The boxer

F.X. Toole never lived to see his best story, "Million Dollar Baby," made into a movie by Clint Eastwood. Wouldn't it have been nice if someone had thought to thank him on Oscar night?

By Allen Barra

Mar 1, 2005 | "Write about what you know" is the advice creative writing teachers used to give first-time writers. One wishes someone had given it a little earlier to Francis Xavier Toole, who died in 2002 at age 72 after just one book. What Toole knew best was a world peopled by, in the words of fictional boxing trainer Earl Jeter ("But all my friends call me Jeet"), "White and black folks, Spanish of all kinds, Chinamen and Arabs. Mens and womens ... Nice people. Old Irish dudes with red noses ..."

Published in 2000 under the title "Rope Burns" -- what you get from spending too much time leaning against the ropes in a boxing ring -- Toole's book has been republished and renamed for its best story, the one that provided the basis for Clint Eastwood's "Million Dollar Baby." There aren't many people left who can testify to the authenticity of Toole's stories. For better or worse (and judging from the fate of most of Toole's characters, it's hard not to say better), the world of professional boxing is rapidly disappearing in this country. Toole, a former boxer, trainer and corn