Rick Hummel

Rick Hummel
(The Commish)

• Schools University of Missouri, Quincy College
• High School Quincy (IL) High School

• Born February 4, 1946 in Quincy, IL USA
• Died May 20, 2023

Biographical Information

Rick Hummel had the St. Louis Cardinals beat for 24 years at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch then became that paper's baseball columnist. He has covered at least 30 World Series and 28 All-Star Games. He was named Missouri Sportswriter of the Year in 1994 and won the J.G. Taylor Spink Award in 2007. He co-authored Tony LaRussa's autobiography, which came out in 2012.

As a member of the BBWAA, he made an embarrassing mistake in the voting for the winner of the 2020 National League Most Valuable Player Award. He had intended to give his 10th-place vote to Trea Turner, but mistakenly clicked on Ryan Tepera's name on the scroll-down menu in the electronic ballot. The mistake was only discovered when the voting results were made public weeks later, and only because Tepera was so obviously unqualified to be considered for the award. The mistake had otherwise no impact on the results.

He earned the nickname "The Commish" for his encyclopedic knowledge of baseball. The press box at Busch Stadium is named in his honor. He passed away in May of 2023 at 77.

Source: Quincy Sports Hall of Fame

Further Reading

• Steve Gardner (USA Today): "Rick Hummel, dean of St. Louis baseball writers, dies at 77", Yahoo! Sports, May 22, 2023. [1]
• Derrick Gould: "Hall of Fame baseball writer Rick ‘The Commish’ Hummel dies at 77", St. Louis Post-Dispatch, May 22, 2023. [2]