Philip Francis Pepe (March 21, 1935 – December 13, 2015) was an American
baseball writer and
radio voice who spent more than five decades covering sports in
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 ...
.
[Phil Pepe, Longtime New York Sportswriter, Dies at 80]
''New York Times''. Retrieved on December 21, 2015.
Born 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 ...
, Phil Pepe grew up rooting for the local
Brooklyn Dodgers, even though he spent most of his time as a baseball reporter with the loathed team of his childhood, 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 ...
.
[
Prominently, Pepe was a longtime Yankees beat writer who chronicled franchise greats from ]Yogi Berra
Lawrence Peter "Yogi" Berra (May 12, 1925 – September 22, 2015) was an American professional baseball catcher who later took on the roles of manager and coach. He played 19 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) (1946–1963, 1965), all but ...
and Mickey Mantle
Mickey Charles Mantle (October 20, 1931 – August 13, 1995), nicknamed "the Commerce Comet" and "the Mick", was an American professional baseball player. Mantle played his entire Major League Baseball (MLB) career (1951–1968) with the New York ...
to Reggie Jackson and Derek Jeter,[Phil Pepe Author Page]
''Amazon''. Retrieved on December 21, 2015. and also authored dozens of books on some of the most significant figures in sports, including ''Come Out Smokin’'' on heavyweight champion Joe Frazier and covering such athletes as boxing legend Muhammad Ali and basketball stars Walt Frazier
Walter "Clyde" Frazier Jr. (born March 29, 1945) is an American former professional basketball player of the National Basketball Association (NBA). As their floor general and top perimeter defender, he led the New York Knicks to the franchise's o ...
and Willis Reed
Willis Reed Jr. (born June 25, 1942) is an American retired basketball player, coach and general manager. He spent his entire professional playing career (1964–1974) with the New York Knicks. In 1982, Reed was inducted into the Naismith Me ...
during a prolific career that spanned generations.[Phil Pepe dies at 80]
''The Washington Post
''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...
''. Retrieved on December 21, 2015.
Pepe graduated from Lafayette High School and St. John's University. After graduating from St. John’s, Pepe joined the ''New York World-Telegram
The ''New York World-Telegram'', later known as the ''New York World-Telegram and The Sun'', was a New York City newspaper from 1931 to 1966.
History
Founded by James Gordon Bennett Sr. as ''The Evening Telegram'' in 1867, the newspaper began ...
'' in 1957 for which he was 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 ...
beat writer in 1961, the same year that Roger Maris broke Babe Ruth’s single-season home run record.[ Pepe remained at the New York World Telegram & Sun until the newspaper folded in 1966. After that, he wrote scripts along with ]Howard Cosell
Howard is an English-language given name originating from Old French Huard (or Houard) from a Germanic source similar to Old High German ''*Hugihard'' "heart-brave", or ''*Hoh-ward'', literally "high defender; chief guardian". It is also probabl ...
for ABC Radio.[ He then joined the '' New York Daily News'' in 1968.
Pepe covered baseball for the News from 1969 through 1981 and then succeeded the venerable Dick Young as its featured sports columnist in 1982.][ During the same period, Pepe wrote the lead game story for every ]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 ...
from 1969 to 1981, even in years when the Yankees did not make the Series. In between, he covered most of Muhammad Ali's championship fights, Super Bowl I
The first AFL–NFL World Championship Game (known retroactively as Super BowlI and referred to in contemporaneous reports, including the game's radio broadcast, as the Super Bowl) was an American football game played on January 15, 1967, at the ...
and three Olympic Games
The modern Olympic Games or Olympics (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques) are the leading international sporting events featuring summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a vari ...
, as well as the New York Knicks during their championship years.[Longtime Daily News sports writer Phil Pepe dead at 80]
''New York Daily News''. Retrieved on December 21, 2015. In 1970, his book, ''The Incredible Knicks'' was published, highlighting their championship season.
After leaving the News in 1989, Pepe did morning sports for WCBS radio for more than 15 years, which included his popular "Pep Talk" segment. In addition, he was the director of broadcasting and a radio analyst for the Class-A New Jersey Cardinals
The New Jersey Cardinals were a Short-Season A minor league baseball team affiliated with the St. Louis Cardinals. They were a member of the New York–Penn League and played at Skylands Park in Augusta, New Jersey from 1994–2005.
History
The ...
of the New York–Penn League
The New York–Penn League (NYPL) was a Minor League Baseball league that operated in the northeastern United States from 1939 to 2020. Classified as a Class A Short Season league, its season started in June, after major-league teams signed th ...
from 1994 to 2005.[
Among his books about the Yankees, Pepe wrote ''My Favorite Summer 1956'', with ]Mickey Mantle
Mickey Charles Mantle (October 20, 1931 – August 13, 1995), nicknamed "the Commerce Comet" and "the Mick", was an American professional baseball player. Mantle played his entire Major League Baseball (MLB) career (1951–1968) with the New York ...
, which spent time on the New York Times Bestseller List, and “New York Yankees:1961” an account of the Mantle-Maris home run chase for Ruth's record. He also wrote ''The Wit and Wisdom of Yogi Berra''; ''Slick,'' an autobiography of Whitey Ford
Edward Charles "Whitey" Ford (October 21, 1928 – October 8, 2020), nicknamed "the Chairman of the Board", was an American professional baseball pitcher who played his entire 16-year Major League Baseball (MLB) career with the New York Yankees ...
; ''Core Four'', about Derek Jeter, Jorge Posada
Jorge Rafael Posada Villeta (born August 17, 1970) is a Puerto Rican former professional baseball catcher who played 17 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the New York Yankees. Posada recorded a .273 batting average, 275 home runs, and ...
, Andy Pettitte
Andrew Eugene Pettitte (; born June 15, 1972) is an American former professional baseball pitcher who played 18 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB), primarily for the New York Yankees. He also pitched for the Houston Astros. Pettitte won fiv ...
and Mariano Rivera
Mariano Rivera (born November 29, 1969) is a Panamanian-American former professional baseball pitcher who played 19 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the New York Yankees, from 1995 to 2013. Nicknamed "Mo" and "Sandman", he spent most ...
in a more recent period of team's success, as well as ''Yankee Doodles,'' a handful of recollections from his experiences with the team.[
Pepe also was esteemed for the tireless work he did on behalf of the New York chapter of the ]Baseball Writers' Association of America
The Baseball Writers' Association of America (BBWAA) is a professional association for journalists writing about Major League Baseball for daily newspapers, magazines and qualifying websites. The organization was founded in 1908, and is known ...
, where he served as chapter chairman from 1975 to 1976 and executive director from 1991 until 2015. Most notably, he attended every BBWAA awards dinner in New York from 1962 unto his death and ran the annual event for more than two decades.[
Pepe died in 2015 at his home in Englewood, New Jersey at the age of 80. The cause was an apparent heart attack.][
]
Sources
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pepe, Phil
1935 births
2015 deaths
American sports radio personalities
Baseball writers
Sportspeople from Brooklyn
People from Englewood, New Jersey
Lafayette High School (New York City) alumni
St. John's University (New York City) alumni
Sportswriters from New York (state)