 07/27/2003 7:50 PM ET
Cooperstown welcomes McCoy
Reds beat writer delivers emotional acceptance speech
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By Barry M. Bloom / MLB.com
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COOPERSTOWN, N.Y. -- Two years ago, Hal McCoy was covering a Reds game
in St. Louis when a cloud came over his right eye. The long-time Reds
beat writer for the Dayton Daily News figured the shadows would
disappear in a day or two. They didn't.
When he returned home to Dayton, OH., his wife Nadine, picked him up
at the airport and rushed him to the hospital. He had suffered an
optical stroke in the eye and was told that the sight would never return.
"That was the bad news," McCoy said this weekend. "The good news was
that the doctors told me there was only a 15-percent chance it would
happen in my left eye."
But in January, the unthinkable happened. McCoy had a second optical
stroke that has limited his vision in the left eye. He said his life is
now a world of shadows. Sunday on the stage at the Clark Sports Center,
as McCoy made a highly emotional acceptance speech, he said he couldn't
see the crowd of 18,000 people and could barely read the words in front
of him typed on a piece paper.
McCoy was honored with the Hall of Fame's J.G. Taylor Spink award voted
on by the Baseball Writers Association of America for his stellar
career as a baseball writer. His 31 years on the beat in Dayton is the
longest currently running of one writer covering the same team while working
at the same paper.
After initial self-doubt, McCoy decided to overcome his disability and
work the 2003 season. McCoy told the audience that the award "is not
about me. It was never about me."
"This is about Reds third baseman Aaron Boone who took me aside the
first day of Spring Training and telling me he didn't want to hear the
word quit," he said. "That my problem is not a good enough reason to toss
it all away. This is about a baseball player who cared about a baseball
writer.
"This is about a group of hard-working, dedicated guys who love their
jobs as much as I do -- the baseball writers -- who do what they do
because they love it and I discovered guys who love each other. Guys who
gave me the support I needed to continue, the guys who put me here today
when they all should be here.
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"This is about Reds third baseman Aaron Boone who took me aside the
first day of Spring Training and telling me he didn't want to hear the
word quit. That my problem is not a good enough reason to toss
it all away. This is about a baseball player who cared about a baseball
writer."
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-- Hal McCoy
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"This is about a group of Hall of Famers seated on this stage, who
worked with a young writer in the 1970s to make sure he had something good
to write about. This is about Tony Perez, Sparky Anderson and Johnny
Bench and Joe Morgan."
"Especially, this is about the most important person in my life, my wife
Nadine. She doesn't like me to say this, but she is my solid rock, my
9-1-1. She has become my guardian angel. She pushed me hard when I
wanted to quit and she always listened to my sobs and frustrations when
things didn't go right. A man could ask for a better friend, a better
companion and a better wife, but he wouldn't find her. Fortunately, I
did."
McCoy has been aided this year by newspaper clerks, who he said drive
him 90 minutes from Dayton to the ballpark in Cincinnati each day the
team is at home.
His toughest time is trying to navigate through airports. He has no
peripheral vision, he said.
As he watches a game from the press box, the ball disappears if it is
hit to the outfield.
"I've learned to watch the way the batter turns his head to see what
direction the ball is hit," he said. "You use your instincts. It's
amazing how much you've learned in 30 years of covering this game."
Barry M. Bloom is a
national reporter for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the
approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.
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