by Leonard Greene
It was my favorite magazine, and this was back when the mailman dropped off a stack of subscriptions in our mailbox every week.
Growing up we had Time, Newsweek, Ebony, Jet, Black Enterprise, Reader’s Digest, GQ and Psychology Today. (My brother was a psych major.)
My favorite by far was Sports Illustrated.
Little would excite me more when I got home from school or football practice than to see a glossy edition of the latest Sports Illustrated sitting on the coffee table, Dan Marino or Reggie Jackson on the cover, a spread inside about the Giants’ playoff chances.
I put off doing my homework to see what Peter Gammons had to say about the Mets.
You didn’t want to see your favorite player or team on the cover because of the so-called “Sports Illustrated jinx.”
The Houston Astros broke the curse in 2017, winning the World Series despite a prediction on the magazine’s cover they would win.
But that was the year they cheated, so maybe they didn’t break the curse, after all.
The best Sports Illustrated story of all time? That’s easy. April 1, 1985. “The Curious Case of Sidd Finch.”
That was the fictional April Fools story about the phenom country pitcher for the Mets who could throw a baseball 168 mph. He made Doc Gooden look like he was tossing it underhanded.
I fell for the hoax hook, line and curve ball. What do you want from me? I’m a Mets fan.
Ya gotta believe.
If this sounds like the kind of reminiscing you might hear at someone’s funeral, well, it is, sort of.
On Jan. 19, the iconic magazine’s owners announced that they were laying off just about the entire staff, leaving the once-proud publication on the brink of death.
How dire is the situation? A crafty magazine writer might set a scene with two out in the bottom of the ninth, and the visiting team needing a 59-yard field goal to send the basketball game into overtime.
In other words, we’re in miracle and fantasy land now. This is no April Fool’s joke.
In an email sent to staff Jan. 19 morning, the Arena Group, which operates the Sports Illustrated brand and SI-related properties, said that Authentic Brands Group (ABG) had revoked its marketing license.
Because of the license revocation, the email said, “we will be laying off staff that work on the SI brand.”
The magazine’s union tweeted Friday that it would continue to fight for the publication of the magazine but that its future is now in the hands of Sports Illustrated’s owners.
“This is another difficult day in what has been a difficult four years for Sports Illustrated under Arena Group … stewardship,” the union said in a statement. “We are calling on ABG to ensure the continued publication of SI and allow it to serve our audience in the way it has for nearly 70 years.”
SI, as we like to call it — the same way we’d use a ballplayer’s nickname — was renowned for its dramatic photography showcasing the plays at the plate, the catches in the end zone, the wins at the finish line.
But what made the magazine top notch was its writing. It had the best writers, and not just the best sports writers.
If you wanted a story about who won the game, Sports Illustrated probably wasn’t for you. But if you cared at all about the relationship an MVP still maintained with his high school coach, or the toll of tackle football on 12-year-olds, SI was all in.
And the only things better than the swimsuit issue were the letters from irate readers threatening to cancel their subscriptions over it.
My favorite letter about the swimsuit issue came from a reader who insisted the editors should be ashamed of themselves. In the next paragraph, he shifted directions, like a running back dodging a tackler.
“My wife’s out of the room now,” he said. “Loved the edition. Keep up the good work.”
Indeed. And thanks for the wonderful ride.
