedian and inveterate golfer while covering the Bing Crosby Pro-Am on the Monterey Peninsula. "He was very gracious and seemed genuinely happy that I survived the war," Street writes.

In 1971, Street worked part-time for the Oakland Tribune and soon became the full-time Oakland Athletics beat writer for the San Jose Mercury-News. As fortune would have it, the A's were on the verge of becoming Major League Baseball's dominant team, winning three straight World Series from 1972-74.

Street enjoyed a front-row seat witnessing what would become one of the most talented and colorful teams in sports history. Street's book is full of anecdotes from this period. When Reggie Jackson showed up at spring training with a full-blown mustache, the A's irascible but inventive owner Charlie Finley wanted Jackson to shave it off. But Jackson refused. Finley caved in and even encouraged other players to grow a 'stache. Pretty soon, several players, including team leaders Catfish Hunter, Rollie Fingers, Sal Bando and manager Dick Williams obeyed the boss's orders and the team with the gaudy yellow and green uniforms became famously hirsute.

Street was an eyewitness to the A's that season; he flew on the team plane and observed the squad's highs and lows first-hand. After the A's won their first Series in '72, Street was one of only two local media members to receive a World Series ring. He eventually received three rings from the A's; Street notes in the book that the last year beat writers received rings from their teams was 1975.

Street covered the San Francisco 49ers in their pre-dynasty days. He notes, "The head coach, Dick Nolan, smoked like a chimney and had a team that got smoked regularly."

In subsequent years Street covered the San Francisco Giants and Oakland Raiders. After a switch in ownership at the Mercury-News, and some troubles with a new editor that sent him from the press box to the copy desk, Street took an offer from the Seattle Post-Intelligencer in 1985 and moved north to begin a 13-year stint covering the Seattle Mariners for the P-I.

In Seattle, Street chronicled the development of the relatively new MLB franchise, one that boasted such future stars as Ken Griffey Jr., Randy Johnson, Edgar Martinez and Alex Rodriguez. In addition to ownership changes that threatened to move the team out of the Emerald City, he reported the implosion of the Kingdome and the construction of Safeco Field, one of the finest baseball stadiums in the country.

Street joined USA Baseball for a stretch, which involved a move to Arizona, and later Broadband Sports in Los Angeles before returning to Seattle in 2001 to cover the Mariners for MLB.com.

Street's book handles a variety of sports and personal subjects, such as the 9/11 attack and other world events that intersected his and the lives of all Americans. Following the 2009 season, Street retired, of which he reminisces, "During the seventh inning of my final game on the (Mariners) beat, a cake was delivered to the press box, along with some champagne. The cake was compliments of Ken Griffey Jr. I called and thanked him."

In 2012, Street and his two best friends, Bob Sherwin and Kirby Arnold, started the website GolfersWest.com. Street remains a lifetime member of the Baseball Writers Association of America - which allows him to attend any regular season major league game in the U.S. and vote for the Baseball Hall of Fame.

Though golf is now Street's game, other sports - especially baseball - will forever be near and dear to his heart.

"Life from the Press Box," by Jim Street, 356 pages, ISBN 9781-481834872. Available in hardback ($27.95), soft-back ($17.95) and e-book ($3.99) at www.iuniverse.com. It will also become available at Amazon in mid-November 2014 in the same formats, including Kindle.

Jeff Shelley is the editorial director of Cybergolf.