Roger Angell Was a Diamond

He was as good as anyone’s ever been at it—actually better, if we’re being honest. 

Roger Angell, who died on Friday at age 101, came to baseball writing late; in his 40s, amid an already eventful reporting and editing career. When he first started showing up at the ballpark, he felt out of place among the Underwood-thumpers in the press box. Instead, he sat with the crowd, because that’s what John Updike did when writing “Hub Fans Bid Kid Adieu,” and he set out on one of the great side acts in publishing history—the literary editor who moonlit as America’s best baseball writer.