Frank Deford

Sorry to hear of the death this weekend of Frank Deford. He was the most literate sportswriter I ever read -- or heard. I first discovered Deford's work in the pages of Sports Illustrated, then in The National (the first national daily sports newspaper), then for years in his weekly commentaries on NPR's Morning Edition, a job he gave up just a few weeks ago. He was unique, erudite, often caustically funny, and one helluva storyteller.

I'm happy to say I had two opportunities to interview Deford, first in 2007 when he published "The Entitled," a tale of modern baseball, and again in 2012, when he wrote his memoir, "Over Time." Listen to those conversations and you'll get a sense of how special Frank Deford was.