Happy New Year to the Rainbow Connection – By Roy Firestone, Emmy Award Winning Journalist

Up Close with Roy Firestone

Happy New Year from the Somali cab driver who picked you up at the Minneapolis Airport at 4am with no other cabs around…. Happy New Year from the Sudanese seamstress, who repaired your torn trousers at 5:30 when you needed those pants that night… …the Iranian cardiologist who might’ve saved your dad’s life in surgery… Happy New Year from the Yemeni plumber who took time on a Saturday to solve your flooding sink… Happy New…

“Poor” Lane Kiffin – by Roy Firestone, Emmy Award Sports Journalist

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Dan Wetzel of ESPN on “poor”Lane Kiffin: “As victims go, Lane Kiffin doesn’t seem like one. He could have stayed at Ole Miss, made over $10 million a year, led his 11-1 team into a home playoff game and become an icon at a place he supposedly found personal tranquility. Or he could’ve left for LSU to make over $10 million a year leading a program that has won three national titles this century. Fortunate…

Not Until Her “Safe is Empty” – by Roy Firestone, Emmy Award Winning Journalist

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Most wealthy people donate money to charity. That’s not news. But Mackenzie Scott has made giving her money away to the needy her life’s work. Since her divorce from Jeff Bezos in 2019, Scott has has donated more than $19.25 billion to over 2,450 non-profit organizations. Her approach has been to provide large, unrestricted gifts to organizations with a focus on areas like communities facing high poverty, racial inequity, and lack of access to philanthropic…

A Series For The Ages – By Roy Firestone, Emmy Award Winning Journalist

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I’ve been a baseball fan for at least 65 years. I’ve been a batboy for the Orioles when I was a young teenager. I was fortunate to meet and know some of the greatest players in baseball history through my job on television which was to report on games and interview athletes. I’ve covered or reported on at least 50 World Series, including on my first day ever on television, the historic Carlton Fisk home…

GRATITUDE – by Roy Firestone, Emmy Award Winning 

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In the Jewish faith this is the month of  a solemn holiday, one of repentance and forgiveness..I wrote this small piece about the power of gratitude. I try and remember to live these words every day. Gratitude is a power. Find something in your life for which or whom you are grateful. Gratitude is grace in the face of harshness. It does NOT ignore disappointment or cruelty, or truth, but it amplifies and elevates the…

What Baseball Means to Me – by Roy Firestone, Multi-Emmy Award Winning Journalist

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My grandchildren went to their first baseball game recently. As is my choice here, I won’t post their pictures here. I won’t mention their names, because that’s not what matters on the page. But I will say that look on those babies faces is indelible in my heart. One grandchild is almost three years old, the other is four and a half. When asked which team they were going to see, one grandchild said with…

A GESTURE OF KINDNESS – By Roy Firestone, Multi-Emmy Award Winning Journalist

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One cold January night in New York, Bob Costas shared a dinner with Mickey Mantle. As they finished their meal, Costas noticed something curious — Mantle asked for a doggie bag, something uncharacteristic for the famous ballplayer. They left the restaurant, walking briskly toward their hotel through the biting cold. But then Mantle veered off course. He led Costas to Madison Avenue, to a familiar spot where a homeless man huddled in a cardboard box.…

Max’s Mom…by Roy Firestone, Multi- Emmy Award Winning Journalist

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Max Brooks is a best selling author, and writer, he was a writer on SNL…most of his successful books were “World War Z and The Zombie Survival Guide” Max Brooks is witty, thoughtful, insightful and, oh by the way, he’s also the son of the legendary Mel Brooks and the late Anne Bancroft. Anne won the Academy Award for “The Miracle Worker” in 1962. You might have seen Max on Bill Maher’s “Real Time” .…

THERE IS ONLY ONE…By Roy Firestone, Multi Emny Award Winning Journalist

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I’m going to take a break this morning , a break from writing about the horror of this administration, and tell you about my all time favorite political ensemble TV. And it’s really the ONLY one. I don’t consider SNL a strictly political show, though even if it were, it’s not that funny much to me anymore and hasn’t been for years. Nope, the funniest, the most biting, the most inventive, and the most intelligent political…

Baseball’s Perfect Knights – by Roy Firestone, Multi Emmy Winning Journalist

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Last week was  baseball’s opening day. and I wanted to remember the two finest people I ever knew in the sport, and probably the two finest people I had the pleasure to meet anywhere else either. The man on the left was Brooks Robinson, my very close friend for more than 50 years. We lost Brooks two years ago. And man on the my right, was Stan”The Man” Musial he has been gone 12 years.…

Sadie’s Song – by Roy Firestone, Multi-Timed Emmy Award Winning Journalist

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You may know of the legendary songwriter-lyricist, Johnny Mercer. Johnny was one of the great lyricists of all time, he wrote “Moon Rover”, “The Days of Wine and Roses ” and “Autumn Leaves”. Johnny Mercer was a giant in the songwriting world. One day in 1957 a woman named Sadie Vimmerstadt, a grandmother and beautician, from Youngstown , Ohio upon hearing that Ava Gardener left Frank Sinatra, (after Sinatra left his first wife), Sadie exclaimed…

The Letter – by Roy Firestone, Multi Time Emmy Winning Journalist

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When is the last time you wrote a letter? No, not a complaint, not a response to some bill, but an honest to goodness “pen in hand” letter. Of course, without any technology 150 years ago and before that, people effectively HAD to write hand written letters. Some were forceful, some were witty, many were romantic, and many more were direct and some even brilliant. But there was an art to letter writing. People who…

HAPPINESS – by Roy Firestone, Multi Time Emmy Winning Journalist

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We are in uncharted territory in America. There is fear and anger and distrust and contempt everywhere. Everyone thinks they are right, often at the exclusion of others. The other day I came upon a short clip from the TV series “Afterlife”, a wonderful series starring and created by Ricky Gervais. Gervais plays a man who has lost the love of his life, and contemplates ending his life because he is lost and lonely. There’s…

A MOMENT OF THANKS – By Roy Firestone, Multi Emmy Award Winning Journalist

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I want to salute and honor the brave men and women who are risking their lives battling the most horrific fires in California history and some of the worst fires this nation has seen or will ever see. It’s what we have to and should do. Respect, honor, and thank them. Because these first responders are working 18-19 hour shifts and are exhausted and without a lot of backup and support on their shifts. Jumping…

It’s The Holiday Season Year Round for Dolly Parton – by Roy Firestone, Multii-Timed Emmy Award Winning Journalist

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As this year comes to a close, we need to remember the good in people. God knows we’ve seen enough hate, and violence, and contempt for people. We need to uplift one another and highlight those who do it in big in small ways..everyday. Dolly Parton is an incredible human being.She reminds me a lot of my late friend, the wonderful Brooks Robinson in that, like Brooks, Dolly is an icon with a heart go…

90 Days Until Pitchers & Catcher’s Report – by Roy Firestone, Multi Timed Emmy Award Winning Journalist

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Baseball season is over, and that fact alone makes me somewhat wistful. When the baseball season ends, I am always reminded of my old friend, Bart Giamatti who was a frequent visitor to my “Up Close” show. Besides being President of the National League, and later Commissioner of baseball, Bart was a poet. I think my favorite poem of his fits my mood exactly the day after the baseball season ended. Bart wrote: “It breaks…

The Boss Turns 75 – by Roy Firestone, Multi time Emmy Award Winning Journalist

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Bruce Springsteen celebrated his 75th birthday last month. And heres what he says about growing old. “Age. Age brings perspective. And the fine clarity one gets at midnight…on the tracks…looking into the lights of an oncoming train. It dawns on you rather quickly. Theres only so much time left. Only so many star filled nights….snowfalls…brisk fall afternoons…rainy midsummer days. So how you conduct yourself…and do your work..matters. How you treat your friends, your family, your…

Time for Tua to Walk Away – Roy Firestone, Multi Emmy Award Winning Journalist

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I don’t know Tua Tagovailoa. I’ve never met him. By all accounts he is a very fine young man. He’s also, at age 26, so young and gifted he might be able to play football for another decade or so. That’s if he stayed healthy. I’m not in the business of telling people what they should do in their life. But if it were me, and had suffered those concussions, I know what I’d do.…

MISSING THE MICK – By Roy Firestone, Multi time Emmy Award Winning Journalist

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Mickey Mantle died 29 years ago this week. The fact that it has been 29 years is mind boggling to me, and maybe to you too. Mickey was easily one of the most beloved baseball players of his generation, and among the greatest players of all time. He was deeply flawed. He was an alcoholic, a womaniser, had health issues that couldn’t keep him on the field. But Mickey seemed to be almost a mythic…

FOR PETE’S SAKE – by Roy Firestone, Multi times Emmy Award Winning Journalist

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To me, the smartest, wisest, most thoughtful, and most articulate voice in American politics is the most “unelectable”, at least where the country is now. He’s Pete Buttigieg, the Secretary of Transportation. He was awarded a Rhodes Scholarship to study at the University of Oxford. In 2007, he received a Bachelor of Arts degree with first-class honours in philosophy, politics, and economics after studying at Pembroke College, Oxford. He’s also Harvard educated. He speaks eight…

OLIVER TWIST by Roy Firestone Multi-Emmy Award Winning Journalist

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I love John Oliver. I think his show, “Last Week, Tonight”is one of the most entertaining, informative, and often drop dead funny shows on TV. His show goes deep into some of the most complicated subjects .He is fearless and acerbic and pointed, and Oliver says things that almost no one who reports the news would say or reflect on. John Oliver earns 1 million dollars per episode for his show on HBO. But yesterday,…

The Beauty of a Ballpark – by Multi Emmy Winning Journalist, Roy Firestone

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There’s something about a ballpark. Any ballpark. Anywhere. Baseball ballparks are mostly outdoors, and if you’re lucky and you are there to witness it…theres a beauty you can see and feel in your surroundings. It’s in the sunset. It reaches into your soul. You don’t get the same wonder in football stadiums or arenas. This is sunset at Oriole Park at Camden Yards, perhaps the game’s most beautiful ballpark. The glory of a sunset kissing…

It Happened on August 1, 1972
By Roy Firestone
Multi-Emmy Award Winning Journalist

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Here’s a funny and true story that references humility and accomplishment – and the fact that even when you finally do something really ‘great’ someone, somewhere, is doing better than you. This is a story that I tell in my live show. It involves three-time All-star Nate Colbert. All-star Nate was enjoying the game of his life. Colbert’s best day in the majors was August 1, 1972, when he hit five home runs – matching…

The Courage to Continue
By Roy Firestone
Multi Emmy Award-Winning Journalist

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Ravens and Lions fans are hurting. They were so close to seeing their teams win title games and vault into the Super Bowl. But they didn’t. Maybe it was a fumbled football, a dropped pass, a missed tackle, or in the case of the Lions two gambles that didn’t pay off. But those teams failed. It’s of little solace, but if you haven’t failed you will never succeed. Because you haven’t tried. I want to…

Dolly Parton: A Life Well Lived
By Roy Firestone
Multi Time Emmy Award Winning Journalist

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I think we need to focus more on great people than scoundrels. We have a lot more great people in life than miserable ones. Character, generosity, and kindness are traits far more impressive to me than affluence, celebrity, and social standing. Dolly Parton recently turned 78 years old. Here’s a person I have never met, but every person I have ever known who knows her says she is a superb human being…and you can pretty…