As the days slowly passed since Jim Henneman died on May 22 after a courageous 18-month battle with stomach cancer, a song lyric from Martina McBride’s song “Where I Used to Have a Heart” kept popping into my mind:
Where I used to have a heart
Feels like a mile-wide ditch
I got a hole inside
The doctor just can’t stitch
My relationship with Jim was long, getting close to 50-plus years considering I was a fan of his before I met him. Every season from mid-February to the end of October I would religiously read Jim’s insights into one of baseball’s best teams ever.
Talk about a mentorship. What a combination from which to learn baseball. I watched Earl Weaver orchestrate a game like Leonard Bernstein could orchestrate the Philharmonic, and then I read Jim’s explanation of what I had just watched.
Talk about getting myself ready for my debut on the Orioles airwaves on WFBR in 1981 and then getting my own show in 1983. I was lucky to learn from Henneman, Weaver, play-by-play man Jon Miller and original Orioles stats guru Eddie Epstein.
I’ll call the mid-’80s to the early ‘90s my frenemy era with Jim, who was in his early to mid-50s at the time. I was in my early 30s. Jim was a hard-working, relationship-driven sportswriter — kind of like a Walter Matthau, set in his ways. Yes, a bit cantankerous.
Jim was never mean, but he clearly wasn’t buying my brash, know-it-all approach to Orioles talk. I was aloof with the players and fired shots whenever they seemed appropriate. I was still in awe of the guy I had looked up to before my days on the radio. As much as he didn’t care for my new way of doing things, I still read him religiously and learned from him.
By the mid-’90s, there had been about 10 years of coolness between us personally and professionally. While I had a modicum of success, the career I dreamed of didn’t exactly materialize. I was now not nearly as brash as I had been at the start. My way of doing things had been imitated and then exceeded by many.
By the time I left Baltimore in the early 2000s, Jim and I had a cordial and collegial relationship. I interpreted that level of acceptance as great progress. It meant the world to me.
I was in Durham from 2001-2004. Talk radio was way behind me. Upon my return and a failed attempt to work for the Orioles in fan relations, I turned my attention to the business plan for PressBox.
That business plan was completed in the fall of 2005 after more than a year of work. It took another three or four months to raise a half million dollars. Then it took about four to six weeks to hire an editor and staff.
It took me about two seconds to decide who I wanted to have on my team to cover the Orioles as a columnist. I can remember calling Jim excited as hell to invite him to meet me at Greg’s Bagels at Belvedere Square for lunch.
I laid out a bold, ambitious plan of what I hoped PressBox would become. Jim was pretty much in at hello.
It’s now just past 19 years that PressBox has been published as a print product, first for two years as a weekly, then for about 10 years as a monthly and the last several years as a bimonthly. Issue No. 293 marks the first one without the Jim Henneman byline aside from an instance a few years ago when he was ill.
When we first started, then-editor Kevin Heitz and I allowed each of our columnists to name their own columns. Mine has always been “One Fan’s Opinion.” Jim chose “Upon Further Review.” To be honest, I never really liked that name, but Jim thought it was a clever play on the NFL’s early use of video replay.
As time went on, the name grew on me. It fit Jim’s thirst for getting things right. That also marked his work as an official scorer, which he always did flawlessly.
PressBox was enriched by Jim’s byline more than he ever knew. And Jim was enriched by PressBox in ways he couldn’t have known. It gave him reason to continue going to Camden Yards beyond his annual 40-plus games of official scoring.
I have to thank my friends in Orioles public relations — Jennifer Grondahl, Jackie Harig, Nate Rowan and Tessa Sayers — for the warmth and respect they showed Jim these past couple of seasons. What Jennifer and her team did in doing their homework on what the Orioles have meant to Jim and what he meant to the team’s coverage in Baltimore was fantastic.
Naming the press box after Jim Henneman was a great way to say thank you to Henny.
Photo Credit: Luke Jackson/PressBox
Originally published June 18, 2025