The sportswriting world lost an icon on Friday. Long-time baseball writer Roger Angell passed away at 101.
"Roger Angell, the elegant and thoughtful baseball writer who was widely considered among the best America has produced, died on Friday at his home in Manhattan. He was 101." @DwightGarner with the @nytimes obit https://t.co/33oXJKmC75
— Connor Ennis (@EnnisNYT) May 20, 2022
I can’t even begin to do the career of Angell justice (so read the obituaries at the New York Times and the New Yorker), but it’s simply awe-inspiring. He contributed his first piece to The New Yorker in 1944, and his last piece in 2020. His first piece about baseball for the publication came back in 1962, the year after the Mantle/Maris home run chase.
In 2014, Angell received the JG Taylor Spink Award (now known as the BBWAA Career Excellence Award), and the big shock is that it took until 2014 for him to be honored.
I think this tweet from a couple of years ago from The Athletic’s Lindsey Adler summed Angell up the best – the man saw a century of baseball. He was born before the Yankees played in, let alone won, their first World Series!
https://twitter.com/lindseyadler/status/1292496072238039042
There’s not much more to say than that.
About Joe Lucia
I hate your favorite team. I also sort of hate most of my favorite teams.