Sheldon Ocker: “Manny used to use other people's bats, pants, and shirts.”

Press Box Access: A Sports History Podcast

Sheldon Ocker reflects on more than four decades of being a sportswriter in northeast Ohio with his customary wit and dry sense of humor. He takes into the clubhouse and behind the scenes during his 33 seasons of covering Major League Baseball in Cleveland for the Akron Beacon Journal. The Hall of Fame writer shares anecdotes from when the then-Indians were miserable in the 1980s and from when they morphed into memorable mashers in the ’90s. Hear about the time Albert Belle raced Ocker in their rental cars, about Manny Ramirez asking him for a $60,000 loan, and about what pitch call Jose Mesa shook off in the ninth inning of Game 7 of the 1997 World Series. Sheldon also has some great tales from his 10 years of covering the NBA as a Cavaliers beat reporter in the 1970s. His story about a day spent with infamous Cavs owner Ted Stepien is one of the best we’ve heard in nearly 70 episodes.

Ocker was honored with the J.G. Taylor Spink Award for meritorious contributions to baseball writing. He was presented with that award in July 2018 at the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum's induction in Cooperstown, N.Y. Besides his stellar reporting, Ocker was known for rarely taking a day off during a season when he covered baseball from 1981 until his retirement after the 2013 season. Sheldon was named the Ohio Sports Writer of the Year in 1997 and 2000 by the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association. He served as the president of the Baseball Writers’ Assocation of America in 1985 and as chair of the Cleveland chapter 11 times.

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