There was no middle ground with T.J. Simers .
If you were a sports fan in Southern California, if you were a big-time athlete or coach — if you were anyone who read his Page 2 column — you either loved him or hated him. And that was exactly what he wanted. The acerbic, controversial Simers, who spent 23 years at The Times before leaving in trademark fashion, battling with editors and suing the paper, died Sunday from a brain tumor.
He was 73. “T.J.
would turn left when everyone else turned right,” former Times sports editor Bill Dwyre said. “People read him. It was something different.
” A series of newspaper jobs — including stints at the Rocky Mountain News in Denver and San Diego Union-Tribune — led Simers to the Times’ San Diego edition in 1990. He started as the Chargers beat writer, then switched to covering the Rams. Athletes, coaches and team owners came to know the big guy with glasses, the one who liked to poke fun, the one who could take over a news conference by asking blunt, if sometimes bombastic, questions.
He liked to confront people, then write about their responses. To no surprise, his relationships with sports figures were often rocky. In 2000, Dwyre and former assistant sports editor Randy Harvey wondered if this unconventional style might be a good fit for the Page 2 spot that had been home to Allan Malamud’s beloved Notes on a Scorecard.
Simers started picking fights with his very first column. “It’s punishing duty, going to Dodger.
