To be fair to K, he set this thread up to get a bite on the non-icon status so he could jab back with "it's a judgement call".
I simply obliged.
Partially true. I do so enjoy the snark as well as beating the same dead shark in a variety of ways. Keen, ain't it?
In this case I do feel Frank is somewhat iconic. So the timing to generate snark was good. It was an easy assist.
DeFord's first stint with SI was his best. I've always wanted to write and his was a style I tried to bring into mine (along with Stephen King, David Housel, Lewis Grizzard..). He had a way of putting the reader into the time and place. Good at setting the stage. His later pieces were too preachy for me. Felt like he was trying to be the story instead of tell somebody else's.
He was also part of the pre-ESPN era. We waited a week to get our sports fix when that shiny magazine appeared in the mailbox. We got pictures and stories about games we had heard about but seen little. We got the weekly doses of info that ESPN now does repeatedly in like a Coors Cold Hard Facts segment. DeFord was one of the main voices telling those personal, in-depth stories.
For me, he was to SI what Dan and Keith were to Sports Center.
Icon? Maybe. Who knows?
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