ST. LOUIS (AP) — Rick Hummel, an esteemed writer who covered the St.. Louis Cardinals and Major League Baseball for five decades for the Post-Dispatch until his retirement last year, has died. He was 77.

https://eu.usatoday.com/story/sports/mlb/2023/05/22/rick-hummel-esteemed-st-louis-based-baseball-writer-dies-at-77/70244628007/

Appreciate your posting this, Mr. Rhodes, though I didn't think anyone outside Greater St. Louis had ever heard the sportswriter's name.

Indeed, even an inveterate St. Louis booster like me hadn't hardly ever read his jock journalism--but that's because the late Hummel's era in local print was pretty much only after I had left Missouri decades ago. Still, sports-pal friends I talk to in The Gateway City have occasionally cited his work over the years, and he was a quite familiar name to anyone who follows the sports scene there.

(Me, I'm STILL fuming about the football Cardinals, uh, "desert"ing Missouri for the desert in Arizona...and that was in 1987! (Now, I DID hear a nasty rumor alleging that some other NFL team came in for an abortive stay, but I'm not sure which franchise it was; certainly couldn't have been The Rams, as they would NEVER depart the storied Los Angeles Coliseum, would they?)

BRYAN STYBLE/Florida

In article <cca5f644-1457-40fb-8637-a859df3d6c29n@googlegroups.com>,
<"radioacti...@gmail.com"> wrote:

> Me, I'm STILL fuming about the football Cardinals, uh, "desert"ing Missouri
> for the desert in Arizona...and that was in 1987!

Me, I'm the guy who broke the story. Somebody at NFL HQ had told the
four U.S. Senators of the states involved, and one of their aides
immediately called me. I called the all-news station in Phoenix, and
they'd had no idea. They wound up having a several-days lead on it,
and I got a nice write-up. Of course, a week later it was "what have
you done for me lately?" all over again, but for a while there it was
fun.

That is yet another jim-dandy newsbiz story from you, nameless Friend!

I've got--as you might expect--more to add (under the category I Can't Top That!), but no time to relate just now. But in the meantime, thanks for another peek into your broadcast news exploits; wish mine had been as eventful.

BRYAN STYBLE/Florida

radioactiveseattle@gmail.com wrote:

>That is yet another jim-dandy newsbiz story from you, nameless Friend!

Arthur Friend was a professor at University of Washington. His research
assistant was the son of Stephanie Kaplan. Mysterious email messages
from "A Friend" to guide Tom Sanders against corporate intrigue were
later revealed to have come from her. Sanders was somewhat impervious to
clue and she tried as hard as she could to keep him focused.

Much appreciate your effort in relating that data, Adam, but I'm afraid I've no idea what you meant; as I've never heard of Ms. Kaplan nor Mr. Sanders..

Are you suggesting that I've been communicating with Ms. Kaplan as "A Friend" ? If so, is that good, bad or somewhere in between? As for the good Dr.. Arthur Friend, I've never heard about him until now, and am sorry I never crossed paths with him; presuming he was posted to the principal campus, I met and knew MANY of his fellow campus folk, as I lived literally across the street from his office, in an apartment on what everyone there calls "The Avenue" of Seattle--but which in fact is not an avenue at all but rather a "way", that is University Way--in the bohemian "U District" of Seattle during 2005-2009, a storied part of The Emerald City which, among many other things, was where Ted Bundy got his serial-murderous start, inasmuch as we're talking major news events here. (I used to refer to my place [about 400 yards up the steep hill from where Bundy's terrace apartment was, but a couple decade before I got there] as "The Batcave" to the listeners of the overnight "Radioactive Seattle with Bryan Styble" over KIRO at 710 kHz.)

Sorry to be so clueless about this Internet "intrigue" as you put it, but that's standard operating procedure for when it comes to ALL Internet communication for me; I have an impossible time keeping REAL-name screen names straight; pseudonynimous ones NEVER stick in my mind, though I did recall (I THINK) that Mr./Ms. A Friend was the same man/woman who a good while back told about being involved in the breaking (on radio, I think) of the Brando-death story. So that's what I was referring to when I was rhapsodizing about how it must have been to be in the middle of that AND the football-Cardinals-to-Arizona story.

Hope all that makes sense.

STYBLE/Florida

In article <09a18932-ed6c-4e49-a804-4b01359d86c8n@googlegroups.com>,
<"radioacti...@gmail.com"> wrote:

> Much appreciate your effort in relating that data, Adam, but I'm afraid I've
> no idea what you meant; as I've never heard of Ms. Kaplan nor Mr. Sanders.
>
> Are you suggesting that I've been communicating with Ms. Kaplan as "A Friend"
> ? If so, is that good, bad or somewhere in between? As for the good Dr.
> Arthur Friend, I've never heard about him until now, and am sorry I never
> crossed paths with him; presuming he was posted to the principal campus, I
> met and knew MANY of his fellow campus folk, as I lived literally across the
> street from his office, in an apartment on what everyone there calls "The
> Avenue" of Seattle--but which in fact is not an avenue at all but rather a
> "way", that is University Way--in the bohemian "U District" of Seattle during
> 2005-2009, a storied part of The Emerald City which, among many other things,
> was where Ted Bundy got his serial-murderous start, inasmuch as we're talking
> major news events here. (I used to refer to my place [about 400 yards up the
> steep hill from where Bundy's terrace apartment was, but a couple decade
> before I got there] as "The Batcave" to the listeners of the overnight
> "Radioactive Seattle with Bryan Styble" over KIRO at 710 kHz.)
>
> Sorry to be so clueless about this Internet "intrigue" as you put it, but
> that's standard operating procedure for when it comes to ALL Internet
> communication for me; I have an impossible time keeping REAL-name screen
> names straight; pseudonynimous ones NEVER stick in my mind, though I did
> recall (I THINK) that Mr./Ms. A Friend was the same man/woman

I'm male.

> who a good while back told about being involved in the breaking (on
> radio, I think) of the Brando-death story.

That was me, all right. It was radio. As I recall, the local stringer
had filed it with the state wire, but nobody had seemed to notice. I
called around L.A., and nobody knew about it yet. Someone claimed to
be checking on it, but I think he was just scrambling. I confirmed it,
and we ran with it.

Cary Grant, now. I was forced to sit on that one for a couple of hours
because his heartbroken widow didn't want to confirm. I had to hint
around that an announcement was expected shortly. BTW if you've never
interrupted a broadcast network for a news bulletin, it's every bit the
rush you think it is. You'd just better be right, is all.

> So that's what I was referring to when I was rhapsodizing about how
> it must have been to be in the middle of that AND the
> football-Cardinals-to-Arizona story.

I hadn't really appreciated that I had two Arizona-sized Arizona
stories back then.

BTW I am not Arthur Friend. A is just an indefinite article.

radioactiveseattle@gmail.com wrote:

>Much appreciate your effort in relating that data, Adam, but I'm afraid
>I've no idea what you meant; as I've never heard of Ms. Kaplan nor Mr.
>Sanders.

From the Michael Crichton novel (1994) and movie (later in 1994) Disclosure

>Are you suggesting that I've been communicating with Ms. Kaplan as "A
>Friend" ? . . .

Just pointing out that his namesake had a name.

A Friend wrote:

>. . .

>BTW I am not Arthur Friend. A is just an indefinite article.

But Tom Sanders still needs the clues!