Diary of A Sports Writer

About the Book

The stories that make up this book give its readers short stories about individuals who have played, performed or coached or mentored in the field of sports. These stories are about people who have overcome all kinds of obstacles to succeed, as well as some who seemed to reach their pinnacle easier than most. These are some stories of happiness and sorrow. For the professional sports fan, they will find the stories on Hank Aaron and Kareem Abdul Jabbar not only interesting but informative. Stories on the lesser known professionals and the unknown amateur athletes will also capture the interest of anyone who is looking for a good personal story. My journey as a sportswriter has brought me many fond memories, with many interesting and talented people.

About the Author

Gary Van Ness is now a freelance journalist, who has over twenty years of writing experience in the newspaper field. Van Ness was a sports reporter for the Courier News in Bridgewater, New Jersey, then later becoming the sports editor for the Somerset Messenger-Gazette in Somerville, New Jersey. Van Ness studied at Raritan Valley Community College, and has written over 300 newspaper articles in his carreer. Writing was something I never intended to do. It was something that came unexpectedly and out of no where. As an average student at Somerville High School in Somerville, New Jersey, thoughts never entered my mind about writing, although admittlingly english was one of my favorite subjects. It was on the baseball diamond where I excelled and where my thoughts were mostly centered. But as it turned out, the love of the sport of baseball is what eventually lead me to the career as a sportswriter. Two years after leaving my studies at Raritan Valley Community College (then Somerset County College), I began a career in the newspaper field. Starting out as a driver delivering advertising in the publications department and playing on the company softball team. It was a chance encounter with the then publisher of the Courier News and also a member of the softball team, John Curley, that began my writing career. Knowing my interest in sports, Mr Curley asked me if I ever thought of writing sports, and after my response of " no", I was taken aback when his next question was, "would you like to try?" The choice wasn't a hard one as a sudden inspiring light went off, thus beginning a career that would span more then 20 years and 7 newspapers. This book is dedicated to my wife Brenda, our kids and grand kids and my mother and father Margie and Stanley who I miss very much.