The Bookie As Hero

The Bookie as HeroHowie was sitting in a straight-backed chair at a kitchen table, propping a telephone receiver between his shoulder and left ear and scribbling rapidly on a large yellow legal pad. His assistant clerk, Lenny, was poised by another phone, drawing neat lines on his own paper so he could keep things in order once the day's hectic business began. It was a crisp autumn Sunday in New York, and within the next 12 hours, there would be a dozen pro-football games and 17 major-league bas...