Angell's in Cooperstown

[G-Fafif]

Greatest baseball writer becomes 65th writer to win award for baseball writing. Much wrong with this picture, but J.G. Taylor Spink Award is validated as worthwhile endeavor now that BBWAA has deemed Roger Angell worthy of a prize already bestowed on Bill Madden.

Spink dates back to 1962, year Angell began covering baseball for New Yorker. Something else began in baseball in 1962, come to think of it, and it would make great copy for Angell for decades on end, though everything else did and has, too. Since he wasn't traditional beat writer or columnist and not a BBWAA member, he didn't exist for Spinkification until lately. Still -- kind of like Mets deciding now that we've honored Luis Ayala and Tim Redding, let's cobble together something for that Seaver fellow.

[G-Fafif]

The honor's all his, says Roger.

"It's a great day -- for me, if not for baseball," he said. "I was surprised to find out how much secretly I had hoped this would happen because I was very moved, startled and extremely pleased. I thought it would never happen because I'm not a member of the [bBWAA]. I'm very, very happy and I'm stunned. Old friends and idols have won this award. It's a great honor."

Angell's not in the almighty BBWAA because they don't/didn't accept magazine writers, a distinction one assumes is no longer relevant as magazines aren't exactly a threat to the integrity of the daily baseball beat. (A few online-only types have been initiated in recent years, including Jonah Keri this week.) Thus someone who's been watching baseball since the 1930s (grew up a Giants fan) and been writing about it up close and at a distance since the 1960s has never had a Hall of Fame vote.

Which isn't the worst thing in the world. Just strange.

[Edgy MD]

Yeah, but Bill Madden invited to join a club for excellence in baseball writing before him is a little more qualitiatively questionable.

[G-Fafif]

Angell worked extra hard, got better and proved himself every bit the equal of Madden. The system works!

[Zvon]

Reading Angell is like getting comfy warm by a fireplace on a chilly day.

[stevejrogers]

Hijacking the thread for the announcement of the broadcast media member joining Angell this July, Ranger broadcaster Eric Nadel.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

I doubt this thread erupts into a long discussion of Eric Nadel.

[Edgy MD]

Saw him go five sets in the Aussie open final one year against Lleyton Hewitt.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

I really thought he was gonna get with the Southern belle virgin on season 1 of The Real World.

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

Back on the high school tennis team, I knew an Eric Nadel. I met him out on clay. When he was dry and ready, with that guy I did play!

[G-Fafif]

Angell gets the SABR BioProject treatment.

[G-Fafif]

Roger Angell rejects poet-laureate laurels in WWD.

�I�m not writing poetry. That sounds as if I�m doing no reporting, and that�s not the truth. If you do enough reporting, then you don�t have to gush about the emerald field, the white streak of the ball, and that.�

Worthwhile profile by Sridhar Pappu here.

[Edgy MD]

So I'm all, "What's WWD? He wasn't profiled in Women's Wear Daily, was he? *SNORT*! ... oh, crap..."

[G-Fafif]

Yeah, I've never quite gotten how Women's Wear Daily covers stuff that isn't what women wear daily, but they do.