Jim Lehrer and Pete Axthelm...

[JohnTChance]

NY Times article today concerns PBS anchor Jim Lehrer as a \"safe and uninspired,\" impartial choice to moderate tomorrow\'s presidential debate in Denver. Personally, I take no side on that. But when I think of Lehrer, I\'ll always think of a segment he moderated on his nightly news show many years ago about gambling in America. Was more legal gambling in our nation\'s future? Should it be? What were the downsides? The consequences.

To debate the issue, the show\'s producers selected a panel of your usual suspects - crabby lobbyists and politicians right out of central casting. But then, they also chose Sports Illustrated and Newsweek columnist Pete Axthelm, a Yale graduate and bon vivant who also was an avid horse racing enthusiast, and proud of it. [I\'d often meet Pete at the NYC Tele-theatre on 53rd St. and Second Ave. to bet the Saturday feature race. He was quite a character.] Anyway... whenever the \"against gambling\" panelists spoke, Lehrer nodded with approval and his fullest respect. However, on the \"pro gambling\" side, whenever Axthelm was allowed to speak, especially when Pete dared to intellectualize about the intangible joys of gambling, Lehrer\'s reaction was that of grim-faced horror and incredulity. If there was a line drawn in that night\'s debate, Lehrer clearly was on one side of it.

[magicnight]

Great story, John. Axthelm also wrote a couple of terrific books: The City Game (about hoops in NYC) and The Kid (a bio of Steve Cauthen), which is probably the best biography ever written about an 18-year-old.

[belmont3]

Alas poor Axe...I remember him well.

It was 1987. At the Spa it was a rainy and gloomy Friday. The camera crews were setting upfor the much anticipated Travers Stakes. All the best 3 yo\'s were in town ...and Pete was there too.

After a subdued but winning afternoon, my wife (girlfriend at the time) and I decided to wait out the traffic and stopped in a local saloon for a drink.
The bar was empty but for two other \'older\' couples whom we quickly befriended.

Within minutes the saloon door opened and in walks the Axe. I bought a round of drinks and asked him if he was Pete Axthelm or just happeded to look exactly like him. He laughed and we all laughed a lot more over the next hour or so. Great stories were swapped and some pix were taken...still have mine...

Of course Pete could never pick a horse. (or a football game for that matter) In a stellar field that included Java Gold, Alysheba, Bet Twice, Gulch, Cryptoclearance, Polish navy etc.( Wow! what a field), the Axe boldly predicted an Alysheba victory.....

Here\'s the tape:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HdDnt7_7JTg

Pete was only around a few more years tragically passing away from liver failure at age 47.

http://www.nytimes.com/1991/02/04/obituaries/pete-axthelm-47-sports-author-columnist-and-tv-commentator.html

Great memories of a great guy.

Bob