A young boxing enthusiast, Vladimir Nabokov, writing for a Russian émigré newspaper, called the Frenchman “the wonderful Carpentier,” a “modest, fair-haired young man.”

“Miller is one of the three most important people in the game’s history, along with Babe Ruth and Jackie Robinson.”

The night Muhammad Ali, Jim Brown, Malcolm X, and Sam Cooke did not have a party

“He's the best player the Mets have ever had — the best ballplayer New York has had since Mickey Mantle. But, like the Mets, he seems to have jumped from a confident future to a disappointing past without ever basking in the present. He's not having fun, and neither are we.”