This Old Man

 Roger Angell died last May 20th at one hundred and one years of age.    He was possibly the best writer ever published by the New Yorker magazine where he worked as an editor for a good share of that publication's long history.  Almost as a sideline, his love of baseball led him to become the greatest writer ever of that classic American sport.  He actually knew Babe Ruth as well as the hottest stars in today's pennant races.  Roger is in the Coopertown Baseball Hall of Fame.

I have admired Angell's writing for years and my friend Josie Larson, knowing of my high regard for Roger Angell, sent me copies of a piece he had written for the New Yorker in 2014 entitled:  This Old Man. It is now included in a book published by Doubleday ($26.95): This Old Man, All in Pieces.

Here is some of the best advice you will ever get:  Buy the book!  If you are still seventeen,  never mind.  But everyone else will pass up one of life's true treasures if they don't let Roger into their mind.  Particularly if they are with me in God's waiting room, nervously anticipating the call, "Next."  It is Roger Angell at his lifetime best: insightful, funny, profound, touching.  Roger hits all the bases as he knocks a slider out of the park.

Trust me.