Bill Christine (born Willard M. Christine Jr., August 5, 1938) is an American former

sportswriter Sports journalism is a form of writing that reports on matters pertaining to sporting topics and competitions. Sports journalism has its roots in coverage of horse racing and boxing in the early 1800s, mainly targeted towards elites, and into t ...

, author, and publicist, dealing primarily with baseball and

horse racing Horse racing is an equestrian performance activity, typically involving two or more horses ridden by jockeys (or sometimes driven without riders) over a set distance for competition. It is one of the most ancient of all sports, as its bas ...

, who served briefly as sports editor of the ''

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette The ''Pittsburgh Post-Gazette'', also known simply as the PG, is the largest newspaper serving Greater Pittsburgh, metropolitan Pittsburgh in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. Descended from the ''Pittsburgh Gazette'', established in 1786 as the fi ...

'', and, for roughly the final half of his career, as a nationally syndicated columnist for the ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American Newspaper#Daily, daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo, California, El Segundo since 2018, it is the List of new ...

''.

Early life and career

Christine was born in Illinois on August 5, 1938, to Willard M. Christine and Bernice J. Walsh. He graduated from Assumption High School in 1956, and later from

Southern Illinois University Carbondale Southern Illinois University (SIU) is a public research university in Carbondale, Illinois, United States. Chartered in 1869, SIU is the oldest and flagship campus of the Southern Illinois University system. SIU enrolls students from all 50 sta ...

. While attending SIUC, he also reported on sports for the ''

Southern Illinoisan ''The Southern Illinoisan'' is a daily newspaper and multimedia news platform based in Carbondale, Illinois, known locally as "The Southern." It is one of the major regional newspaper and media services for southern Illinois. The most recent e ...

''.Christine, Bill (December 22, 1957)
"East St. Louis Tourney Folds; All Meets Not Successful"
''Southern Illinoisan''. p. 10.

Works

Books

* ''"Numero Uno" Roberto!'' (1973) * ''Bill Hartack : the Bittersweet Life of a Hall of Fame Jockey'' (2016) * ''They Left Their Hearts in San Francisco : The Lives of Songwriters George Cory and Douglass Cross'' (2017)

Selected articles

"Bucs Deck Cards; Clemente's Catch Saves Veale's Win"
''The Pittsburgh Press''. September 12, 1969. p .29
"The Sports Beat: Two Bits, Please; The Early Bird; Who's Chi Chi"
''The Pittsburgh Press''. April 28, 1970. p. 41
"National League Gallery of Stars"
''Baseball 1972 Yearbook''. March 1972. pp. 68–78
"Our Man in Florida Chalks One Up"
''The Pittsburgh Press''. April 28, 1971. p. 29
"Don Wilson Was Something Special"
''Pittsburgh Post-Gazette''. January 21, 1975. p. 18; reprinted a
"Don Wilson: The End Came Too Soon"
''Baseball Digest''. April 1975.
"As I See It"
''Sports Illustrated''. March 29, 1976. p. 73 * "An Official Scorer Who Has Lived to Tell About It". ''The New York Times''. July 22, 1979. p. S2; reprinted a
"Scorers Can't Please Everyone"
''Tallahassee Democrat''. July 21, 1979. p. 46 * "An Official Scorer Who Has Lived to Tell About It". ''The New York Times''. July 22, 1979. p. S2; reprinted a
"Scorers Can't Please Everyone"
''Tallahassee Democrat''. July 21, 1979. p. 46
"Ride 'Em, Cowboy Jack, Right to Winner's Circle"
''Best Sports Stories 1983''. St. Louis, MO: The Sporting News Publishing Company. 1983. pp. 147–151
"'Secretariat's' Loss: rival Angle Light"
''Los Angeles Times''. October 3, 2010. p. 24

References

External links