ESTEEMED BASEBALL WRITER DIES AT 77
Rick Hummel, an esteemed writer who covered the St. Louis Cardinals and Major League Baseball for five decades for the Post-Dispatch until his retirement last year, died. He was 77.
Hummel died in his sleep at his St. Louis-area home early Saturday after a short, aggressive illness, the Post-Dispatch said Monday.
“St Louis lost a legend in Rick Hummel,” Cardinals pitcher Adam Wainwright said on Twitter. “Always fair. Always in a good mood. Always wearing some kind of goofy hat and mismatched pants that made me smile. The respect and trust he earned from players is a rare thing in our world . ... Still taking hand written notes that are impossible to read, and never misquoting. Still looking for the best in people and writing the truth.”
Hummel was nicknamed “The Commish” for running an American Professional Baseball Association board game football league with colleagues, and the moniker became so widespread throughout baseball that even baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred and Bud Selig called Hummel by the label.
“Rick Hummel was one of the best and most respected baseball writers of his or any era,” Manfred said.
Selig knew Hummel dating to Selig’s time as Milwaukee Brewers owner.
“Baseball will miss Rick,” Selig said, “not only because he was one of the greatest baseball writers of our time, but because he was a wonderful friend, adviser, and clearly a great source of baseball knowledge to so many of us within the game for the last 50 years.”
Hummel was the 2006 winner of the Hall of Fame’s J.G. Taylor Spink Award for meritorious contributions to baseball writing, which in 2021 was renamed the Baseball Writers’ Association of America Career Excellence Award.
Death
Terry McDermott, who won the only gold medal for the United States at the 1964 Winter Olympics, died. He was 82. U.S. Speedskating said in a statement posted on social media that McDermott died early Saturday surrounded by his family. It did not immediately specify where the Michigan native died or give a cause.
McDermott was an apprentice barber and unheralded figure on the speedskating scene when he stunningly won the 500-meter event at the Innsbruck Games, upsetting two-time reigning Olympic champion Yevgeny Grishin of the Soviet Union by a half-second.
Rick Hoyt, who with his father pushing his wheelchair became a fixture at the Boston Marathon and other races for decades, died. He was 61. Hoyt died of complications with his respiratory system, his family announced.
Soccer
A bad day for Juventus turned worse when a 4-1 loss at Empoli saw its hopes of qualifying for the Champions League implode. Before kickoff, Juventus was hit by a 10-point penalty for false accounting. That dropped the club to seventh in Serie A, five points behind fourth-placed AC Milan. Juve hosts Milan next weekend in one of its final two matches.
Newcastle qualified for the Champions League for the first time in 20 years after drawing with Leicester 0-0 in the English Premier League, a milestone moment for a Saudi-controlled club.
Tennis
Carlos Alcaraz replaced Novak Djokovic at No. 1 in the ATP rankings, earning the top seeding at the French Open, and Daniil Medvedev’s Italian Open title moved him up to No. 2 ahead of the year’s second Grand Slam tournament. Djokovic’s loss in the fourth round as the defending champion in Rome dropped him to No. 3.
Iga Swiatek, the defending champion in Paris, remained at No. 1 in the WTA rankings, which she has led for more than a year, followed by No. 2 Aryna Sabalenka, the Australian Open champion.
Also
Stanford’s Rose Zhang shot a bogey-free, 4-under 68 in Scottsdale, Ariz., to become the first women’s golfer to win consecutive national titles and tie the NCAA record for wins in a season.
Norway stunned Canada 3-2 in a shootout and handed the favorite a second straight defeat at the ice hockey world championship in Riga, Latvia.
Veteran sprint specialist Mark Cavendish announced that he will retire from cycling at the end of this season, which could see him break the long-standing record for most stage wins at the Tour de France. The British rider turned 38 on Sunday.