Howard Blatt

Howard Blatt, beloved husband, devoted father, respected sports journalist, and dear friend to many, has died.
Formally Howard to some, affectionately Howie to most, he suffered a stroke on the evening of September 22 and passed peacefully in the presence of family members on Monday, October 3 at the Shady Grove Adventist Hospital in Rockville, MD. He was 68.
Those who knew Howie will lightheartedly, and lovingly, take solace in the knowledge that he slept through the weekend as the Braves swept the Mets in Atlanta – and as he would no doubt have lamented, beating DeGrom and Scherzer in the process.
It is indisputable that Howie relished baseball in general and the Mets in particular, more than the average human could fathom. It is also true that his purist's passion for the game was metaphorical for how he lived. For what he cared about, and for the people (and pets) closest to him, there were no limits to his loyalty and love.
He married Nina Hoffman, a publishing executive, in 1993. In support of her career move to a senior position with National Geographic in the Washington, D.C. area, he departed his native New York, sacrificing direct access to the Mets, his favorite restaurants, movie theaters, and oldest friends.
He also left the Daily News, where he worked as an editor and reporter in the Sports Department from 1980 to 1996. A reporter whose copy landed on Howie's screen knew it was in gifted hands. An editor assigned his work – be it his coverage of the New Jersey Nets or his fantasy-come-true Extra Innings column on the Mets – recognized the meticulous effort that went into his research and writing.
After the move to Maryland, Howie moonlighted briefly on the Baseball Desk of USA Today and authored several sports books. Among them was a favorite, "Amazing Mets Memories," published in 2002, and another he somehow found the stomach to write, "This Championship Season: The Incredible Story of the 1998 New York Yankees."
No less industry went into the life Howie built with Nina and their son, Marc, in Potomac, and more recently, Rockville. He reveled in new friendships, in his preferred family beach vacations, and in baseball trips with friends around the country. His homecoming visits to New York were fastidiously planned with friends slotted for lunches or dinners that bordered on religious experience, all enhanced by the resumption of seemingly open-ended conversations between dedicated confidants.
His pinch-me years were those in which he guided and followed Marc's youth baseball career with no less zeal than he did the Mets. Upon its conclusion after high school, he found even greater joy in Marc's academic achievements at the University of Virginia, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, and Owen Graduate School of Management.
In his final Facebook posting on March 19, Howie wrote, with typical self-deprecating humor: "Marc, blessed with the best DNA I could muster, matched with the number one choice on his residency wish list at Beth Israel hospital in Boston, a Harvard hospital. Mother and father are delighted for him and forever proud."
Howard Blatt was born on February 21, 1954. He attended Tilden High School in Brooklyn and graduated from Columbia University in 1975. Before joining the Daily News, he was a sports reporter and columnist for the Burlington (VT) Free Press and an editor for Zander Hollander's Associated Features company in New York.
He was preceded in death by his parents, Irving and Ruth, and his brother, Burton. He is survived by his son, Marc Blatt, an emergency medicine physician at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center; his wife, Nina Hoffman, Chief Publications Officer at The American Society of Hematology; a sister, Isadora Wiener of New Jersey; and by nieces, nephews, and their children.
In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to the American Society of Hematology (hematology.org) or Congregation B'nai Tzedek (bnaitzedek.org).
In addition to family, friends, the Mets, and great food, Howie enjoyed music, books, film, newspaper yarns, and, most of all, a good laugh. His was unmistakable, infectious, and irreplaceable.