ST. LOUIS – It’s not only a sendoff season for longtime St. Louis Cardinals greats Albert Pujols and Yadier Molina, but also an award-winning storyteller who has closely followed their baseball careers and hundreds of others.
Rick Hummel will retire from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch after 50 years reporting on the St. Louis Cardinals. According to STLToday.com, Hummel “plans to step down from full-time duties at the paper in the offseason.”
Known by his nickname “The Commish,” Hummel’s first Cardinals assignment came in 1973. He took over the Cardinals beat full-time in 1978. Hummel was elected to the the Baseball Writers’ Association of America in 1994 and once served as president of the organization. He was later inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 2007.
Hummel will report in one last regular season home series this weekend and the Cardinals’ upcoming postseason run before he retires from his beat. The Cardinals close out the regular season with six games against the Pittsburgh Pirates, three at home and three on the road. Postseason begins one week from Friday.