MLB honors Joe Garagiola, Eric Nadel and Roger Angell

In addition to the players and managers honored at the Hall of Fame induction ceremonies on Sunday, Major League Baseball also handed out several important awards to longstanding members of the baseball community on Saturday.

The Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum honored Joe Garagiola with the Buck O’Neil Lifetime Achievement Award at Doubleday Field. The 88-year-old played from 1946 to 1954 for the New York Giants, St. Louis Cardinals, Pittsburgh Pirates and Chicago Cubs, finishing his career with a .257/.354/.385 batting line, but went on to greater fame as a broadcaster who emphasized self-deprecating humor about his own career as his calling card.

Accepting the award remotely by video, he said: “I had a double-hip (procedure). I suffered a stroke on Oct. 2 and a heart attack on Dec. 23. It was a tough Christmas.”

“Baseball gives you the chance. You do it. They give you the bat, the ball and it’s up to you, and as you look at these Hall of Famers you can say, ‘You did it, and this is your weekend.’”

After his playing career, Garagiola began a nearly 50-year career in broadcasting, doing play-by-play for the St. Louis Cardinals, the California Angels and the Arizona Diamondbacks as well as general commentary for NBC on the Game of the Week program with Vin Scully.

“I was disappointed. I still am. … I wanted to be in Cooperstown especially because of the friendship that had developed between Buck O’Neil and me. Buck always worried about the other guy. … Buck made you feel like you were his best friend. His laughter was contagious and he just made you feel good. … I thank God for Buck O’Neil.”

He also founded The Baseball Assistance Team (B.A.T.) and the National Spit Tobacco Education Program, as ESPN reports.

Eric Nadel was awarded the Ford C. Frick Award for major contributions in broadcasting. Nadel has called Rangers games for the past 35 years. He shared the award with the fans at Globe Life Park, telling the fans and the club that they won the award together.

“Like most baseball announcers, I began as a player. I think it lends another dimension to my broadcasts when I can draw upon the inside knowledge and experience I gained as a star catcher -- for Monaco Cleaners in the North Highway Little League. I wasn’t much of a fielder, I’m afraid, but I hit for power, so after a couple of seasons, like so many other young men, I left and played Little League ball in Japan.”

Roger Angell was awarded the J.G. Taylor Spink Award, the Hall of Fame’s honor for writers. The 93-year-old has written about baseball for The New Yorker dating back to 1962. Though he doesn’t care for the title, he has been called the “Poet Laureate of Baseball.” He has written several books and essays on the game and has served as an editor at The New Yorker since 1956. Angell is the first non-member of the Baseball Writers Association of America to be given the Spink Award.

“My gratitude always goes back to baseball itself, which turned out to be so familiar and so startling, so spacious and exacting, so easy-looking and so heartbreakingly difficult that it filled up my notebooks in seasons in a rush. A pastime indeed.”

Angell’s writing leans on nearly a century of baseball fandom.

“I grew up on New York baseball. At Yankee Stadium in the spring of 1930, I saw Lefty Gomez win his first game in the major leagues. … Lefty Gomez is here in the Hall of course, still undefeated, 6-0 in the World Series.”

He recalled seeing the famous 1933 play in which Lou Gehrig and Dixie Walker were thrown out at home plate at the same time. And the Willie Mays catch in 1954.

“What’s weird here, and what you’re all thinking is, ‘How ancient these games and plays are, decades are, and how clear they still seem to be in Angell’s mind. And … who cares?’ You’re right, of course, and all I can say is that yes, I care, I still do.”

He recollected his illustrious career with the same kind of pleasant eccentricity that constructed it.

“I collected great lines and great baseball talkers, lifetime .300 talkers, like a billionaire hunting down Cezannes and Matisses.”

He’s been a well-respected member of the baseball community for as long as most can remember, although that kind of notoriety often comes with a little tongue-in-cheek ribbing.

“Read it?” Giants manager Roger Craig once said regarding one of Angell’s books. “Hell, I wrote half of it.”

Angell also took the opportunity to praise Joe Torre, saying that despite the weight of being manager of the Yankees, he still had fun. Angell said that he too was still having fun.

“Baseball is mostly about losing. … Nobody understood this better than Joe Torre, my friend and maybe my favorite baseball talker. … Joe Torre, a manager who never threw a player under the bus. … On one of his last days as Yankees manager, Torre said, ‘I understand the requirements here but the players are human beings, and it’s not machinery here. Even though they get paid a whole lot of money, it’s blood that runs through their veins.”