Bill Christine


Willard M. Christine Jr. was an American sportswriter, author and publicist, dealing primarily with baseball and horse racing, who served briefly as sports editor of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, and, for roughly the final half of his career, as a nationally syndicated columnist for the Los Angeles Times.

Early life and career

Christine was born in Illinois on August 5, 1938, to Willard M. Christine and Bernice J. Walsh. He graduated from Assumption High School in 1956, and later from Southern Illinois University Carbondale. While attending SIUC, he also reported on sports for the Southern Illinoisan.
Christine died from acute myeloid leukemia in Hermosa Beach, California, on August 25, 2025, at the age of 87.

Works

Books

  • "Numero Uno" Roberto!
  • Bill Hartack : the Bittersweet Life of a Hall of Fame Jockey
  • ''They Left Their Hearts in San Francisco : The Lives of Songwriters George Cory and Douglass Cross''

    Selected articles

  • . The Pittsburgh Press. September 12, 1969. p .29
  • . The Pittsburgh Press. April 28, 1970. p. 41
  • . Baseball 1972 Yearbook. March 1972. pp. 68–78
  • . The Pittsburgh Press. April 28, 1971. p. 29
  • . Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. January 21, 1975. p. 18; reprinted as . Baseball Digest. April 1975.
  • . Sports Illustrated. March 29, 1976. p. 73
  • "An Official Scorer Who Has Lived to Tell About It". The New York Times. July 22, 1979. p. S2; reprinted as . Tallahassee Democrat. July 21, 1979. p. 46
  • "An Official Scorer Who Has Lived to Tell About It". The New York Times. July 22, 1979. p. S2; reprinted as . Tallahassee Democrat. July 21, 1979. p. 46* . Best Sports Stories 1983. St. Louis, MO: The Sporting News Publishing Company. 1983. pp. 147–151
  • . Los Angeles Times. October 3, 2010. p. 24