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In the annuals of the Brownsville Herald sports history, no editor impacted the business like "Delta" Dave Handelman. Handelman brought the fanatic's love to the game, a desire for detail and a savvy for stats.

The newspaper's coverage has steadily deteriorated since his resignation in the early 1980s when he chose to pursue his musical and writing careers. He has abandoned the blues on his guitar for Bossa Nova. He is also scrutinizing his checkered past for incidents to inspire his third novel.

"Nobody churned out copy like Handelman," said Anthony Gray, the former Herald columnist once employed as State Representative Rene Oliveira's aide. "We used to call him Tolstoy because he wrote voluminously. He was a painter who surrendered the brush for the pen. He brought an outsider's sensitivity to the Valley that we haven't seen since his artistic departure."

Sports without controversy is a beautiful face without gorgeous lips. Many fans lost interest in the Herald when Handelman succumbed to a higher calling. There has been an endless line of milquetoast hacks appearing at the Herald's doorstep like mongrel dogs begging for scraps over the past

four decades.

"Handelman may be gone, but the poetry of his prose echoes in my mind," said Gray.