Baltimore Sun sports columnist JOHN STEADMAN, who "chronicled the Maryland sports scene in his newspaper columns, books and commentaries in a career that spanned several decades," died of cancer at the age of 73 on Monday, according to Mike Klingaman of the Baltimore SUN. Steadman was elected to the National Sportswriters & Sportscasters Hall of Fame last year. Klingaman wrote that Steadman's "forte was re-creating historical flash points; some of his reminiscences read like Norman Rockwell paintings" (Baltimore SUN, 1/2). In a tribute, Klingaman wrote Steadman "combined a passion for sports with a penchant for people in a manner few could match" (SUN, 1/2). Also in Baltimore, John Eisenberg wrote, "Baltimore without John Steadman is a city that has lost a trusted conscience it can't replace. ... Seldom does a newspaperman rise above the daily muddle and become a landmark, but Steadman did" (Baltimore SUN, 1/2). In DC, William Gildea wrote that Steadman "wrote about the famous but more often he was the voice of the fans, the representative of the humble. The son of a firefighter, he was raised to care about others" (WASHINGTON POST, 1/2). In Chicago, Ron Rapoport remembers Steadman as "uncompromisingly passionate about what he believed" (CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, 1/3).
