When bad things happen to good people

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I’d start this by saying something about keeping sports and everything else in your life in perspective, but nothing looked right when I typed the words. So I’ll just launch into some sad news I got today about two men who made their living in sports and managed to be class acts in what can be a cutthroat business.

First came an e-mail from a friend about a deterioration in the health of Rod Beaton, a longtime baseball and hockey writer at USA Today and former president of the Professional Hockey Writers Assn.

Beaton has had Parkinson’s for a while, but he has taken a turn for the worse. I’ll respect his privacy by not saying more, but if you can spare a good thought for him and his family, they can use it.

Later, at the Kings game, I found out about the death of Mike Lockert, a Cal State Los Angeles graduate whose media career included a stint hosting halftime shows on Clippers’ radio broadcasts and doing pre- and postgame shows for UCLA games.

Lockert, who had been the radio play-by-play announcer for Notre Dame hockey the last seven seasons, died in his sleep of an apparent heart attack Friday. He was 43. He was a delightful human being, a longtime Kings fan who fell in love with hockey as a kid while watching games at the Forum.

Just a few weeks ago, he discussed his career path in this article on the Central Collegiate Hockey Assn. website.

Keep him and his family in your thoughts too.

-- Helene Elliott