An Honor Bestowed Upon a Legendary Writer

But this afternoon at Nationals Park, before the Nats host the Texas Rangers (of course, the ex-Senators), the Nationals will dedicate their "Media Center" to Shirley Povich. The honor was the brainchild of Theodore N. Lerner, the majority owner of the Nationals who, like many Washingtonians, grew up reading Povich's "This Morning" column in The Post every day.

"It was an automatic thing to do," Lerner said. "It's how you started each day. Shirley was a talented writer and terrific person. We're delighted to do this in his memory."

A Love for Press Boxes

A decade ago, when FedEx Field opened as Jack Kent Cooke Stadium, Cooke's son, John Kent Cooke, named the press box for Shirley Povich, also a favorite of the Cooke family.

Nowadays, some press boxes are called "media centers" -- at which Povich, according to his son Maury, would have scoffed: "Oy, it sounds something out of Best Buy. Where's the joy?"

But Povich loved press boxes, although he might have observed that the one named for him at Nationals Park might be too high above the field, too far from the action. But he wouldn't have complained too much; his town was back in the big leagues, in a new stadium, and he would have been pleased.

Povich grew up in press boxes, starting in 1924 when, as a 19-year-old reporter for The Post, he wrote "sidebars" from Griffith Stadium during Washington's only World Series Championship season.

He loved baseball history and knew that the first press box was constructed at Brooklyn's Union Ground in 1867 "for legitimate members of the press whose duty it is to report the contests." This, according to the "Ball Player's Chronicle," as reported by Peter Morris in the book "Game of Inches."

By 1870, the Olympic Club of Washington had a press box at its home field that hosted scribes in a "fine pagoda over the backstop, secluded from the crowd for scorers and reporters of the press." By 1884, the press box was so close to the field that mischievous players began throwing baseballs at reporters. Two years later, the first recorded complaint by sportswriters occurred when Boston Globe staffers grew angry about the Boston club owners occupying press box seats. It took another 100 years before the art of sportswriter whining was perfected to its current state, led by Anthony I. Kornheiser.

Maury Povich remembers how his father, on occasion, would permit him to accompany him into the press box at Griffith Stadium. "It was like entering hallowed ground, with rules," Povich remembered. " I was told by my father 'do not under any circumstances clap, stand up or utter anything like a cheer, if the Senators do something good. There is no cheering in the press box.'

"Later, I realized there was a pecking order in the press box. My father [The Post], Francis Stann of the Star and Bob Addie, then of the Times Herald, held the premier seats. And there was the realization when I wanted to go home at the end of the game, my father was the last to leave, struggling to finish his column, his game story and his sidebar."

So now we know Shirley Povich was the last writer out of the press box, "with his telegrapher," recalled Martie Zad, Povich's editor in the 1960s. Povich handing his work to the Western Union telegrapher, page by page, to dispatch the copy, often in Morse Code, to The Post newsroom so readers could enjoy Their Morning with "This Morning."

Have a comment or question? Reach me at talkback@washpost.com.