Mike Lupica Buys In East Hampton

He’s back. Mike Lupica, we mean. No, not back at the New York Daily News, but in the Hamptons. For $1.8 million, the veteran sportswriter and his wife, Taylor, have purchased 4 Issacs Path in East Hampton. The 3,525-square-foot residence on 0.69 acre has four bedrooms and five baths.

At one point or another, anyone interested in New York sports has read Mike Lupica, especially his “Shooting from the Lip” column. He began his newspaper career covering the New York Knicks for the New York Post at age 23. He became the youngest columnist ever at a New York paper with the Daily News, which he joined in 1977. During the subsequent decades, Mr. Lupica has added magazines, novels, sports biographies, and other nonfiction books on sports as well as television to his professional resume. For more than 15 years he has been a television anchor for ESPN’s “The Sports Reporters” and he also hosted “The Mike Lupica Show” on ESPN2.

He has co-written autobiographies with Reggie Jackson and Bill Parcells, collaborated with noted author and screenwriter William Goldman on “Wait Till Next Year,” and wrote “The Summer of ’98,” “Mad as Hell: How Sports Got Away from the Fans and How We Get It Back,” and “Shooting from the Lip,” a collection of columns. In addition, he has written a number of novels, including “Dead Air,” “Extra Credits,” “Limited Partner,” “Jump,” “Full Court Press,” “Red Zone,” “Too Far” and national bestsellers “Wild Pitch” and “Bump and Run.” “Dead Air” was nominated for the Edgar Allen Poe Award for Best First Mystery and became the CBS television movie “Money, Power, Murder” to which Mr. Lupica contributed the teleplay. Somehow, he has found time to be, we’re told, a “serial Little League coach,” a youth basketball coach, and a soccer coach for his four children, three sons and a daughter.

Mr. Lupica was one of the more high-profile members of the purge this past year at the New York Daily News, which saw the staff at the venerable tabloid go from 400 to 45 journalists. In his case, at least, it’s been a soft landing, as Mr. Lupica was hired to revive the Sunny Randall detective series originated by the late mystery writer Robert B. Parker. The first book in the rejuvenated series, “Blood Feud,” is to be released next month.

The new home the Lupicas are occupying is on the cusp of Amagansett. There is an open first-floor living area that flows from the expansive living room with oversize mantel into the dining and eat-in kitchen areas. A den with full bath completes the downstairs. Upstairs, the four bedrooms include the oversized master suite with vaulted ceilings and its own bath with spa tub, frameless glass shower, and double vanity. A large bonus room and a full bath are above the attached two-car garage. Outdoors, the family can take it easy in the shade of the wooden deck or relax on the patio between the white hydrangeas and the heated saltwater pool with Jacuzzi and waterfall. The private garden backs up to a scenic reserve; trails lead through the woods to a nearby sculpture garden.

Best of all, as opposed to Connecticut, where the family lived for many years after leaving the Hamptons, Isaacs Path makes for a much easier commute every August to the Artists and Writers Game in East Hampton, a regular event on Mr. Lupica’s summer schedule.