.gif)
Dan Daniel (sportswriter)
Encyclopedia
Sports journalism
Sports journalism is a form of journalism that reports on sports topics and events.While the sports department within some newspapers has been mockingly called the toy department, because sports journalists do not concern themselves with the 'serious' topics covered by the news desk, sports...
whose prolific contributions over a long period led him to be called the Dean of American Baseball
Baseball
Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each. The aim is to score runs by hitting a thrown ball with a bat and touching a series of four bases arranged at the corners of a ninety-foot diamond...
Writers.
Daniel was born in Springfield, Massachusetts
Springfield, Massachusetts
Springfield is the most populous city in Western New England, and the seat of Hampden County, Massachusetts, United States. Springfield sits on the eastern bank of the Connecticut River near its confluence with three rivers; the western Westfield River, the eastern Chicopee River, and the eastern...
. His family moved to New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
when he was a boy, and he remained there throughout his career. He attended the City College of New York
City College of New York
The City College of the City University of New York is a senior college of the City University of New York , in New York City. It is also the oldest of the City University's twenty-three institutions of higher learning...
, where he managed the basketball team.
Daniel received his first writing assignment with the New York Herald
New York Herald
The New York Herald was a large distribution newspaper based in New York City that existed between May 6, 1835, and 1924.-History:The first issue of the paper was published by James Gordon Bennett, Sr., on May 6, 1835. By 1845 it was the most popular and profitable daily newspaper in the UnitedStates...
in 1909 at the age of 19. He decided to use a single-name byline
Byline
The byline on a newspaper or magazine article gives the name, and often the position, of the writer of the article. Bylines are traditionally placed between the headline and the text of the article, although some magazines place bylines at the bottom of the page, to leave more room for graphical...
, “By Daniel”, because editors in the early 20th century were concerned that anti-Semitism
Anti-Semitism
Antisemitism is suspicion of, hatred toward, or discrimination against Jews for reasons connected to their Jewish heritage. According to a 2005 U.S...
would hurt newspaper sales if he used his Jewish surname.
1920s
Baseball Writers Association of America
The Baseball Writers' Association of America is a professional association for baseball journalists writing for daily newspapers, magazines and qualifying Web sites. The BBWAA was founded on October 14, 1908, to improve working conditions for sportswriters in the early part of the 20th century...
for his portrayal of Walter Johnson
Walter Johnson
Walter Perry Johnson , nicknamed "Barney" and "The Big Train", was a Major League Baseball right-handed pitcher. He played his entire 21-year baseball career for the Washington Senators...
's loss in the seventh game of the Washington Senators
Minnesota Twins
The Minnesota Twins are a professional baseball team based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. They play in the Central Division of Major League Baseball's American League. The team is named after the Twin Cities area of Minneapolis and St. Paul. They played in Metropolitan Stadium from 1961 to 1981 and the...
/Pittsburgh Pirates
Pittsburgh Pirates
The Pittsburgh Pirates are a Major League Baseball club based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. They play in the Central Division of the National League, and are five-time World Series Champions...
World Series
1925 World Series
In the 1925 World Series, the Pittsburgh Pirates beat the defending champion Washington Senators in seven games.In a reversal of fortune on all counts from the previous 1924 World Series, when Washington's Walter Johnson had come back from two losses to win the seventh and deciding game, Johnson...
match-up.
In the early 1920s, Daniel helped start Ring Magazine with Nat Fleischer
Nat Fleischer
Nathaniel Stanley Fleischer was a noted American boxing writer and collector. Fleischer inaugurated in 1922, encouraged by Tex Rickard, the Ring Magazine publication...
. He was a prolific contributor and editor throughout The Rings history and could be seen behind his desk at The Ring when he was well past the age of 80.
In addition to his daily columns for the New York Telegram (later World Telegram then World Telegram and Sun), Daniel wrote weekly columns for The Sporting News
The Sporting News
Sporting News is an American-based sports magazine. It was established in 1886, and it became the dominant American publication covering baseball — so much so that it acquired the nickname "The Bible of Baseball"...
, contributing more words to that publication than any other writer in its history.
1930s
From 1930 through the 1960s, Daniel was a frequent contributor to Baseball MagazineBaseball Magazine
Baseball Magazine is a now-defunct baseball magazine that existed from the dead-ball era to the 1950s. It is considered a good source for researchers researching those eras....
and SPORT Magazine
Sport magazine
SPORT magazine was an American sports magazine. Launched in September 1946 by the New York-based publisher, Macfadden Publications, SPORT pioneered the generous use of color photography – it carried eight full colour plates in its first edition – and almost immediately became half-bible, half-guru...
, along with other sporting publications of the day. His patriotic articles during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
earned him wide praise. He was one of the first writers to identify the potential of both Joe DiMaggio
Joe DiMaggio
Joseph Paul "Joe" DiMaggio , nicknamed "Joltin' Joe" and "The Yankee Clipper," was an American Major League Baseball center fielder who played his entire 13-year career for the New York Yankees. He is perhaps best known for his 56-game hitting streak , a record that still stands...
and Mickey Mantle
Mickey Mantle
Mickey Charles Mantle was an American professional baseball player. Mantle is regarded by many to be the greatest switch hitter of all time, and one of the greatest players in baseball history. Mantle was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1974.Mantle was noted for his hitting...
, extolling their virtues before either had swung a major league bat.
In 1930, Daniel was elected president of the New York chapter of the Baseball Writers Association of America. That year, New York Mayor Jimmy Walker
Jimmy Walker
James John Walker, often known as Jimmy Walker and colloquially as Beau James , was the mayor of New York City from 1926 to 1932...
made Daniel sports chairman of his Committee for Relief of the Unemployed. The committee organized the first college basketball games in Madison Square Garden
Madison Square Garden
Madison Square Garden, often abbreviated as MSG and known colloquially as The Garden, is a multi-purpose indoor arena in the New York City borough of Manhattan and located at 8th Avenue, between 31st and 33rd Streets, situated on top of Pennsylvania Station.Opened on February 11, 1968, it is the...
and raised the equivalent of 5 million dollars between 1930 and 1933. Walker presented a citation to Daniel at a testimonial dinner held in his honor, the first time a private citizen had been so-honored by the city.
Also in 1930, Daniel helped convince Babe Ruth
Babe Ruth
George Herman Ruth, Jr. , best known as "Babe" Ruth and nicknamed "the Bambino" and "the Sultan of Swat", was an American Major League baseball player from 1914–1935...
to sign his record US$
United States dollar
The United States dollar , also referred to as the American dollar, is the official currency of the United States of America. It is divided into 100 smaller units called cents or pennies....
80,000 contract with the New York Yankees
New York Yankees
The New York Yankees are a professional baseball team based in the The Bronx, New York. They compete in Major League Baseball in the American League's East Division...
. Ruth had been holding out for more money and had threatened to boycott spring training in Saint Petersburg, Florida. Daniel helped Ruth come to the decision to sign by reminding him that many of his fans were out of work and selling apples on street corners back home in New York City.
Later in 1930, Daniel published Babe Ruth, Idol of the American Boy. This early biography of The Babe was developed from material Daniel had published in a series of feature stories in the New York Telegram. It included a forward to boys from The Babe admonishing them to “do everything in moderation”!
1940s
Starting in the 1940s, his "Ask Daniel" column ran in the World Telegram every Tuesday. Daniel answered thousands of baseball questions, becoming one of the game's leading experts and historians. Each spring, Daniel put his reputation on the line by predicting how the eight teams in each league would finish. Cartoonist Willard MullinWillard Mullin
Willard Mullin was an American sports cartoonist. He is most famous for his creation of the "Brooklyn Bum", the personification of the Brooklyn Dodgers baseball team...
captured the audacity of these predictions in charming caricatures.
Daniel was an accomplished speaker and raconteur. He had a rasping voice and a biting wit, which made him a popular choice as master of ceremonies for sports dinners and roasts.
Daniel was official scorer for more than twenty games during Joe DiMaggio's 1941
1941 in baseball
-Headline events of the year:*Joe Dimaggio hits in 56 consecutive games. After being hitless in the 57th game, he hit safely in 16 more consecutive games for a streak of 72 of 73 games.*Ted Williams ended the season with a .406 batting average...
hitting streak. His decisions are still criticized more than 60 years later, but Daniel maintained throughout his life that he called each play as he saw it.
Shortly after Babe Ruth's death in 1948, Daniel wrote The Real Babe Ruth, his second biography of the Babe, which contained many of his personal recollections from having been friend and advisor to Babe Ruth.
1970s
In 19721972 in baseball
-Labor strife and more moving:1972 was tainted by a players' strike over pension and salary arbitration. The strike erased the first week and a half of the season, and the Leagues decided to just excise the lost portion of the season with no makeups. As a result, an uneven number of games were...
, Daniel received baseball's highest honor for a writer, the J. G. Taylor Spink Award at the Baseball Hall of Fame. In his acceptance speech, he thanked the players and the fans for “giving him the medium of a wonderful career”. He mused that without baseball, he would have ended up as a doctor and assured the audience that “Had I been a doctor, I would have made house-calls”.
At the age of 86, Daniel was still a relevant contributor to the history of New York City sports. In 1976, he co-authored “Yankee Stadium Then and Now”, a feature article in The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
.
Daniel was a noted bibliophile and amassed a significant collection of first editions, befriending book sellers in the cities he frequented as he traveled with the Yankees and other teams. His collection included an imprint of Aristotle
Aristotle
Aristotle was a Greek philosopher and polymath, a student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great. His writings cover many subjects, including physics, metaphysics, poetry, theater, music, logic, rhetoric, linguistics, politics, government, ethics, biology, and zoology...
's Art of Rhetoric, published by Gunther Zainer
Günther Zainer
Günther Zainer was the first printer in Augsburg, where he worked from 1468 until his death; he produced about 80 books including two German editions of the Bible and the first printed calendar. He came to Augsburg from Strassburg and printed in 1472–76 three large works of moral instruction...
in 1476.