Roger Angel, a respected baseball essayist, has died aged 101

Roger Angel, who was given the spring 1962 study assignment the New Yorker In a graceful career as a baseball writer that took him to the steps of the Cooperstown Hall of Fame, he died Friday. He was 101 years old.

Angel died at his home in Manhattan. უYU–Yorkel Announced by editor David Remnick.

In 1956, Angel substantially replaced her mother, Catherine Sergeant Angel, as writer and editor. the New Yorker, where he contributed stories, film reviews, and an annual Christmas poem titled “Hello, Friends!” As a fiction editor, he worked with a number of well-known writers, including Woody Allen and John Updike.

But it was a random pitch by editor-in-chief William Sean that sparked Angel’s career as the leading baseball writer of his generation. When Sean sent him to St. Petersburg, Florida to write for the New York Mets’ first spring training camp, Angel filmed “The Old Folks Behind Home,” a story that caught the attention of an elderly fan.

This article was the first in a steady stream of baseball stories to which Angel contributed. the New Yorker Every year, including the 1963 Metso game at the Polo Ground in Upper Manhattan.

“Polo Grounds, which has been in disrepair for the last few months of their lives, is a large collection of rusty front rods and fire hazards,” he wrote. “On a hot summer afternoon, everyone around you is worried; No strangers, no one is personal. The air is alive with screams, rumors, flying garbage.”

Whether he wrote about baseball in general or stars like Bob Gibson or Sandy Cufax in particular, Angel’s prose was known for its sophistication and intelligence. In 1972, Angel’s first 10 years of baseball articles were collected for the magazine in St. Louis. summer gameFrom the first books published as collections of his baseball work.

during the review summer gameTed Solotaroff wrote in The New York Times Book Review: “Page for page, summer game It contains not only the most classic, but also the smartest baseball text I’ve ever read.”

In 2001, at age 80, Ángel wrote The Launcher’s StoryThe profile of Cy Young Award winner David Connie and a pilot study of the art of pitching in the major leagues.

Angel’s remarks about American conduct were evident in Ken Burns’ 1994 documentary. BaseballAnd in 2011 he was the first winner of the PEN/ESPN Lifetime Achievement Award for Literary Sports Writing.

Two years later, he became the 64th writer, but the first non-journalist writer to win the annual JG Taylor Spink Award, the journalistic equivalent of winning a cadre of players in the Baseball Hall of Fame.

Angel thanked her editors for her performance at Cooperstown in 2014 the New Yorker To give him the time and freedom to avoid the latest pressure and dig deeper and deeper with more authority in the game he valued.

“I have a wonderful mind and an excellent baseball player,” Angel said. “Forever. 300 speakers. Like a billionaire in search of Cézanne and Matisse, I tracked down these people, pushed buttons on them, and let them into my notebooks and my bags. And into the rivers, in a trunk.”

one of her უYU–Yorkel The articles were based on Michael Ritchie. To explore (1994), starring Albert Brooks and Brendan Fraser.

Angel was born in New York on September 19, 1920, the son of Ernest Angel, a lawyer who became the leader of the American Civil Liberties Union. A mother who left her husband. უYU–Yorkel Colleague EB White (Author charlotte’s website s Stuart Little and co-author style elements), was the magazine’s first art editor.

Angel grew up a fan of the New York Giants and Yankees while living with his father on the Upper East Side. He was an avid reader who used to go to the movies as a child.

“The movies taught me a lot about history and drama,” he said. New York Magazine in 2006. “I firmly believe in popular culture. I know people who say they don’t have a television. It’s better to belong to the time you’re in.”

After graduating from the Connecticut Pomfret Boarding School in 1938, Angel attended Harvard University and served in the Air Force during World War II. worked in 1948 Party A magazine with travel-focused literary writers.

At Plaza Saburtalo, Angel had a different schedule than the other reporters in the press booth, who were required to show up quickly according to strict deadlines. He prided himself on looking for hidden stories that were more complex and, ultimately, more profitable.

“Writing is hard,” he told NPR in 2015. “Writing is hard for everyone, and I’m wary of insects who find it easy.”

Angelie became an avid athlete in her hometown of Brooklyn, Maine, where she was often found swimming at the beach. He had a cemetery in Brooklyn where his mother, stepfather and half-brother are buried.

Angel has been married three times and has one surviving son, a son, John Henry Angel. Ángel Cali, daughter of Andy Warhol, was considered a masterpiece in 2010 and committed suicide. Another daughter, Ali Angel, died of cancer in February 2019.

Angel said they were fascinated by the physical and emotional damage of baseball, playing at the highest level. “Baseball is not a nice guy,” he wrote. Baseball is judged, a tough parent.

In his 2015 book, this old manHe described the age of the problem.

“The lower half of my spine rotates and doubles as a Connecticut track thanks to a herniated disc seven or eight years ago,” he wrote. “He made me two or three inches tall, from Gary Cooper to the Jeep.”

After the Kansas City Royals defeated their favorite Metz in five games at the 2015 World Series, Angel admitted to her affair with the Summer Game.

Baseball hurts the heart like [former baseball commissioner] “Bart Jamat kept telling us,” he wrote. the New Yorker. “It breaks your heart, but it doesn’t tell you what to do with the pieces.”

In addition to his son, he is survived by his wife Peggy, whom he married in 2014; stepmother emma; And brother, and sister, and three grandchildren. His second wife Carol died in 2012; They have been married for 48 years.