Vision Dims, Not Passion

Hal McCoy has long regarded himself as something of a dinosaur -- a baseball writer who has no desire to write anything else.

Dinosaur, indeed.

On a beat where young writers beg off after a year or two because of late nights, deadline stress, frequent travel and deteriorating relationships with wary players, McCoy, 62, is in his 31st year of covering the Cincinnati Reds for the Dayton Daily News.

From Sparky to Schottzie, from Bench to Bowden, McCoy’s work ethic has been Ripkenesque.

Until this weekend, in those 31 years, he had never missed a road series.

“I know, I’m a little crazy,” he says, “but I’ve always felt like I’m starting all over again when I take two or three days off. I think continuity is important, and you know how players are. Miss a couple days and they’re all over you about taking vacation in the middle of the season. I suppose it’s nice to be missed.”

McCoy isn’t on vacation this weekend, but he also isn’t in New York with the Reds for their series with the Mets.

He’s here in Cooperstown, where today he’ll share the stage with Hall of Fame inductees Gary Carter and Eddie Murray and receive the J.G. Taylor Spink Award for meritorious contributions to baseball journalism, earning his own niche in the Hall.

Voted on by peers, it’s about the highest honor a baseball scribe can receive, but there has been much more to McCoy’s 31st season.

In fact, the spinner of stories has been the subject of many and the recipient of more than 4,000 e-mails from people in and out of the game offering support and informing the dinosaur that he has become an inspiration.

“There’s been a lot of great stuff that’s helped push me,” says McCoy, who has continued providing perceptive and insightful coverage of the Reds even though he is now almost blind.

“It’s like dusk all the time, like I’m looking through dirty glasses,” he says. “I can’t recognize people’s faces until they’re on top of me.”

Think about it. Think about covering an event you can only partially follow. Think about the demands of travel and communication.

Think about staying with it.

McCoy suffered a stroke in his right optic nerve while covering a series in St. Louis about 2 1/2 years ago, losing almost total vision in that eye.

Doctors told him that within five years there was a 15% chance the same thing could happen in his left. He liked the odds and continued to do his job and pursue a passion for playing tennis.

No problem.

Then, on Jan. 23, about a month after learning he had been voted the Spink Award, the odds failed. He woke with virtually no vision in the left eye as well, having suffered a similar stroke.

“I started crying,” he said. “I thought there was no way I could do my job.”

McCoy’s doubts deepened as he damaged his car trying to drive, had difficulty negotiating the familiar rooms of his house and was told by his ophthalmologist that he had lost 75% of his sight.

Still, his wife, Nadine, encouraged him to give spring training a try.

“She didn’t want me sitting around the house feeling sorry for myself, but she had also seen me bump into enough things that she told friends I’d probably be home in a couple weeks,” McCoy said.

Dayton sports editor Frank Corsoe also encouraged him to give spring training a try after he and McCoy both shed tears over the discouraging eye chart.

“I really thought we’d have to replace Hal,” Corsoe said, “and that was the last thing I wanted to do, especially this year with the Spink Award making it something of a victory tour and the culmination of a lot of hard work.”

The paper had an opening for a columnist, but McCoy told Corsoe he wanted to stay with baseball and was willing to try Florida providing the boss was honest about the caliber of his writing and reporting.

“Well,” Corsoe said, “his writing has been as good if not better than ever, and he has always had the work ethic of four people.”

The Daily News has provided McCoy with a driver when the team is home, and a competitor, Tony Jackson of the Cincinnati Post, has provided immeasurable help on the road, starting in spring training.

No one, however, was more pivotal in convincing McCoy he could still do his job than Cincinnati third baseman Aaron Boone.

McCoy remembered walking into the Reds’ clubhouse on the first day of spring training in Sarasota, Fla., and breaking into a “cold sweat.” He couldn’t distinguish faces, didn’t know which way to turn, and was convinced he would have to quit.

Picking up on McCoy’s bewilderment, Boone walked over to say hello and was told by McCoy about his condition and that he didn’t see how he could continue.

Reached in Cincinnati, Boone said he told McCoy that “quitting wasn’t an option, wasn’t good enough. We had a long talk, and while it’s humbling to me when Hal tells people how much impact I had, it’s not like I can say it was a noble or humanitarian-type thing. I simply have a lot of respect for people who have passion for their job, and Hal has a lot of it, and I only tried to remind him that even with a setback he still had a lot to offer.

“I consider it a blessing that he’s come to realize he can still do the job and how much people care for him, not only in the clubhouse or around baseball or at his paper. He’s become an inspiration to people everywhere, and he has his finger on the heartbeat of the team as much as ever.”

That is not to say McCoy has lost any of the edge that prompted former owner Marge Schott to 1) carpet the floor of her office with copies of his stories so that Schottzie, her famed St. Bernard, would know where to dirty, and 2) eject him from the media dining room, which led outfielder Eric Davis to send pizza to the press box and McCoy’s colleagues to deliver a canned food drive to his seat.

As Red Manager Bob Boone noted recently, “Hal is an awesome guy except when he’s ripping my team.”

If his rips are as strong as ever, his stories as good as ever, it may be, he said, because he’s more focused and taking more time and seeing things he didn’t see when he had full vision. He has learned, for example, that the hitter’s head will turn in the direction that the ball was hit, helping him to track its flight, although he still has problems when it leaves the infield.

“I still have frustrating days, but I’ve adjusted pretty well,” he said. “I still love baseball, and I still love writing and traveling, and I’m still getting paid for doing all three.

“I may not see well anymore, but in some ways I see better. My eyes have been opened to a lot of things.”

Pausing to smell the roses, the dinosaur is even going to turn this memorable weekend into a full-fledged vacation. His paper is treating the McCoys to four days in Las Vegas.