Remembering Bob Hersom

BY RYAN ABER
raber@opubco.com

When I moved over to the RedHawks beat last summer, Matt Patterson, who had the beat, offered a great bit of wisdom. Matt said that the best part of the beat wasn’t the occasional big-time player or ex-player you’d get to meet but the day-to-day relationships that come from being in the press box. He was dead on.

None of those relationships meant more than getting to know Bob Hersom better. I’d known Bob and occasionally shared pleasantries before and after meetings but it wasn’t until I began covering the RedHawks that I really got to know who he was.

Bob Hersom, The Oklahoman’s longtime 89ers and RedHawks writer who had also spent plenty of time covering OU football and the Blazers over the years, died earlier this week of nonalcoholic cirrhosis of the liver. He was 64.

I asked a few of the others who’d regularly shared the press box with Bob to share their memories:

John Allgood, longtime 89ers and RedHawks and current Barons executive:

I had the pleasure of working with Bob since 1995. As a young PR and Marketing executive, Bob was instrumental in showing me the ropes of the daily grind of being a beat writer. But that relationship changed into one of a dear friendship over the seasons we worked together.

From the three years we worked together at the ballpark at the fairgrounds to moving into the Bricktown Ballpark, Bob and I had the chance to share unique experiences. Working in what was known as the press box at All Sports Stadium, (it really was a mobile home trailer), was actually quite fun. The window air conditioner kept us somewhat cool during the hot summers and the refrigerator that stocked our favorite beverages kept us cool too. The home clubhouse was down the right field line at the old ballpark and Bob had the “pleasure” of walking down through the stands after the game, onto the field and to the clubhouse. In order to make it on time, he would sometimes leave to go to the stands in the 9^th inning. Then the 89ers would tie it up, we would go to extra innings and he would have to walk back up to the press box. It was always amusing to me because he walk in, plop down, take a deep breath and start laughing. I didn’t have to say a word, he just knew I got enjoyment of him walking back up to the press box.

When we moved into the new ballpark, Bob took as much pride as we all did in having such a great stadium in Oklahoma City. He took such great pride and affection for Oklahoma City professional baseball moving into an elite level. We were able to experience many great baseball memories during his time at the Bricktown Ballpark. The opening of the stadium, the 1999 PCL championship series that ended in a controversial ending in Vancouver, the Rick Ankiel pitching appearance and the various division championship teams. Bob covered the RedHawks with affection, but with professional journalistic integrity. As Jim Byers told me today, Bob never let any distractions get in the way of writing the best story he could write for that game or feature on the franchise.

Although baseball was the backdrop of our conversations, topics ranged across the board. Bob had a great interest in reading and music. He read many books on sports history and biographies and loved to recommend books to me. Bob also had a great sense of humor when discussing his interests. I’ll never forget that I told him I just finished the book The Reader and told him the plot. He never let me forget that I ruined the book and the movie for him. Out of the blue he would ask me how The Reader ended. We also talked about music, our likes and dislikes, from the many different eras. I was always impressed that he knew music from my generation and would tell me the latest CDs that he purchased.  I found it fun in kidding him about the Beatles. I would ask him if he listened to Ringo Starr and the rest of those guys today. He always would shake his head, give a big sigh, and mock disgust, drop his pen, and then start laughing.

As the years progressed, I had the honor to get to know Bob’s family. Bob took great pride in his wife, his son and daughter. Bob has been a wonderful husband and father. He was also very interested in not only my family, but also all the personal lives of the RedHawks staff.  He was part of our family and will be very much missed.

I will remember Bob as man with a huge heart, a great sense of humor, a husband and father, a good friend, a sports enthusiast, an Iowan, and a proud citizen of Oklahoma City. Oh yes, he was a great writer too.

Jim Byers, radio voice of the Barons and former voice of the RedHawks and Blazers:

When I think of Bob I think of words. Also the state of Iowa, but we’ll get back to that. For decades he crafted words into stories about all sorts of results and accomplishments on the field. We talked about words a lot, dissected what they mean, discussed which commonly used phrases are the most trite or redundant. That wasn’t all we talked about, but it was my favorite topic with him.

For much of the time we worked alongside each other our conversations took place before or after games, since we usually operated out of different parts of the press box. But we always communicated, even when walls or cities separated us. Some of our communication came in the form of shocked or disbelieving looks through our adjoining press box window at unexpected happenings on the baseball field. His job required listening to a lot of road radio broadcasts and it was always a treat to get an e-mail, sometimes mid-game, about my use of a certain word. That would lead to a later discussion about how and why it was chosen in that moment. Press box regulars tend to develop their own shorthand language, complete with inside-joke nicknames. We had plenty of those at The Brick and Bob got a special kick out of sharing them.

His life’s work went onto the page rather than over the air, but he could still tell stories. While he didn’t travel to many RedHawks or Blazers games, for a few years he rode with Josh Evans and me to cover hockey games in Tulsa. I don’t remember details of the talks we had on those rides, or even most of the subjects, but I’ll miss those times. It was a relatively rare chance to have uninterrupted conversation in a business of deadlines and onrushing technology.

About Iowa. He was from there and proud of it. He settled in Oklahoma for his final 30 years, but he was ardent about the inherent goodness of Iowa. Say something offhand about a ballpark in Cedar Rapids or the night life in Ames and you would hear a quick rebuttal from Bob. His defense of his home state rubbed off. I’ve been to and through Iowa many times. It’s fine. It seems like a good place to raise a family, much like here. But I think more positively of it because of Bob. He chose those words well.

Ryan McGhee, RedHawks PR, datacaster and official scorer and current communications manager for Cox Center and Oklahoma City Arena:

Bob Hersom always called his decision to accept a 17-year-old me into the press box at Bricktown Ballpark the worst decision of his life. Whether he was kidding or only half kidding depended on how annoyed he was with me at the time (and I gave Bob plenty of reasons to be annoyed with me).

It may have been Bob’s worst decision, but it was one that had a profound impact on my life. He and the rest of the RedHawks clan took in an aspiring high school sportswriter as one of their own in June 2001 and because of this I was able to meet people who would affect my life both personally and professionally.

At the top of that list of people was Bob.

Behind Bob’s famously gruff exterior was a man who would become my friend and help me learn how to conduct myself in a professional manner and keep my priorities in line. He cared deeply for those closest to him, especially his family, and was always proud to tell us about the latest in their lives or regale us with tales of their Griswold-esque vacations.

But at the same time, Bob was keenly interested in what was going on in your life beyond the ballpark. We rarely saw each other during the winter, but always kept in touch through phone calls, emails and eventually Facebook when he finally broke down and signed up.

Most of the time we ended up talking about something other than baseball or football because he wanted to know how I was doing in school, how I was doing at my job or how my personal life was.

The rest of the time was spent calling me and leaving the entire Derek and the Dominos version of “Layla” on my voice mail. Bob hated the song so much he was offended that I liked it. To punish me for having such horrible taste in music, he always called me whenever he was driving and the song came on so that I would be forced to suffer with him.

Seriously, EVERY time he heard the song. I’d be asleep, wake up, see that he’d called late and rush to listen to the voice mail thinking something was wrong. Instead I’d hear Clapton and Allman’s famous opening riffs or Jim Gordon’s piano. He’d gotten me again.

I was as close to Bob and the rest of the people at Bricktown Ballpark as I am with my family. These people helped raise me, helped me learn and eventually helped me figure out what on earth I was going to do with my life.

Ten years after meeting Bob I’m a grown man with a real job and about to start a family. I can only hope that I’m half the man Bob was and am able to carry myself with class and dignity while not compromising my principles.

This is a very difficult time, but I take solace in the fact I told Bob what he meant to me and how much of an impact he had on me. I’ll miss his friendship, his side-splitting humor and all the life lessons he never got around to giving me.

Thankfully he was in my life as long as he was. I wouldn’t be where I am right now without him and his horrible mistake.

Matt Patterson, Oklahoman writer and former RedHawks beat writer:

My friendship with Bob Hersom was a bit of an upset. I read him as an OU football-crazed kid growing up in Tulsa. In college, as a sportswriter at the OU Daily I saw him frequently in the press box at football games but I never had the guts to approach him.

Years later, after joining the staff at The Oklahoman, I found myself sitting next to Bob at the state wrestling tournament after he was assigned to work with me. What followed were two days of blackout humor. Bob didn’t always agree with how the tournament operated  and he was no wall flower when it came to offering his opinions in the form of rants that were always unintentionally hilarious.

But what amazed me was the way the man went about his work. Despite not having covered high school wrestling that season, it took him all of 10 minutes to size up what the storylines were. On championship night, he had banged out two well-written, error-free stories before I had typed my first sentence.

Bob’s trademark was his baseball coverage. He had been the beat writer for Oklahoma City’s Triple-A 89ers and RedHawks since they were playing at what he called “One Sport Stadium” at the fairgrounds.

After nearly 30 years on the beat, Bob was re-assigned before the 2008 RedHawks season began and I was given the hopeless task of trying to fill his Paul Bunyan-sized shoes. I was as surprised as he was at the shift, but life at a newspaper can sometimes change on a dime.

It would have been easy for Bob to let me fend for myself. Only Bob didn’t do that. I had a million questions and he answered them all. I needed phone numbers and he handed them over. I asked for story ideas and he graciously provided them. He made the transition as easy as possible for me because that was best for the organization he loved and The Oklahoman’s readers. When people talk about what a pro Bob was, that’s the kind of thing they’re talking about.

The following season Bob was retired from The Oklahoman but back at the ballpark as the official scorer and writer for the RedHawks website. Hands down that was the most enjoyable summer of my sports writing life. He was the press box’s Sergeant-at-Arms. If someone said something Bob thought was funny, he’d write it down and post it on the bulletin board. Everyone wanted to be on that board.

The jokes were endless. But so were the conversations. Bob read more books than anyone I know. He loved movies and music. He told stories about his days hanging out with Barry Switzer and about a confrontation he once had with country singer Glen Campbell, of all people. He knew how to spin a yarn.

But above all Bob’s devotion to his family was his greatest quality. Bob passed on a lot of wisdom and knowledge to me over the five years that I knew him, but nothing was as inspiring and meaningful as the example he set through the love of his wife Cathy, son Robbie and daughter Katie.

That example is something I’ll carry with me for the rest of my life along with the memories of what was an unlikely but rewarding friendship.

—

Ryan Aber: Everyday in the press box (and on the field and in the clubhouse/dressing room) was something to be looked forward to because Bob was there. Before and after the game, I’d learn plenty about how things were done by watching him work and talking baseball with him. During the games, there was plenty of baseball or hockey talk (including about our shared love of the Cubs) but also plenty of non-sports conversation. I remember well when Bob told me about his daughter’s engagement (which happened in Chicago) and how much he looked forward to her wedding. I hate that he wasn’t able to make it to her wedding earlier this month and that he won’t meet his grandchild. He would’ve made a terrific grandfather.

We’ll miss you Bob.

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