David Halberstam Killed in Car Accident:

SF Gate: Legendary investigative journalist David Halberstam was killed today in a car accident near Menlo Park, California. He had been investigating a 1958 NFL championship game and had given at UC Berkeley's School of Journalism over the weekend.

David Halberstam was 73 and a towering figure of American journalism. His book The Fifties was one of the first I bought for myself as a young adult. Our entire profession mourns this evening.

My friend Jeff Chang had this quote from Halberstam himself.

I have what I call the backup catcher theory. Most other people doing a book want the top guy. My belief is, you probably learn more from the backup catcher on a baseball team than from the star. Because the backup catcher's smart: He watches the game, he's into the game, he always has to be ready, and when it's all over, 20 years later, he has a lot of time to talk because not a lot of people come to see him. When I did 'Summer of '49,' about Williams and DiMaggio on those two great teams, the Red Sox and the Yankees, no one was more fun to talk to than a guy named Matt Batts, a former Red Sox catcher down in Baton Rouge, La. He had nothing but great anecdotes.

Always look for the story behind the story. That's a lesson to live by.