I’ve written abut Roger Angell before, inadequately. Dumbstruck with administration when considering the legendary writer’s prose, how could my words be anything other than inadequate? I stood before a monolith with a handful of scuffed dominos. On the occasion of the titan’s passing, a couple other people do a much better job that I could of summarizing his staggering contribution.

Legendary baseball writer Roger Angell dies at 101 by Lindsey Adler

Writing for The Athletic, Lindsey Adler offers a proper obituary that honors Angell in the wisest way possible, with ample samplings of his writing. Adler is a baseball writer by trade, so she understandably concentrates on that aspect of Angell’s career. That’s fair by any measure, given those are the pieces that cemented his legacy. It’s entirely possible that no one — and I do mean no one — wrote about the sport more artfully, insightfully, and compellingly. Read the paragraph Adler includes that is an extended description of Bob Gibson on the pitching mound for proof.

Remembering Roger Angell, Hall of Famer by David Remnick

As the longtime editor of The New Yorker, Angell’s professional home for most of his long life, David Remnick is charged with writing the publication’s remembrance. The result is as kind, truthful, admiring, and poignant as would be expected. The baseball is there, to be sure, but so is everything else Angell contributed in his lengthy, perhaps unparalleled tenure.

This Old Man by Roger Angell

Much as I adore the writing on America’s Pastime, this is the article written by Angell that sticks with me the most. He brings his same attention to detail and reportorial commitment to accuracy and thoroughness to an account of what it felt like to find himself a nonagenarian. It’s a wonderful piece of writing. Of course it is. That same assessment can be applied to everything Angell signed his name to.