Before she took over the Blue Jays’ beat for the Toronto Star in 1979, Alison Gordon was a highly regarded humorist and comedy writer, talents she eventually discovered would serve her well as she chronicled the daily grind of a fledgling ball club.

“You had to have a sense of humour to cover the Blue Jays,” she told the Star in 1984, “at least in the first few years.”

As Major League Baseball’s first female beat writer, Gordon also needed a thick skin, and she had that, too.

“She was relentless,” said Lloyd Moseby, who played for the Jays throughout the 1980s. “A lot of women that are in the profession right now should be very thankful for what Alison did and what she went through. She took a beating from the guys. She was a pioneer for sure.”

Long celebrated as a trailblazer for women sportswriters, Gordon died Thursday morning at Toronto East General Hospital.

She was 72.

Gordon underwent surgery for a lung condition on Monday, according to her brother Charles Gordon, a columnist for the Ottawa Citizen newspaper, but her death was unexpected.

As word of her passing spread on Thursday, tributes poured in.

“She was truly one of a kind,” said John Honderich, chair of Torstar’s Board of Directors and a former publisher of the newspaper. “Her passion for baseball knew no bounds. Her pioneering as our first female sportswriter was legendary. Her delightful sense of irony and zest for life was infectious.”

Moseby, who spoke to the Star from his home in Sacramento, Calif., said he was shaken by the news. “I had hoped to see her again. She was a great lady.”

The former outfielder got along with Gordon right away, but not all his teammates were as welcoming. Barry Bonnell, a devout Mormon who played for the Jays from 1980 to ’83, protested against allowing women in the locker room on religious grounds. Others, like George Bell, simply believed the clubhouse should be kept a masculine domain.

“We had four or five guys that really rallied around not letting her in the clubhouse, but I don’t think Alison gave a damn, to tell you the truth,” Moseby said. “She could have very easily taken the words that a lot of guys said and took it to heart and went back to her bosses and said, ‘I’m not doing this. I don’t get paid to take abuse.’ But she never did. She kept showing up. And it was amazing, really. I’m just proud to have known Alison.”

Born in New York City, where her Canadian father worked for the United Nations, Gordon grew up in the suburbs of Manhattan and later spent time in Tokyo, Cairo and Rome as her father’s job took her around the world. She finished high school in Irvington, N.Y., before attending Queen’s University.

Prior to joining the Star in 1979, she was a freelance magazine writer and also worked as a producer for CBC’s As It Happens, where she was a semi-regular contributor to a weekly sports feature called “Jock Talk.”

It was in the late 1970s that female sportswriters began to push back against their long held prohibition from men’s locker rooms. After Sports Illustrated reporter Melissa Ludtke was barred from the New York Yankees’ clubhouse during the 1977 World Series, she filed a discrimination lawsuit against Major League Baseball. She won the suit and by the end of the 1978 season the league’s clubhouse ban on women was overturned. A few months later Gordon became the first woman admitted to the Baseball Writers Association of America.

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Still, some teams resisted change.

“Blushing Texans won’t play ball with our Alison,” read a headline in the Star on April 26, 1979, when the Jays traveled to Arlington and Texas Rangers general manager Eddie Robinson banned all reporters from the clubhouse rather than let Gordon in. It wasn’t an isolated incident.

“I don’t think that was much fun for her,” Charles said. His sister could be combative and abrasive, he added, but she never wanted to be the story. “She just wanted to do her job.”

In addition to fighting for basic access, once granted she often endured crude gestures and intimidation from players.

“She made it funny talking about it later,” Charles said. “But I think it was really difficult at the time.”

After five seasons she had tired of the beat. The travel wore her out and she was bored.

After penning a memoir of her five years covering the Jays, Gordon turned her attention to crafting baseball-themed murder mysteries — with titles like Dead Pull Hitter and Safe at Home — all featuring the heroine Kate Henry, a sports writer and amateur sleuth.

She remained an ardent baseball fan until her death, but Gordon’s interests were wide-ranging. Twelve years ago she and 10 friends started a rollicking cover band called 3 Chord Johnny that would play classic R&B and rock ’n’ roll songs from the 1940s, 50s and 60s. Gordon, who played tambourine, hosted the band’s weekly rehearsals, which were always more about the wine and “Alison’s brilliant guacamole,” said fellow member David Macfarlane.

Gordon married lawyer Paul Bennett in the early 1980s but divorced in 1996. She never had any children but was an enthusiastic aunt to Charles’s son and daughter, often playing up her tom-boy tendencies, Charles said. “She called herself Uncle Alison.”

Gordon delighted in Charles’ 6-year-old grandson, Desmond, picking him up from school once a week. They would ride the streetcar and spend most of the day together.

“It became such an important thing in her life, which was really interesting to me because she had always put on this kind of outward impression of being this kind of crusty, hard-nosed, sophisticated cynic,” Charles said.

“Desmond just brought out the soft side of her.”