HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Joe Vila (September 16, 1866 – April 27, 1934) was an American
sportswriter Sports journalism is a form of writing that reports on matters pertaining to sporting topics and competitions. Sports journalism started in the early 1800s when it was targeted to the social elite and transitioned into an integral part of the n ...
and editor. He was born Joseph Spencer Vila in
Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...
,
Massachusetts Massachusetts (Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut Massachusett_writing_systems.html" ;"title="nowiki/> məhswatʃəwiːsət.html" ;"title="Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət">Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət'' En ...
. Vila has been regarded as one of the most influential sportswriters during the first third of the 20th century, while setting fundamental changes in sports coverage during the decades to come. Vila attended Boston Latin School, where he learned to play
baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding t ...
and football, and entered
Harvard College Harvard College is the undergraduate college of Harvard University, an Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636, Harvard College is the original school of Harvard University, the oldest institution of higher lea ...
from 1886 to 1887 and the Harvard Law School for a brief time. During his stay at Harvard, he instantly became a member of the football team, and in the following spring joined the baseball team. His individual statistics in both sports assured him a regular position on the varsity teams the following year, but he left college to go into business. After leaving Harvard, Vila went to work on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad as a brakeman and baggage smasher. He started his journalism career in his native Boston through a series of newspapers before joining the most sports-oriented daily paper in town, the '' Boston Herald''. In 1889 Vila moved to
New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...
, where he collaborated for the '' New York Morning Sun''. With writing, in its early years, he introduced a more contemporary
play-by-play In sports broadcasting, a sports commentator (also known as sports announcer or sportscaster) provides a real-time commentary of a game or event, usually during a live broadcast, traditionally delivered in the historical present tense. Radio was ...
review for the 1889 Harvard-Princeton match. Four years later, Vila was hired by the ''
New York Evening Sun ''The Sun'' was a New York newspaper published from 1833 until 1950. It was considered a serious paper, like the city's two more successful broadsheets, ''The New York Times'' and the ''New York Herald Tribune''. The Sun was the first successfu ...
'', one of the city’s most prestigious daily newspapers. In addition, he began to covering
boxing Boxing (also known as "Western boxing" or "pugilism") is a combat sport in which two people, usually wearing protective gloves and other protective equipment such as hand wraps and mouthguards, throw punches at each other for a predetermine ...
in 1898. That allowed him to become the first sportswriter to use a typewriter at
ringside Ringside may refer to: Sports *Ringside of a boxing ring *Ringside of a wrestling ring *Ringside seating (combat sports), see Ringside (boxing) Film *'' Ringside Maisie'', 1941 boxing film * ''Ringside'' (1949 film), American boxing drama film ...
, while dictating to a typist round by round the fight between
James J. Corbett James John "Jim" Corbett (September 1, 1866 – February 18, 1933) was an American professional boxer and a World Heavyweight Champion, best known as the only man who ever defeated the great John L. Sullivan (hence the " man who beat the man ...
and
Tom Sharkey Thomas "Sailor Tom" Sharkey (November 26, 1873 – April 17, 1953) was a boxer who fought two fights with heavyweight champion James J. Jeffries. Sharkey's recorded ring career spanned from 1893 to 1904. He is credited with having won 40 fi ...
and sending the resulting copy to a
Western Union The Western Union Company is an American multinational financial services company, headquartered in Denver, Colorado. Founded in 1851 as the New York and Mississippi Valley Printing Telegraph Company in Rochester, New York, the company cha ...
operator. As a result, other reporters who customarily wrote in longhand rapidly began to switch to typewriters. From 1900 through 1910, Vila covered mostly horse racing and baseball, but later devoted strictly to baseball. By then he was considered a powerful influence behind the scenes in professional sports. In 1902, Vila was instrumental in the Andrew Freedman's decision to sell the New York Giants
National League The National League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the National League (NL), is the older of two leagues constituting Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada, and the world's oldest extant professional team ...
club to
John T. Brush John Tomlinson Brush (June 15, 1845 – November 26, 1912) was an American sports executive who is primarily remembered as the principal owner of the New York Giants franchise in Major League Baseball from late in the 1902 season until his death ...
. Besides this, he helped to establish a New York baseball team in the newborn
American League The American League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the American League (AL), is one of two leagues that make up Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada. It developed from the Western League, a minor league ...
, when he introduced
Jacob Ruppert Jacob Ruppert Jr. (August 5, 1867 – January 13, 1939) was an American brewer, businessman, National Guard colonel and politician who served for four terms representing New York in the United States House of Representatives from 1899 to 1907. H ...
, by then owner of the
New York Yankees The New York Yankees are an American professional baseball team based in the New York City borough of the Bronx. The Yankees compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) East division. They are one of ...
, to Joe McCarthy, who would become the Yankees all-time leader
managerial Management (or managing) is the administration of an organization, whether it is a business, a nonprofit organization, or a government body. It is the art and science of managing resources of the business. Management includes the activities ...
wins with 1,460 from 1931 to 1946, including seven
World Series The World Series is the annual championship series of Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada, contested since 1903 between the champion teams of the American League (AL) and the National League (NL). The winner of the World ...
titles spanning 1932–1943. Vila became sports editor of ''The Sun'' in 1914. In addition to baseball, boxing, football and horse racing, he also covered
yacht A yacht is a sailing or power vessel used for pleasure, cruising, or racing. There is no standard definition, though the term generally applies to vessels with a cabin intended for overnight use. To be termed a , as opposed to a , such a pleasu ...
ing and
rowing Rowing is the act of propelling a human-powered watercraft using the sweeping motions of oars to displace water and generate reactional propulsion. Rowing is functionally similar to paddling, but rowing requires oars to be mechanically ...
. Being sports editor also made him a columnist, while his daily column, entitled ''Setting the Pace'', was to appear six days a week for over 20 years. His column was, unlike those of many of his contemporaries, very factual and straightforward, being often historic and less opinionated. Vila collapsed at his desk in 1934, while covering the opening of the horse race spring meeting at Jamaica Race Course. He was taken to a hospital and then to his home in
Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...
, where he died later of a heart failure at the age of 67. Following his death, his legacy most definitely continued, inspiring both those already well integrated in ''The Sun'' and those young journalists seriously interested in covering the sport on a regular basis. Joe Vila was one of 12 writers who were honored by the Baseball Hall of Fame on a Roll of Honor in its Class of 1946.Lieb, Fred; Ritter, Lawrence. 1977. "Baseball As I Have Known It". University of Nebraska Press.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Vila, Joe 1866 births 1934 deaths Baseball writers Boston Latin School alumni Harvard Law School alumni Writers from Boston Sportswriters from Massachusetts Harvard College alumni