Cool guy with a secret past
He was one of the coolest guys I have ever known, yet until this year I had no idea just how impressive he really was. By the time you finish today's column, you'll understand why. And why I'm thinking about him this weekend. His name was Tom Pastorius. I was a kid sportswriter just getting started, more than 40 years ago, at a now-defunct newspaper in central Ohio; Tom was one of the stars of the staff. He looked like Dean Martin -- acted a little like him, too. Totally unflappable, whimsy in his voice, a heartbreaker's hooded eyes: Tom was a man who made it seem that nothing could ever get to him. He had turned 50 during the summer I sat at the next desk. An overly officious editor would bark at him? Tom shrugged it off. A young college athlete would treat him a little rudely? Didn't faze Tom. The other star of the sports staff, and Tom's best friend in the newsroom, was Kaye Kessler. If Tom was Dean Martin, then Kaye was Frank Sinatra. Kess and Pasty -- that...