The New York Press League was a Central Park tradition spanning decades.
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00:00 The New York Press League was a Central Park tradition.
00:07 Spanning decades as writers, editors, and the like, took to a familiar patch of grass
00:11 in Central Park for a game of softball, but it wasn't just any game of softball.
00:15 Joining me now is John Walters, who wrote an incredible story on this.
00:19 First of all, John, tell me about the Press League and how it started.
00:23 The Press League started out of the show league, the Broadway show league, which had been around
00:27 since 1955, and different Broadway shows would compete in the afternoons.
00:35 With famous people that you know, people like George C. Scott and Woody Allen and Al Pacino,
00:41 the show league expanded to allow media teams and even restaurants to compete.
00:46 This wasn't just like a post-work softball game, co-eds leave.
00:51 People took it very seriously.
00:53 In the mid-70s, in 1976, some of the media teams branched out and formed their own league
00:59 and they called it the New York Press League.
01:03 Now I know that there are some familiar names in there as well.
01:06 SI's own Stephanie Apstein is mentioned in this story as a regular spectator and also
01:12 kind of a ringer herself.
01:14 What was the story there?
01:16 Well, Stephanie actually is one of the latecomers in the league and she used to love to go.
01:22 I mean, the league ended in 2018, which is why I used the past tense, but Stephanie would
01:27 go and keep score.
01:28 She was sort of SI's number one fan over the last decade.
01:33 And during the London Olympics in 2012, too many staffers were out of the country and
01:38 they needed someone to come in.
01:40 They were basically short on bodies.
01:41 So Stephanie was coaxed to put down the scorecard, scorebook, and come in and play catcher.
01:47 That did not go very well for Stephanie.
01:49 She admitted that she had trouble just getting the ball back to the pitcher's mound.
01:53 And after that one game, she never wore sneakers to a softball game again.
01:58 She wore sandals so that she could not be recruited to play.
02:02 Now, you mentioned people took this very seriously and also you mentioned the past tense of it.
02:07 2018 was the last year.
02:09 What caused the conclusion of this league?
02:12 Well, that's part of the whole gist of the story is that the softball league, which began
02:17 in 1976 and ended in 2018, mirrored sports journalism.
02:24 For example, in 1976, there were always six teams in the league.
02:27 In 1976, the New York Times had two teams.
02:31 But as sports journalism became less robust over the decades due to the internet, due
02:36 to staff layoffs, a lot of different reasons, the league itself started to dwindle.
02:44 By the end, the New York Times not only had just one team, but most of the players on
02:48 the New York Times team had never worked for the New York Times.
02:51 They were what we call ringers.
02:53 So the league eventually just sort of died out.
02:56 I wouldn't say due to apathy, but due to a lot of reasons that are the same reasons that
03:02 a lot of media companies are having trouble staying alive right now.
03:07 The evolution of the business, of course, reflected in the evolution of this sport and
03:11 this league.
03:12 John Walters, thanks so much for the insight on this story.
03:15 Thanks for having me, Madeline.
03:16 Thank you.
03:17 Thank you.
03:18 Thank you.
03:18 [BLANK_AUDIO]