Roger Angell was born on September 19, 1920 in New York, New York, and he is considered one of the best baseball writers of all time. And while my exposure to Angell’s writing is admittedly limited, I’ve read enough to know that I need to read more. His pieces contain a significant amount of detail and his passion for the game shines through with every line.
Angell has received a number of awards for his writing, including the George Polk Award for Commentary in 1980, the Kenyon Review Award for Literary Achievement in 2005, and the inaugural PEN/ESPN Lifetime Achievement Award for Literary Sports Writing in 2011. He was inducted into the Baseball Reliquary’s Shrine of the Eternals in 2010, and in 2014 he was awarded the J. G. Taylor Spink Award by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America.
Happy Birthday, Mr. Angell.
Thanks again Precious, so thoughtful. I highly recommend The Summer Game and Late Innings, but you can’t go wrong with anything he wrote. Such a fine writer, befitting that his mother was probably the finest editor the New Yorker ever had. Although he wasn’t his father, his mother’s second husband was married to E.B. White for 48 years, quite a literary stylist in his own right, and it’s evident some it rubbed off.
sorry about the typo…his mother’s second husband was E.B. White, to whom she was married for 48 years
Thank you for the recommendations! He has written quite a bit, and it’s nice to have an idea on where to start.
wondering if you’ve ever heard the story of catcher dutch dotterer catching a baseball dropped from a helicopter? here’s an excerpt about it in the LA Times: “We were playing the (New York) Giants at Crosley Field,” Dotterer said. “The Reds wanted to see if anyone could catch a ball dropped from higher than the Washington Monument, because I believe Gabby Hartnett (former Chicago Cub catcher) had caught one dropped from the monument. This one would be dropped from 575 feet at night (from a helicopter) with two big spotlights pointed at the ball.
“Leo Durocher was managing the Giants, and he wouldn’t let his catchers participate because he thought they would get hurt. So (Cincinnati catchers) Andy Seminick, Hobie Landrith, Ed Bailey and myself tried it. I remember Seminick putting on all the catching equipment for protection because the ball would sink into the ground when it landed. They would drop one ball first so you could follow it and then drop a second one, which was the one you were supposed to catch. I just stuck my glove out and the ball happened to drop in. I got $500 for that.”
I concur with the prior statement that Angell’s baseball writing is not to be missed.