Each year, those who belong to the Baseball Writers’ Association of America receive a card. The lower the number on the card, the longer you have been a continuous member of the organization. Card No. 1 goes to the person who has been a BBWAA member the longest.
I started at United Press International in early April 1984, two weeks after my 20th birthday. The New York office where I worked had the No. 1 card in Steve Snider, plus two others who were in single digits — Fred Down and Milton Richman — among the hundreds and hundreds of cards distributed each year.
Snider at that time was the weekend editor and had the incredible ability to keep a lit cigarette in his mouth while staring at his terminal — and somehow never let the growing ash drop onto his keyboard. I once made him laugh. I consider it among the best achievements of my career.
Richman played in the minors for the St. Louis Browns during World War II and was elected to the writers’ wing of the Baseball Hall of Fame three years before I joined UPI.
