Baseball lost its finest historian and number one baseball writer, Leonard Koppett who passed away Sunday.

Leonard understood the origins of the game and loved to talk about the nuances of baseball in the press room. Leonard never turned down an interview request. I always started my first show of the year on Right Off the Bat with Leonard. He taught me how to approach the baseball season and how to put historical events into proper perspective.

Leonard was the smartest man I ever knew, no, matter what the subject his opinion was always well thought out, correct and treasured by me.

Leonard and I shared two wonderful trips to Cooperstown where he included me in his conversations with the greats of the game. Whether it was Koufax, LaSorda, writer Jack Lang, Warren Spahn or other luminaries of the game, Leonard was thrilled to see them and share stories with them. Leonard let me eavesdrop on those conversations, one of the highlights of my life.

Leonard’s favorite time of year was late July when he made his trip to Cooperstown to see his old friends. He loved sitting on the veranda of the old Otesaga hotel, just gazing out at the lake and taking in the view while talking to the all time greats of the game.

When I made a speech at the Hall of Fame in 2002 in their Bullpen Theater on induction weekend, I looked up and saw Leonard in the audience, he had come into Cooperstown early on Friday to hear me speak. I felt at home.

Another of his favorite sayings involved Koppett’s Law. It went like this. When a playoff series was nearing its conclusion all involved would wonder if that days game would conclude the series. Koppett’s Law would apply when he would say, “whatever was most inconvenient for the writers covering the event would happen, meaning another road trip, another flight, and another game will take place.” And it would happen time and time again just like he said it would.

He had a wonderful sense of humor, always present and charming. In his New York days, he would write the comedy lines for the annual skits put on at the winter dinner by the New York Baseabll Writers, the most prestigious baseball event of the year in New York.

Leonard Koppett was generous with his time and always was available to talk about baseball. I enjoyed our lunches during the winter, meeting at a San Mateo deli, we would eat and sit for two hours or more with other special guests and argue about some aspect of the game. Leonard always won and I loved it.

Our last time together was this past Friday night when he and I and Sam Spear and Bruce Magowan sat in the press lounge of the Coliseum and debated the merits of all time leadoff hitters Eddie Stanky and Eddie Yost. It was another wonderful moment listening to his views on the origininal analysis of on base percentage .

Leonard Koppett was the inspiration of my baseball life. He wanted me to tell the oral history of the game through my shows. He encouraged me and promoted my work, perhaps the greatest honor I ever received was Leonard telling a reporter that I was doing the best job of collecting the stories of baseball of anyone in the country.

Leonard’s legacy is contained in his many books and columns about baseball.

His book on managers, The Man in the Dugout, taught me how the game of baseball was passed on by John McGraw (Casey Stengel a disciple of McGraw was Leonard’s all time favorite and his baseball guru in the 50’s), Connie Mack and Branch Rickey to the managers of today. He was very proud of Koppett’s Concise History of Baseball, his chronological history of the game, he wanted fans to be able to pick it up and find the historical roots of baseball. I keep it by my bed and refer to it whenever I need to refresh my memory about a baseball event. Leonard left a beautiful baseball legacy, his Sporting News columns from the 60’s and 70’s predicted the labor changes that baseball would undergo in the late 70’s and 80’s. No one understood the history of the labor issues of baseball better than Leonard Koppett.

He told me that ever since the owners realized they could put a fence around the field in 1860, and charge admission, the players and owners have been arguing how to divide that money.

How true.

Leonard started the AP daily roundup of baseball in the 50’s, very common in today’s papers, when the Dodgers and Giants moved West.

No one in the history of baseball knew more about comparing the differences in baseball eras. Leonard may have been the unofficial founder of the Society of American Baseball Research (SABR) because he took the numbers of the game and told the story of a player’s career or of a specific era through his numerical comparisons.

He forever was compiling wonderful baseball lists.

He would start a conversation with me by simply stating with a twinkle in his eye “look at this”, or “I want to show you something”, and then I was privy to an intricate baseball fact that explained some part of today’s game. He was so proud of these discoveries.

Leonard felt that expansion had been overdone and the future of baseball would be brighter if the owners would cut back to 24 teams.

Many people come and go in life, Leonard Koppett was one of the most treasured friends I have ever had in my life.

My heart goes out to Leonard’s family, Sue, his wife, Kathy and David his children, and to everyone who knew Leonard Koppett.

We have lost one of the giants of life, he was not only a pillar of baseball, but the most generous, and gentle man I ever met.

Leonard Koppett will always be with me. I’ll miss him and never forget him.

Good bye old friend.