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McCoy, humble sportswriter, enters baseball Hall of Fame

COOPERSTOWN, N.Y. | COOPERSTOWN, N.Y. - Hal McCoy stepped to the plate and delivered an emotional, heartfelt thanks to all who helped him through his distinguished career in accepting the J.G. Taylor Spink Award.

"But this is not about me," said McCoy, addressing a crowd of 18,000 on an overcast Sunday. Among those attending the National Baseball Hall of Fame ceremonies at the Clark Sports Center were former President George Bush and 44 Hall-of-Famers. "It was never about me. But it took a setback for it to really hit home."

On Jan. 23, McCoy suffered a stroke to the optic nerve in his left eye. His vision would be impaired by 50 percent, leaving his view of the world "dark and fuzzy.'' The daily routine became excruciating for him. The eye condition restricted his mobility, leaving him unable to drive. He found that he couldn't see distances and had trouble recognizing people 10 feet in front of him.

But he remained on the beat.

"My initial response was to quit, retire, to give up the job I love so much,'' said McCoy, the Dayton Daily News ' Reds beat writer for 31 years. "Nobody could be more humbled or appreciative than I am today.''

McCoy, however, was not impressed with his delivery.

"I was totally relaxed all day until it was time to give my speech," he said. "Then I looked at my notes and couldn't read them because everything went blurry. That's when I panicked. I pretty much winged it from there.''

Also honored in "America's spiritual home of baseball'' were players Gary Carter of the Expos, Eddie Murray of the Orioles and Bob Uecker, the Ford C. Frick Award winner for broadcasting. Uecker performed a standup comic routine that left the audience howling.

McCoy thanked family members, friends, co-workers, baseball players and writers among others who helped keep him from giving up the Reds beat. His speech lasted 11 minutes. And he was in control until he began to speak about his family and his wife, Nadine. That's when his voice began to quiver.

''Most of all, this is about the most important person in my life, my wife," McCoy said. "She doesn't like me to say this, but she is my rock, my 911. She is my guardian angel.

"She pushed me hard when I wanted to quit and she 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.''

Nadine said her husband has been through a lot since January.

''He worked through it. He's worked hard at his job for a long time and made a lot of sacrifices," she said. "This was something so special, it's hard to put into words. This whole weekend has been like a dream. We have been treated well. Plus, he got two standing ovations.''

When McCoy spoke of his father instilling in him love and passion for the game of baseball, his voice cracked. Harold McCoy, 85, a retired B.F. Goodrich worker from Akron, said he wished Hal's mother, Hazel, could have watched her son speak on the national stage.

''My wife would have loved this. She was so proud of him, too," Harold said. "My biggest regret was that I couldn't see my son play baseball that much because I worked the 2-10 shift. I couldn't be more proud of him."

Son thanked dad for taking him to see Ted Williams, Larry Doby, Bob Feller, Bob Lemon, Early Wynn and his first love, the Cleveland Indians.

A childhood friend, Gene ''Stick'' Michael, vice president and director of Major League Scouting with the Yankees, made a special trip to see his former Akron East teammate.

''Hal is a people person,'' Michael said. ''He never tried to harm you. He didn't have disdain for the players."

McCoy said on a recent segment of ESPN's Outside The Lines Nightly that he would mention Reds third baseman Aaron Boone. He made good on that promise.

''Boone took me aside the first day of spring training this year when I was ready to quit again,'' McCoy said. ''This is about him telling me he didn't want to hear the word 'quit,' that my problem was not a good enough reason to toss it all away. This is about a baseball player who cared about a baseball writer.''

He spoke of Reds' Hall-of-Famers Sparky Anderson, Johnny Bench, Tony Perez, Joe Morgan and Tom Seaver as guys who treated him with respect that he sometimes didn't deserve.

''Hal was a baby (young) when I started,'' said Anderson, manager of the Big Red Machine. ''I used to call him (Jimmy) Connors because he had that kind of haircut and was a pretty good tennis player. He always wrote from the school of honesty. No one gets in these hallowed halls who doesn't deserve to be here. Hal deserves to be here.''

Bench said when he thinks of McCoy, he thinks honest, fair, dependable and diligent. At the ceremony, Bench proved to be more than a Hall of Fame catcher. He performed a stirring rendition of the Canadian national anthem, and for the seventh-inning stretch of the ceremony, he sang Take Me Out to the Ballgame , which he did in fine Harry Caray fashion.

McCoy thanked the Dayton Daily News and Cox Ohio Publishing for allowing him to cover the Reds the way he wanted to for 31 years. He especially thanked DDN sports staffers Elizabeth Rossi, Gary Weaver and Kyle Nagel, who have provided transportation for him to and from Great American Ball Park.

McCoy concluded his speech by thanking fans and Daily News readers who were his inspiration.

''If I could, I would get plaques twice as large as this for each and every one of you, because all of you - the real people who support this game - deserve it.''

McCoy is the third Dayton newspaperman to win the Spink Award, joining Si Burick (1982) and Ritter Collett (1991).