Growing up in St. Louis you tend to take certain things for granted. The Arch will still be standing when you wake up. We will keep on turning out great NBA players like Bradley Beal and Jayson Tatum. Any weekend you can go to the Landing and hear some of the best blues music in the country. The Cardinals and Cubs will continue on with one of the greatest rivalries in baseball no matter what their records are.
Summers are spent in the backyards here with family and friends, Barbeque, beer, and baseball. The backdrop is always the game on the radio.
Sports consume this city and no sport has more of a hold on us than baseball. USA Today wrote this about us last year. “The best fans in baseball, bar none, are the folks in St. Louis. It’s the greatest baseball city in the land where baseball news dominates the city and the sports section is dominated by the Cardinals. “
Sports may just be in our genes. The love of the sport though is something passed down from our parents.
While the love of the sport is nurtured, the knowledge of the game comes from the master class that has been taught to us by some of the best teachers in the last 50 years. Jack and Joe Buck, Harry Caray, and now Chip Caray, Milo Hamilton, Tim McCarver, and John Rooney all have broadcast for the Cardinals making us smarter. Dizzy Dean and Mike Shannon made the game more relatable and made us laugh. Bob Costas and Dan Dierdorf added to that knowledge when they got their start here in St. Louis on KMOX radio.
As great as they all were none were any more important to our knowledge of the Cardinals and baseball than Rick Hummel; the Hall of Fame reporter for the Post Dispatch.
Hummel passed away Saturday morning at the age of 77.
He worked for the paper for 51 years. His was the first article I would look for each and every morning. The was no agenda to his stories just facts. If they were playing badly he would say so, but he was fair. Because of his honesty, players said they felt comfortable talking to him. Because of his immense knowledge and love of the game, they knew he was the one writer that got it.
He wasn’t just a baseball guy though. Hummel covered MLS soccer when we had the St. Louis Stars and basketball for the Spirits of St. Louis. He would go on the radio shows here and could show off his knowledge of hockey and the St. Louis Blues. One of the funniest stories about him was when he met Mohamed Ali covering the fight with St. Louisan Michael Spinks. After his interview with Ali, the champ asked him to stay and critique a couple of speeches he wrote. Hummel’s reaction was priceless.
Over the last couple of days, I have been reading what others have said about him. Those he worked with in the media and the players he wrote about have all commented on his passing. Even though he was one of the best writers ever, most have focused on the man. He sounded like he was a great mentor and just a genuinely nice human.
Even though I never had the honor of meeting him, he was a part of my mornings for 50 years just as he was to every St. Louisan. Mr. Hummel will truly be missed.