Ferd Borsch liked to say that "anybody who hits .111 and fields .111 has no future in baseball."

Yet, even with those modestly self-described statistics as a young player he never strayed very far from the game he loved in a 55-year newspaper career where he was an ironman chronicler of the sport.

Borsch, The Advertiser's baseball writer for 40 of those years, died yesterday at age 77 after a long illness, joining the legends he wrote about and leaving a legacy of painstaking accuracy and heartfelt dedication to his craft.

He was the only beat writer The Advertiser had for the 27-year run of the Pacific Coast League Hawaii Islanders — and the only one it needed since he covered all 2,013 home games in the club's (1961-1987) existence.

Over parts of five decades and spanning several more eras, often pounding out his stories with two-fingered fury on his trusty Underwood No. 5 (vintage 1918) typewriter, Borsch chronicled many of the greatest moments in Hawai'i sports, adding perspective to the exploits of the stars for several generations of newspaper readers.

"Hawai'i lost its No. 1 baseball fan," said sportscaster Don Robbs, who knew Borsch for 43 years. "He covered baseball for more than a half century. I think he said one time that he covered something like 5,000 games. I don't know of anybody who has been as close to baseball as Ferd."

Borsch covered everybody who was anybody in baseball — from Billy Martin and Bo Belinsky to Barry Bonds and Tony Gwynn — and many who never saw their name on a trading card. He treated them all with dignity and fairness.

"He was one of the few people (in the media) that I really trusted," said Les Murakami, former University of Hawai'i baseball coach. "He was a very positive person and when you read his articles everything was positive. I think that was one of the most important characteristics that he had."

Borsch wrote the gamut of sports — from auto racing on the old Dillingham strip at Kahuku to yacht racing off Waikiki — but being "at the ol' ballyard" as he fondly termed it was an abiding passion next to his family and just ahead of jazz and martinis.

When he passed away yesterday, it was with baseball on the television, a Jelly Roll Morton tape playing in the background and family at his side, a family member said.

"Ferdinand was much loved and respected by everyone and we will miss him dearly," said Curtis Murayama, Advertiser sports editor. "We all know that he loved baseball, but what he loved more was his family. Our hearts go out to them. He was one of a kind."

Before coming to The Advertiser in 1961, Borsch covered the Portland Beavers of the Pacific Coast League for the Portland Oregonian and Portland Reporter. After the demise of the Islanders, he wrote about UH, high school, Hawai'i Winter Baseball and youth league baseball until his medical retirement in 2001.

"No one covered his beat and loved life with more passion than he did and that's something we could all learn from," said Clyde Mizumoto, Advertiser assistant sports editor and a 30-year colleague of Borsch. "As a reporter, he was as dependable as a sunrise."

Borsch was a respected writer, serving as president of the National Association of Baseball Writers in 1977, and an acknowledged expert on the rules and scoring of the game known throughout professional baseball.

For all his dedication to and knowledge of statistics, he also celebrated the beauty of the game and relished in its surroundings, winning a Chuck Leahey Award for service to Hawai'i baseball and three Hawai'i Sportswriter of the Year awards.

Baseball, he liked to say, "has continuity. It has a sense of history and they play it every day. The rules stay the same but no two games are alike. You can never predict what's going to happen. I don't care if there are only 80 people in the stands, the game is still interesting."

He rhapsodized about "the full moon, bigger than the biggest pumpkin, rising out of Kaimuki shortly after sunset" at old Honolulu Stadium and viewing "sunsets over the Wai'anae range" from Aloha Stadium. And he mourned the end of Honolulu Stadium, where street vendors sold "the best boiled peanuts in the world."

It took an embolism in 1980 to keep him away from the Islanders' spring training in Arizona for the first time, but he still made it, dog-eared scorebook in hand, for opening day.

In August of 1987 he went to the hospital for a spinal tap — and then went to the Aloha Stadium, where he covered a doubleheader against Las Vegas, games 1,998 and 1,999.

Borsch was introduced to baseball at an early age in his native Portland, Ore., and formed a quick bond. "We never had much money while I was growing up, but somehow (my father) always had a little set aside to go to the old Vaughn Street ballpark ... maybe two times a season," Borsch recalled.

He began his newspaper career at the Portland Oregonian as a senior in high school. He was mentored by legendary sports editor L.H. Gregory, and got a full-time job while attending the University of Portland before serving in the Air Force.

"I have to admit I'm about the luckiest guy ever to pound a typewriter on deadline," Borsch was fond of saying. "It would be very difficult to go to work for a living."

He leaves a wife, Patti; sons, Timothy, Christopher and Brian; a daughter, Lisa; and brothers, Bill of San Diego and Joe of Portland, Ore.

Funeral arrangements are pending.

Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@honoluluadvertiser.com.