You may have read stories in the big city weekend sports pages about the death of Joey Goldstein.

Joey was an old fashioned, honest to goodness, Damon Runyon-era press agent.

Just about all the pieces I read about him had a variation of the following: If you were in and around New York sports for the last half-century, you knew Joey Goldstein. I was and I did.

I was on the sports side at the Freeman from 1970 to 1983. Goldstein first helped put Roosevelt Raceway, the Long Island harness racing track on the map, then opened his own business and promoted countless other events and personalities. I got to know him when he was around Monticello Raceway and, as best I can recall, when he was pushing some sort of basketball event.

I can't do him justice in this space. Mike Lupica of the New York Daily News captured him best here.

If you're into a long-gone romanticized time in newspapers and sports, raise a glass for Joey Goldstein.