Belleville native, longtime baseball writer finalist for Hall of Fame honor
Dick Kaegel, a 1957 graduate of Belleville Township High School, has accrued many memories from his half-century as a sportswriter and, specifically, his 27 years of covering the Kansas City Royals.
He’s written about Hall of Famers from the front lines. His bylines have included names such as Bob Gibson, Lou Brock, George Brett, Ted Simmons and others. And he may be joining that roster in Cooperstown himself.
Now 81 and living with his wife Betty in Lee’s Summit, Missouri, not far from Kauffman Stadium where he worked nearly three decades as the Kansas City Star’s Royals beat writer, Kaegel is one of three finalists for the writers wing of the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York.
The editor-in-chief of the Sporting News from 1979-85, Kaegel was nominated for the J.G. Taylor Spink Award, which will be presented during the 2021 Major League Baseball Hall of Fame weekend, July 23-26.
Awarded for meritorious contributions to baseball writing, the J.G. Taylor Spink Award is the highest award given by the Baseball Writers of America and named after J.G. Taylor Spink, publisher of the Sporting News, from 1914-1962. Spink was the first winner of the award, which was instituted in 1962.
Winners of the award are permanently recognized in an exhibit in the Hall of Fame Library. Other nominees for the award include longtime New York Yankees and New York Mets beat writer Marty Noble and Baseball America founder Allan Simpson.
Kaegel, in an email, said he is honored by the nomination.
“This is a great honor for someone who started as a kid reporter for the Belleville News-Democrat. That experience laid the foundation for covering baseball as a writer, columnist and editor,’’ Kaegel said. “Just to be on the ballot for the writers’ wing of the National Hall of Fame with New York writer Marty Noble and Baseball America founder Allan Simpson is absolutely humbling.’’
The beginning
Kaegel was a senior at Belleville Township in 1956, when he got his first big break.
Joe Adam, the editor of the News-Democrat, was in need of a sportswriter for the summer. He called Lilian Jossem, the high school journalism teacher, to see is she could help. Jossem mentioned Kaegel, who at 16 was hired full time.
That fall, the News-Democrat arranged with the high school to have Kaegel work at the downtown office in the morning, take his senior classes in the afternoon and if necessary, and cover high school games at night.
Sports were big in the Kaegel family. Kaegel’s father Ray Kaegel was an excellent athlete at Marissa High School and was an IHSA football-basketball official for 25 years
“The pay was $40 a week big money for a kid in those days,’’ Kaegel said. “There was no sports editor in those days. I was the sports department,’’ Kaegel said. “I learned from Adam and another experienced newsman, Rollie Sax. It was an invaluable experience.’’
After graduating from Missouri with a degree in journalism in 1961, Kaegel was hired as a sports writer by the Columbia, Missouri, Daily Tribune before moving to the Granite City Press-Record in 1964 as the sports editor. It was then when Kaegel started covering baseball at the highest level, reporting on the 1964 World Series when Granite City native Dal Maxvill played second base for the St. Louis Cardinals in place of injured Julian Javier.
The Cardinals defeated the New York Yankees in seven games to win the world championship. It was also the start of a career which would span a half century.
Moving forward and on to Kansas City
From the Press-Record, Kaegel went on to become an associate editor at the Sporting News in St. Louis (1965-68), a writer and later the executive sports editor of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch (1968-79), editor-in-chief at the Sporting News (1979-85) and a sports columnist for the St. Louis Globe-Democrat (1985-86).
Kaegel then moved on to the Kansas City Star, where he was the Royals beat writer from 1988-2003 before covering the Royals for MLB.com (2004-2014) and retiring after the 2014 World Series.
Among the many highlights of Kaegel’s career was going to spring training with the world champion Baltimore Orioles in 1967.
“The Sporting News arranged for me to get in uniform and train for a couple of weeks with the champion Orioles and write a four-part series of what it was like to go through spring camp with great players like Frank Robinson, Brooks Robinson and Jim Palmer,’’ Kaegel said. “In short, it was fun.’’
Among Kaegel’s other highlights are covering the Cardinals for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch in the 1970s. For the Kansas City Star, Kaegel wrote about George Brett’s 3,000th hit, Bret Saberhagen’s no-hitter and the exploits of Bo Jackson.
Kaegel covered the 1989 Earthquake World Series in San Francisco.
Kaegel also covered all 162 games of the 2011 Royals season for MLB.com, a rare feat for any sportswriter. It came four years after Kaegel survived cancer, thanks to a liver transplant.
“The purpose was to encourage folks to become organ donors and to demonstrate to other transplant recipients that they could resume productive lives,’’ Kaegel said. “And I loved doing it.’’
This story was originally published November 18, 2020 at 11:00 AM.
