A Lifetime of Keeping Score

When I first met Bob Rosen, on media row at Madison Square Garden, this past January, he was sitting with a scorekeeping book, tracking all the stats by hand, occasionally catching up during timeouts by consulting the game information provided for the press on computer terminals. The Knicks were playing the Celtics, and it was Hardwood Classics Night--the home team wore throwback uniforms, and big moments from past eras were celebrated during game breaks. When the Jumbotron played Knicks highlights from the nineteen-seventies, Rosen began telling me what turned out to be the first of many stories. He has loved the Knicks since their first game, in 1946, against the Toronto Huskies. When they beat the Lakers in Game 7 of the 1970 N.B.A. Finals, on a Friday night at the Garden, Rosen was unable to attend, he told me, because he was at the office of the Elias Sports Bureau, preparing statistics for the Sunday newspapers.