Roger Angell is considered one of the greatest baseball writers of all-time. He is an essayist who has contributed to The New Yorker throughout his career and was their chief fiction editor for a long time. Roger Angell was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2014.
Baseball Books
The Summer Game: Roger Angell’s first book on baseball is favored by many who enjoy the simpler times of baseball in the 1960s. Every season of that decade is covered in an essay by Angell. Great writing includes an essay on the 120-less Mets of 1962.
Five Seasons: This book covers the baseball season from 1972 to 1976 which some consider to be the most significant half decade in baseball history. The timeline features one of the best World Series of all time, the greatest World Series game ever played (game six of the 1975 World Series) and outstanding individual performances from Lou Brock and Hank Aaron. It is a collection of essays that is considered a must-read for any true baseball fan.
Late Innings: A Baseball Companion: A sequel to Five Seasons in that it covers the 1977 to 1981 seasons. This was a tumultuous era in baseball history where free agency and player strikes were constantly in the headlines. Late Innings features some great writing about Reggie Jackson and the Yankees, Bob Gibson’s retirement and the controversy of the time over women reporters in the locker room.
Season Ticket: A Baseball Companion: Continuing Angell’s covering of a time period, this one goes from 1982 to 1987. Angell’s incomparable writing style covers Reggie Jackson’s final seasons, Steve Garvey, the decline of the Earl Weaver Orioles and the amazing 1986 playoffs.
Once More Around The Park: A collection of some of Angell’s best writing from the 1960s to the 1980s.
A Pitcher’s Story: Innings with David Cone: Roger Angell set out to write a book about the craft of one of the best pitchers in baseball, but instead ended up covering one of the best pitchers in baseball during his worst ever season. The book is part biography, part treatise on pitching.
Game Time: A Baseball Companion: Another essay collection that spans his whole career. Similar to Once More Around The Park.
Other Books
The Stone Arbor, and Other Stories: A collection of fiction stories. Angell’s first published book.
A day in the life of Roger Angell: Another collection of stories from early Roger Angell.
Let Me Finish: An autobiography about growing up in the early days of prohibition.
This Old man: All in Pieces: A collection of articles, profiles, reviews and verse from The New Yorker that cover the good and bad of growing old.
Roger Angell Awards
In 2014, Roger Angell received the J.G. Taylor Spink award which is the Baseball Hall of Fame’s honor for writers. He was inducted alongside managers Bobby Cox, Tony LaRussa and Joe Torre; players Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine and Frank Thomas; announcer Eric Nadel and Joe Garagiola.
He also received the PEN/ESPN Lifetime Achievement Award for Literary Sports Writing. He was the first ever recipient of this award.
Angell was also inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the only baseball writer to have done so.