It has always been my belief that a sportswriter is the best newspaper position.

You're writing about the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat to borrow an expression from Wide World of Sports, a very popular TV show 40 years ago.

There aren't many winners.

The great columnist Jimmy Breslin, now deceased and the best there ever was, made a habit of covering the ones who had lost or nobody noticed.

Kind of like the guy who finishes the Boston Marathon at midnight.

Breslin, who wrote for various New York City newspapers over his 60-year career, covered the unknowns, the grunts, and the unno...