by Michael Duca

SCOTTSDALE AZ–Nick Peters former San Francisco Giants beat writer who worked for 47 years covering the Giants for the Sacramento Bee or the Oakland Tribune passed on Monday at the age of 75 from a rare form of Parkinson’s. His passing was not like it was not expected he had been fighting Parkinson’s for three or four years. It becomes a phase in, as he was unable to speak the last couple of years. The death of Nick hit me especially hard.

I was terribly fond of Nick I grew up reading the Sporting News as a kid and all the way though college and writer Kit Steir helped me keep up with my love for the Giants in Southern California where I went to school and I then followed Nick Peters who wrote for the Sporting News. I won a trivia contest and that was at a time when I was absolutely nobody and I won the contest from a local cable TV channel prior to a road trip with the Giants.

This happened during Robby Thompson’s and Will Clark’s rookie years, We went to Philadelphia and New York and Nick got to know me a little in Philadelphia and New York and he asked me if this was my first visit to Philly and the Big Apple and I said “yes”. He then asked “where are your seats?” I said it was right by the Giants dugout, he said you really won’t get anything sitting there why don’t you sit up in the third deck and he said “come sit with me tonight”.

After seven innings he sat in the stands with me and he kept score on a scoring pad and he took notes and he wrote his story. Of course he was on the east coast and the deadline on the west coast was not eminent. I was more impressed with him because he had time to sit down and talk to me during the game and he asked me what I had learned about baseball and he wanted to share his knowledge about baseball.

It was the beginning of a very long lovely friendship. He will be sorely missed and he was Mr.Everyman there not an ounce of pretense in Nick. That made him a Hall of Fame man whether or not he was a Hall of Fame writer. He covered more San Francisco Giants games as a beat writer than any other human being. Nick traveled and did all the road games and did all the home games for he Giants.

He had time for everybody whether they were a Hall of Fame writer or a student intern reporter he talked to everybody. Larry Stone who formerly wrote for the San Francisco Examiner and was the sports editor at the Daily Cal and Nick was the sports editor for the Berkeley-Richmond some of the best newspapers around at the time covering sports. Nick always made time for Larry giving him tips on helping him understand what it meant to be a professional writer. Nick Peters we salute you, you were a class act and a great, great friend, and you are in our prayers today.

Michael Duca is covering Cactus League Spring Training for MLB.com and does A’s and Giants commentary each week listen to his podcast below at http://www.sportsradioservice.com