Outside The Confines: Farewell to one of the greats

For a time, for no real reason other than my awe at living in the same lifetime as a legend, I would post reminders to Twitter that Roger Angell was still alive. Angell, who passed away on Friday at the age of 101, was an active baseball writer well into his late 90s, and was one of the most revered voices in baseball writing perhaps of all time.

There will be many pieces about Angell written over the next days and weeks, many by our current generation’s best and brightest. What Roger Angell represented was the ability for baseball writing to be literature, for words about sports to have weight and value beyond a box office summary or game recap. Angell wrote about a sport he loved, but his passion encompassed more than the game on the field, it spread to the joy in the stands, the way it felt to watch a game. No one did a better job of capturing the ecstatic hope of early spring or the beautiful ruin of a season in its decline.

Roger Angell was, without question, one of the best baseball writers to ever live, and his passing, while sad, can serve as a reminder of what baseball writing can be. I hope everything written about him in the wake of his death will inspire a new generation of readers to seek out his work.

Here are just a few of the stories written about him this weekend:

• Lindsey Adler looks at Angell as a personification of baseball history. (The Athletic subscription required.)
• David Remnick eulogizes Angell at The New Yorker where Angell spent over seven decades as a writer.
• Dwight Garner remembers how Angell wrote more as a fan than a journalist, for The New York Times.
• Cathal Kelly suggests that Angell’s words about baseball often contained some truths about life.
• Robert Plummer called Angell “baseball’s reluctant poet laureate.”
• Thomas Boswell thinks we are all lucky to have gotten to read along with Angell over his career.

Now on to the rest of the links!

• Dan Szymborski looks at what the Max Scherzer injury means for the Mets.
• Emma Baccellieri has to wonder if perhaps the Mets are actually cursed.
• Speaking of curses... Jake Mailhot might have doomed Tarik Skubal by releasing this article on the same day Skubal took a comebacker to the knee.
• The Athletic determines what one question lingers for every single team. (The Athletic subscription required.)
• Yadier Molina... pitcher? Well, it happened this weekend in an unexpected turn. Story by John Denton.
• Hot prospect Adley Rutschman is officially a major leaguer, writes Madison Williams.
• How did that debut go? Dan Connolly brings all the details of Rutschman’s first big league appearance. (The Athletic subscription required.)

• Joely Rodriguez had quite the view after leaving the Mets’ bullpen to get a better angle on the game. Story by Anthony DiComo.
• Kiley McDaniel tries to determine just how much money Aaron Judge could be worth on the free agent market.
• Anthony Castrovince looks at why perfect games are becoming such a rarity. Castrovince also had a really good piece last week about the pitch clock in action.
• Ken Rosenthal thinks we need to chill out with all the Juan Soto trade chatter. (The Athletic subscription required.)
• We talk a lot about winning trades, but Curt Hogg thinks the Willy Adames trade, one year later, is a rare case of things working out exactly as hoped for both clubs involved.
• There’s a lot going on here.

And tomorrow will be a better day, Buster. Make it so.