Belleville native, veteran writer welcomed to Baseball Hall of Fame

Dick Kaegel, who began his sports-writing career at the Belleville News-Democrat as a high school student, has been officially welcomed into the hallowed halls of Cooperstown.

The graduate of Belleville Township High School was the recipient of the J.C. Taylor Spink Award during a ceremony at the Alice Busch Opera Theater, near the National Baseball Hall of Fame on Saturday.

The award is often considered an induction to the “writers’ wing” of the Hall of Fame. Also honored during the ceremony were network sports broadcaster Al Michaels, who was the television voice of Monday Night Baseball before moving onto NFL and Olympics coverage.

Ken “Hawk” Harrelson, longtime radio and TV voice of the Chicago White Sox, Nick Cafardo, sports columnist for the Boston Globe, also were honored.

“Today, we pay tribute to those who connect generations of fans to our great game, with three prestigious awards,” said Rob Manfred, commissioner of Major League Baseball. “Broadcasters and writers give fans a window into our national pastime. They are in our homes, they teach the game to our fans, they bring life to the engaging personalities of the members of the baseball community. We appreciate the great tradition of the men and women who have told baseball stories, and helped build the foundation for our global game.”

Kaegel began his career at the Belleville News-Democrat in 1956 and 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, 81, covered the Royals for The Star from 1988 to 2003, and for MLB.com from 2004-14. He retired after the Royals’ 2014 World Series appearance.

“You baseball writers are among the hardest working men and women in journalism. Your contributions to the game are enormous,” Kaegel said. “And to the fans who read your stories, year after year, a huge thank you.

“Along with my fellow BBWAA members I covered a lot of baseball history, ranging from the famous World Series home runs of Carlton Fisk and Kirk Gibson, to the devastating San Francisco earthquake. But when you leave the everyday life of baseball, it’s really the people in the game that you miss and remember. Not only the men on the field, but the team’s hard-working behind-the-scenes staff. And the guys and gals who welcome you to the stadium with a friendly greeting every day.

“All of you folks always contributed to every story I wrote. It was you who made this honor possible. So please, let me share it with each and every one of you. Baseball truly is a family. And it is a great one.”