The Falmouth Commodores will host a gathering of “the Mount Rushmore of Boston Globe Sportswriters” on Tuesday, July 22 when Peter Gammons, Bob Ryan, Leigh Montville and Dan Shaughnessy come to Guv Fuller Field to throw out the first pitch prior to the 6:00 game with Cotuit.
Gammons has been called the nation’s preeminent baseball writer covering the Boston Red Sox (1969–1975, 1978–1986), as well as a national baseball columnist. He was lead baseball columnist for Sports Illustrated (1976–78, 1986–90), wrote a column for The Sporting News in the 1980s, and was a regular on ESPN and Baseball Tonight. In 2004, he was the recipient of the J. G. Taylor Spink Award for outstanding baseball writing given by the Baseball Writers of America. In 2018, he was inducted into the Cape Cod Baseball Hall of Fame.
Ryan has been described as “the quintessential American sportswriter” and a basketball guru, well-known for his coverage of the sport including stories covering the Boston Celtics in the 1970s. Ryan would go on to cover 20 NBA finals, 20 Final Fours, nine World Series, five Super Bowls , the last seven Olympics and many other events. He has authored numerous books including Drive: The Story of My Life (1989), with Larry Bird, The Four Seasons (1997), and In Scoring Position: 40 Years of a Baseball Love Affair (2022).
Montville, a talented and well-read columnist for The Boston Globe has also been a senior writer with Sports Illustrated. He has authored many books, including best-sellers such as The Big Bam, a biography of Yankees baseball legend Babe Ruth, and Ted Williams: The Biography of an American Hero, which won the 2004 CASEY Award for best baseball book of the year. He also wrote At
the Altar of Speed: The Fast Life and Tragic Death of Dale Earnhardt, and Manute: The Center of Two Worlds, about former 7’-7” NBA center Manute Bol.
Shaughnessy has covered the Boston Red Sox for The Boston Globe since 1981. In 2016, he was given the J. G. Taylor Spink Award by the Baseball Hall of Fame. He still writes a widely popular Sunday column for the Globe. He has authored numerous best selling books including The Curse of the Bambino (1990), Senior Year: A Father, A Son, and High School Baseball (2007), Francona (2013), Reversing the Curse (2017), and Wish It Lasted Forever: Life with the Larry Bird Celtics (2021).
