RIP, Bud Greenspan

RIP Bud Greenspan, who died Saturday at age 84.

The famed documentarian did as much to build the Olympic brand and mystique for baby boomers as NFL Films did for pro football.

And he joins a long list of people we lost in 2010 who helped bring the games people play to life for those who enjoy watching them.

They include local baseball announcing institutions such as the Cubs' Ron Santo, the Tigers' Ernie Harwell and the Mariners' Dave Niehaus.

And they include long-time, much-loved tabloid sports scribes from our own backyard in Maury Allen and Vic Ziegel.

And Jack Craig of the Boston Globe, who in the mid-1970s became the first full-time newspaper TV sports critic. (Newsday's Stan Isaacs was second, in 1978.)

And behind-the-scenes figures such as Bill Shannon, a baseball historian and official scorer who wrote a quirky, passionately detailed book about the ethics and history of that art.

Farewell to all, and thank you.