'All You Have To Do Is Open a Vein'

There may never be another Red Smith. Today when sportswriters become famous, they sign with ESPN, become brands unto themselves, and stop writing. Smith, a columnist for several papers including the New York Herald Tribune and New York Times before his death, was read by Bing Crosby, Robert Frost, and Ernest Hemingway. His name was on billboards around New York City, alongside a testimonial from a boxing champ. And yet he kept writing up to six columns a week, tapping out his final piece five days before his death, in 1982, at age 76.