This past week, a local sportswriter abruptly passed away – at a relatively young age – and many people expressed sadness about it on social media.

From the looks of it, this sportswriter was a mentor to aspiring sportswriters too, so, good for him.

I never interacted with this gentleman at all, so I didn’t know him. However, my past experiences with sportswriters from other cities haven’t been great.

Now, I should say that there have been a few who have been gracious and responded to my emails, such as the legendary Bob Ryan (who responded to me on three separate projects I was working on), L.A. sportswriter J.P. Hoornstra, and a couple other writers from the Boston area. There were a couple other national writers, Bob Nightengale and Mel Antonen. There was even a historian/author by the name of Todd Denault who responded to me.

I certainly appreciated the fact that these writers took time out to correspond with me and give me quotes for the books I was writing.

Then, there were those who couldn’t be bothered to respond back – and, interestingly, they’re writers from Toronto.

When I was writing the Tom Candiotti biography, I emailed several writers from Toronto who were around when Candiotti pitched for the Blue Jays (and those writers are still active today). Not one of them bothered even to respond back.

Then, when I was writing about the Boston-Montreal NHL rivalry book, it was the same. Now, I received replies from the Boston reporters I reached out to, including the aforementioned Ryan. But nothing from the writers in Toronto who covered Pat Burns.

That’s disgraceful. A Hall of Famer like Bob Ryan reaches out to me – and he’s a legend – and yet lesser likes couldn’t be bothered.

So, I mean, just like many athletes, I’m leery when it comes to sportswriters. None of those Toronto-based writers ever reached out or cared about what I was doing.

Not even a “Sorry, I am unable to assist you.” Just no response.

I’ll tell you what. If I became a successful writer, I wouldn’t be like those Toronto-based guys. Those guys are no role models. They’re not like the sportswriter who passed away this past week.

They’re gutless.