Ron Luciano was a college football star, baseball umpire, TV broadcaster, and best-selling author. He barged through the world with an outsized personality, entertaining many, offending a few, and hiding behind a cheerful and outrageous persona until life somehow proved unbearable. Everyone knew him, but nobody really did.
Once an All-American tackle at Syracuse University, Luciano turned to umpiring after an injury derailed his professional football career and quickly moved up in the Minors to reach the Majors in 1969. With a persona of a big, likable loserOliver Hardy in bluehe became a fan favorite in the American League, shooting runners with his forefinger, conducting a legendary feud with Baltimore Orioles manager Earl Weaver, and entertaining writers with outlandish baseball storiessome of which were even true. Even as he added years to his umpiring career and was considered among the games best, some players and managers thought his showmanship detracted from his abilities. He later became a baseball color analyst on national TV before coauthoring a series of rollicking best-selling sports books. Away from the game, he loved Shakespeare and birdwatching. But his upbeat public face was at odds with his private struggle with depression. His suicide at age fifty-seven shocked and puzzled friends, fans, and readers alike.
In Big Loosh Jim Leeke recounts Lucianos unlikely career, detailing his life as athlete, arbiter, sportscaster, writer, and mythmaker while separating fact from fiction amid the fanciful stories he loved to spin. As a friend said of Luciano, If you didnt like this man, you didnt like people.
Big Loosh is the biography of Ron Luciano, an outsized figure who was an MLB umpire in the 1970s, worked in broadcasting, published five books, and became a personality off the fieldyet whose upbeat public face was at odds with his private struggle with depression.
