Family, friends and fans pay tribute to Hochman

THE SERVICE began 20 minutes late because the line to pay respects to Stan Hochman's family was so long, stretching up an aisle between the rows of seats, out the door, around a corner and nearly out the entryway to the parking lot of Reform Congregation Keneseth Israel at the corner of Old York Road and Meetinghouse Road in Elkins Park. From the first words until the last person left the synagogue, it was 86 minutes, one for each year of the Daily News legend's life.

Born Oct. 15, 1928, lived for his family, his friends and his work, died April 9, 2015, remembered for his conscience, the non-profits he supported that profited so much from his involvement, his words, his voice, his perspective.

Everybody there yesterday afternoon, the first glorious day of this spring, had a Stan story or 10. The rows were filled with sports luminaries, sports writers and television and radio personalities and producers and program directors. Bill Giles and Dave Montgomery were there from the Phillies. Bill White, major leaguer for 13 years, including three with the Phillies before going on to become a renowned broadcaster for the Yankees and eventually president of the National League, was there. Jim Lynam and Sonny Hill walked in together. Joe Hand, the great boxing promoter, was there.

There was the known and the unknown - fans of Stan maybe, friends who had nothing to do with sports, relatives who won't soon forget the family gatherings at the Jersey shore. Goodbyes are never easy, but they never felt more necessary.

Stan's wife Gloria, daughter Anndee, sister-in-law Charlotte Zacker, cousin Jerry Spivac, Rabbi Yael Levy, Gov. Rendell, DN managing editor Pat McLoone, former DN columnist Ray Didinger and WIP morning host Angelo Cataldi all spoke at the service.

The words were like a wonderful symphony for everybody, but they had to be especially poignant for Stan and Gloria's granddaughter, 14-year-old Sasha, Anndee and her partner Elissa Goldberg's daughter.

"Let us pause and give thanks to the light that Stan brought us,'' said the Rabbi, who made certain everybody knew that Stan loved Sasha "to the stars and back.''

Didinger, the eloquent wordsmith, who like his close friend Stan has mastered every part of the modern media world, took us into the office of NFL films Steve Sabol, who had a sign that read: "You were born an original, don't die a copy.''

That was Stan, whose voice, Didinger said, "rose above the clatter.''

Didinger put Stan's career into its proper perspective when he explained that he started at the DN in 1959 when Johnny Unitas was about to quarterback the Baltimore Colts to their second consecutive NFL championship, Wilt Chamberlain was playing for the Warriors, the AFL didn't exist and a young man from Louisville named Cassius Clay was a year from an Olympic gold medal in Rome and 5 years from changing his name to Muhammad Ali.

McLoone figures Stan was at the DN for around 17,400 issues, wrote somewhere between 8,000 and 9,000 columns.

"How precise and witty he remained,'' McLoone said. "Who can still a throw a fastball at 86? His legacy will never be matched.''

He wrote with passion and honesty and heart.

"We were so lucky to be friends with your grandfather,'' McLoone told Sasha.

Gov. Rendell considered Stan a good friend and always said he was his favorite writer.

"If God is Jewish, he looks and sounds exactly like Stan,'' Rendell suggested on the radio.

And . . .

"He was just like us, only smarter and more honest,'' Rendell said.

Cataldi told the story of how Stan became WIP's "Grand Imperial Poobah" and had his longtime producer Joe Weachter play clips from Stan's final WIP appearance, the day before he went into Bryn Mawr Hospital on Feb. 6. The man may be gone, the voice stays.

Cousin Jerry explained that Gloria stayed with Stan for 63 days and 62 nights, virtually never leaving his side in the hospital. He also said there was nothing like watching "Jeopardy" with Stan because he often knew the question before the answer ended.

Charlotte spoke of how "relationships matter most of all" and that Stan was quickly good with his "new family of sometimes very quirky relatives."

There were no days, Gloria said, when Stan did not "tell me he loved me."

"He loved his life and was happy to share it," Gloria said.

Anndee spoke last and said she was "baffled by all the attention" her father received when he would come to her school. He was just the man she played word games with on the way to spring training every year in Clearwater Beach, the same man who sent her letters in college with leaves from home in them and kept sending the letters with leaves long after college.

Many of Stan's Hall of Fame plaques were on display next to a Daily News cover celebrating his 50th anniversary at the paper on the way to 56 near a photo of the entire family - Stan, Gloria, Anndee, Elissa and Sasha. He will get yet another Hall of Fame plaque tonight at the Palestra when he is inducted into the Big 5 Hall of Fame. That will be full circle for Gloria, who remembered all those nights at the Palestra with Stan seeing Wally Jones and Matt Guokas back in the 1960s.

One of the first to arrive, Jim Murray, the ex-Eagles general manager, co-founder of the Ronald McDonald House, co-host of "Remember When" on Saturday evenings on 1210 WPHT and everybody's best friend, said "it was symbolic that Stan died during the Masters because he mastered everything he did - radio, TV, writing, family."

Stan especially loved April because it meant the Kentucky Derby was just around the bend. He would call or email me every year with his thoughts on the race and his picks for the race. Just before he went into the hospital, he told the DN's Ed Barkowitz his early pick for this year's Derby to be run on May 2. Said he needed to watch a few more races to confirm his opinion. Ed revealed that pick to me yesterday. We will reveal it to everyone in the May 1 Daily News. I suggest you pay very close attention.

It can't ever be the same without Stan's voice or his words. The words, though, live on, the voice reverberates in our consciousness, the memories of the time we had with him linger like a phrase well-worded, a sentence beautifully constructed, a thought going from mind to fingers to readers that becomes a lifetime to celebrate, honor and remember forever.