Robert Watts Creamer (July 14, 1922 – July 18, 2012) was an American sportswriter and editor. He spent most of his career at '' Sports Illustrated''.

Biography

Creamer was born on July 14, 1922 in

Bronxville, New York Bronxville is a village in Westchester County, New York, United States, located approximately north of Midtown Manhattan. It is part of the town of Eastchester. The village comprises one square mile (2.5 km2) of land in its entirety, a ...

He attended Fordham and

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Universities but never graduated. In World War II, he fought in Germany and was wounded. During Operation ''Bodenplatte'', the German Luftwaffe's last offensive operation, Creamer was on the ground watching the aerial combat around him. A German

Bf 109 The Messerschmitt Bf 109 is a German World War II fighter aircraft that was, along with the Focke-Wulf Fw 190, the backbone of the Luftwaffe's fighter force. The Bf 109 first saw operational service in 1937 during the Spanish Civil War an ...

fighter roared into make a strafing run on Creamer's position. Creamer ducked behind a mound of dirt, then pulled out his .45 pistol and fired at the German plane. Creamer described it as trying "to hit a fly with a BB gun." Following his discharge, he worked in advertising as a copywriter and at '' Collier's Encyclopedia'' as an assistant editor. Creamer was one of the first hired on the staff of ''Sports Illustrated'' in 1954. He served the magazine as a senior editor from inception to 1984, and wrote the weekly Scorecard section of the magazine. He also wrote for '' The New York Times''. As an author, Creamer wrote what many consider the definitive biography of Babe Ruth, titled ''Babe: The Legend Comes to Life'', in 1974. Reviewing the book for '' The New York Times Book Review'', Roger Angell wrote that Ruth had "at last found the biographer he deserves in Robert Creamer." Creamer wrote seven other baseball related books, including biographies of Mickey Mantle, Casey Stengel, Ralph Houk, the sportscaster Red Barber and the umpire Jocko Conlan. He also wrote ''Baseball in '41: A Celebration of the "Best Baseball Season Ever"'' (1991) (later published in paperback as ''Baseball and Other Matters in 1941''). Creamer's lone novel, ''A Resemblance to Persons Living and Dead'', is loosely based on politics, personages, and the environs of Tuckahoe and the town of Eastchester, New York. In retirement, Creamer occasionally wrote retrospective articles for ''SI'' and could be seen on television commenting on historical moments in sports, many of which he had covered. Creamer was a recipient of the 2012 Henry Chadwick Award from the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR).2012 Chadwick Award recipients
/ref> He also appeared in

Ken Burns Kenneth Lauren Burns (born July 29, 1953) is an American filmmaker known for his documentary film, documentary films and television series, many of which chronicle United States, American History of the United States, history and Culture of the ...

' documentary '' Baseball'' and numerous other television baseball programs, including ''When It Was a Game''. Creamer died of prostate cancer on July 18, 2012 in Saratoga Springs.Robert Creamer's obituary

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Creamer, Robert 1922 births 2012 deaths Baseball writers Deaths from cancer in New York (state) Deaths from prostate cancer Fordham University alumni People from Bronxville, New York People from Tuckahoe, Westchester County, New York United States Army personnel of World War II Sportswriters from New York (state) Syracuse University alumni