Cooperstown award series, Abraham: Nick Cafardo, 2020 BBWAA Career Excellence winner
The 2020 Baseball Writers’ Association of America Career Excellence award will be presented to late Boston Globe reporter Nick Cafardo in a ceremony at the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown on Saturday. Photo: National Baseball Hall of Fame
July 23, 2021
Cooperstown. N.Y. will stage its Awards Presentation Saturday afternoon. The Hall of Fame will honour 2021 Ford C. Frick Award winner for broadcasting excellence, Al Michaels, and the 2020 Frick Award winner, Ken Harrelson; the 2021 Baseball Writers’ Association of America Career Excellence Award winner, Dick Kaegel, and the 2020 BBWAA Career Excellence Award winner, Nick Cafardo; and the 2020 Buck O’Neil Lifetime Achievement Award winner, David Montgomery. It will be a TV-only event broadcast on MLB Network. In 2020, both the Induction Ceremony and Awards Presentation were cancelled due to the pandemic. This is the fourth in a series of articles paying tribute to the winners that will be honoured in the ceremony this Saturday.
***
Read the first in our Cooperstown award series: Shenk: Beloved Montgomery Buck O'Neil winner
Read the second in our Cooperstown award series: Hirdt: Al Michaels, 2021 Frick winner
Read the third in our Cooperstown award series: Pierzynski: Ken “Hawk” Harrelson, 2020 Frick winner
***
By Peter Abraham
Boston Globe
Nick Cafardo was scheduled to take a day off, one of the few he would have in spring training. But he always looked at the schedule as more of a suggestion than a mandate.
So he called a colleague to find out what time Red Sox manager Alex Cora would be talking to the media and made his way over to the ballpark.
Nick had a few questions he wanted to ask Cora for a column he was writing for the Boston Globe. They bantered back and forth a bit, talking about the team.
A few minutes later, Cafardo collapsed on the sidewalk outside the clubhouse. The team’s medical staff rushed to his side and rendered aid, but he was pronounced dead at a local hospital within the hour, a victim of a sudden embolism at the age of 62.
That was Feb. 21, 2019. Now, on July 24, Cafardo will posthumously receive the Baseball Writers’ Association of America Career Excellence Award during a ceremony at the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y.
The award was originally scheduled to be presented in 2020 but the Hall of Fame canceled Induction Weekend because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Cafardo’s son Ben, a publicist with ESPN, will accept the award on behalf of his family.
If not for the attendance limit for the indoor ceremony, dozens of Cafardo’s friends and colleagues would have flocked to Cooperstown.
In a business that can be loaded with rivalries and professional jealousies, Cafardo was respected through baseball, from San Diego to Toronto and everywhere in between.
He was competitive as anyone chasing a story, but also quick to give credit and encouragement to others. He would brighten up dark days with a joke or help a young writer by passing along a phone number of a scout or executive.
Because he showed up at the park day after day, Nick gained the trust and respect of the Red Sox during the three decades he covered the team.
The son of Italian immigrants, Nick didn’t learn to speak English until he was six, but went on to write six books and appear regularly on television in addition to his years with the Globe.
The day after Cafardo died, Cora asked not to take questions from reporters and instead spoke from his heart about what had happened.
“You started reading social media and what people wrote about Nick, how you guys feel about him. Not only the people from Boston, but from all over the state, people from the industry. It was amazing, the respect, the love, people had for him,” Cora said.
“You start thinking about life and you know what? That’s the way it should be, when you make an impact in life, and obviously Nick impacted all of us. Very respected. Class. In my case, very fair. He was great.”
Game 3 of the 2018 World Series between the Red Sox and Dodgers went 18 innings. Nerves were frayed as deadlines were missed and the pressure was on to write a story worthy of such a memorable game.
As the 18th inning started, Cafardo looked over at two Globe co-workers and smiled.
“Isn’t this great?” he said.
It was. And his being honored by the BBWAA and the Hall of Fame will be a great day for those of us who knew him as a colleague and friend.
***
Peter Abraham
Peter Abraham has covered the Red Sox for the Globe since 2010. His previous beats included UConn men’s basketball for the Norwich (Conn.) Bulletin then the New York Mets and the New York Yankees for The Journal News of White Plains, N.Y., before coming to the Globe.