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Gregory Martin Baum (born 14 December 1959) is a former Australian
sports journalist Sport is a physical activity or game, often competitive and organized, that maintains or improves physical ability and skills. Sport may provide enjoyment to participants and entertainment to spectators. The number of participants in a par ...
.


Early years and education

Baum was born in
Melbourne Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...
, Victoria, the first of six children to Martin and Joan Baum. He attended
Boronia ''Boronia'' is a genus of about 160 species of flowering plants in the citrus family Rutaceae. Most are endemic to Australia with a few species in New Caledonia, which were previously placed in the genus ''Boronella''. They occur in all Australi ...
State Primary school, then St Josephs Primary School Boronia. He then attended St Joseph's Regional College, Ferntree Gully, graduating in 1976. He enrolled in the
Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology The Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (abbreviated as RMIT University) is a public research university located in the city of Melbourne in Victoria, Australia., section 4(b) Established in 1887 by Francis Ormond, it is the seventh-o ...
(RMIT) journalism course and began work as a cadet with Leader Newspapers on the local paper, the ''Knox-Sherbrooke News'', in 1977.


Journalism career

After a number of his articles on the local football competition were republished in ''
The Sun The Sun is the star at the centre of the Solar System. It is a massive, nearly perfect sphere of hot Plasma (physics), plasma, heated to incandescence by nuclear fusion reactions in its core, radiating the energy from its surface mainly as ...
'', a major newspaper in Melbourne, Baum was offered a job by that newspaper, becoming a sub-editor at the age of 20. He ultimately became a full-time sportswriter for the paper, including ghosting a column for former footballer
Lou Richards Lewis Thomas Charles "Lou" Richards (15 March 1923 – 8 May 2017) was an Australian rules footballer who played 250 games for the Collingwood Football Club in the Victorian Football League (VFL) between 1941 and 1955. He captained the team f ...
. In May 1989 he was offered a job by Fairfax Publications at ''
The Age ''The Age'' is a daily newspaper in Melbourne, Australia, that has been published since 1854. Owned and published by Nine Entertainment, ''The Age'' primarily serves Victoria (Australia), Victoria, but copies also sell in Tasmania, the Austral ...
'', the Sun's main rival. Baum has continued to write for ''The Age'' until his retiring in January 2025. He was a Senior Sports Writer, and an Associate Editor as well as writing for ''
The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...
'' of London. He also edited the last Australian edition of ''
Wisden ''Wisden Cricketers' Almanack'', or simply ''Wisden'', colloquially the Bible of Cricket, is a cricket reference book published annually in the United Kingdom. The description "Bible of cricket" (or variations thereof) has been applied to ''Wi ...
''. In the course of his work, Baum travelled to many countries including America, Canada, India, Pakistan Italy, Germany, Brazil, South Africa and England whilst covering Olympics, soccer and cricket. He has received a number of awards for his work, from the
Melbourne Cricket Ground The Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG), also known locally as the 'G, is a sports stadium located in Yarra Park, Melbourne, Victoria. Founded and managed by the Melbourne Cricket Club, it is the largest stadium in the Southern Hemisphere, the Lis ...
Trust, the Victorian Boxing Association and the Australian Press Association. He also received a 2008
Walkley Award The annual Walkley Awards are presented in Australia to recognise and reward excellence in journalism. They cover all media including print, television, documentary, radio, photographic and online media. The Gold Walkley is the highest prize and ...
in the "Commentary, analysis, opinion, and critique" category. He is the author of several books on sporting personalities including Paul Reiffel and Steve Waugh, and was the ghost writer of ''Dangerous Days'', an account of the wartime adventures of Private Laurie Brough. He has three children and three grandchildren. He lives in Skene's Creek and Melbourne.


References


External links


Greg Baum's ''The Age'' profile
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Baum, Greg 1959 births Australian sportswriters Living people Journalists from Melbourne People from the City of Knox RMIT University alumni