Maury Allen, a longtime sportswriter for The New York Post who may have set a record of his own for the number of books on sports he turned out 38  died Sunday at his home in Cedar Grove, N.J. He was 78.

The cause was lymphoma, said his friend Ira Berkow, a former columnist for The New York Times.

Mr. Allen fell in love with the Brooklyn Dodgers as a youngster growing up in Brooklyn but covered the Yankees and other teams for The Post for 27 years, from 1961 to 1988. He had an ability to put players at ease so they might confide more than clichés. He also had an ear for the deft line. After a season in which the Mets lost 120 games, Mr. Allen wrote of the Mets’ chairman:

“Mr. Donald Grant said yesterday that ‘We’re only two players away from being competitive.’ Yes, the two players being Babe Ruth and Walter Johnson.”

After leaving The Post, Mr. Allen wrote for The Journal News, the newspaper in Westchester, Rockland and Putnam Counties, and for a Web site, Thecolumnists.com.