Bryant, Howard 1968-

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BRYANT, Howard 1968-

PERSONAL: Born 1968. Education: Attended Temple University.

ADDRESSES: Home—New York, NY. Office—Record, 1 Garret Mountain Plaza, P.O. Box 471, West Paterson, NJ 74424-0471 E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER: Journalist. San Jose Mercury News, San Jose, CA, sportswriter, 1995-2001; Bergen Record, sportswriter, 2001—. Oakland Tribune, Oakland, CA, journalist.

WRITINGS:

Shut Out: A Story of Race and Baseball in Boston, Routledge (New York, NY), 2002.

Contributor to books, including Thinking Black, The Red Sox Century, and Yankee Century.

SIDELIGHTS: Sports journalist Howard Bryant sidestepped into authoring books to write about the issue of race and the Boston Red Sox. Published in 2002, Shut Out: A Story of Race and Baseball in Boston looks at the Boston Red Sox and the team's history with black players.

The Boston Red Sox were the last baseball team in the major leagues to integrate, and they did it in 1959, twelve years after Jackie Robinson had begun playing with the Brooklyn Dodgers. Ironically, Robinson had tried out at Boston's Fenway park in 1945. By the time the Red Sox started putting black players on the field, Robinson had already retired from baseball.

Bryant's book also includes a media critique, explained Louis P. Masur in his Nation review. The Boston press didn't do its job covering racial issues, maintains Bryant. Even in the 1970s, when the Red Sox had black starters George Scott, Joe Foy, and Reggie Smith and the team was still enveloped in racism, the newspapers kept quiet. The book ends on a positive note, Masur went on. The Red Sox signed Manny Ramirez in 2000, making him the first non-white free agent to sign with the Red Sox while still in his prime. Bryant adds that the team's current owner, John Henry, wants to connect with Boston's black community. "This important study examines the race relations of one of baseball's most storied teams … from the early 1930s to the present," commented R. C. Cottrell in a Library Journal review.

Born in 1968, Bryant grew up in Boston's Dorchester area during a school desegregation busing problem. He was bused from his inner-city home to a suburban school as part of METCO, a pilot program to create better educational opportunities for children like him. In 1977 Bryant moved with his family to Plymouth, Massachusetts.

After attending Temple University in Philadelphia, Bryant wrote for the Oakland Tribune and the San Jose Mercury News. In 2001 he moved to the east coast to cover the Yankees for the Record in New Jersey. Bryant, interested in Latin-American culture and fluent in Spanish, has traveled in Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Mexico, and El Salvador to learn about Latin-American culture and baseball. He is married and lives in New York City.