Nicholas Dominic Cafardo (May 8, 1956 – February 21, 2019) was an American

sportswriter Sports journalism is a form of writing that reports on matters pertaining to sporting topics and competitions. Sports journalism started in the early 1800s when it was targeted to the social elite and transitioned into an integral part of the n ...

and sports author. A longtime

columnist A columnist is a person who writes for publication in a series, creating an article that usually offers commentary and opinions. Column (newspaper), Columns appear in newspapers, magazines and other publications, including blogs. They take the fo ...

and

beat reporter Beat reporting, also known as specialized reporting, is a genre of journalism focused on a particular issue, sector, organization, or institution over time. Description Beat reporters build up a base of knowledge on and gain familiarity with th ...

for ''

The Boston Globe ''The Boston Globe'' is an American daily newspaper founded and based in Boston, Massachusetts. The newspaper has won a total of 27 Pulitzer Prizes, and has a total circulation of close to 300,000 print and digital subscribers. ''The Boston Glob ...

'', he primarily covered the

Boston Red Sox The Boston Red Sox are an American professional baseball team based in Boston. The Red Sox compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) East division. Founded in as one of the American League's eight ...

. In December 2019, Cafardo was named the

J. G. Taylor Spink Award The BBWAA Career Excellence Award, formerly the J. G. Taylor Spink Award, is the highest award given by the Baseball Writers' Association of America (BBWAA). It is given "for meritorious contributions to baseball writing" and voted on annually by ...

recipient for .

Early life

Cafardo was born in

Weymouth, Massachusetts ("To Work Is to Conquer") , image_map = Norfolk County Massachusetts incorporated and unincorporated areas Weymouth highlighted.svg , mapsize = 250px , map_caption = Location in Norfolk County in Massa ...

; his parents were immigrants from Italy. He grew up in

Hanson, Massachusetts Hanson is a town in Plymouth County, Massachusetts, United States. Part of Greater Boston, Hanson is located 20 miles (32 km) south of Boston and is one of the inland towns of the South Shore. The population was 10,639 at the 2020 census. ...

, and graduated from

Whitman-Hanson Regional High School Whitman-Hanson Regional High School is a public high school located in Hanson, Massachusetts, United States. The school serves students in grades 9-12 from the towns of Whitman, Massachusetts and Hanson, Massachusetts. It is part of the Whitman-H ...

. Cafardo attended

Northeastern University Northeastern University (NU) is a private university, private research university with its main campus in Boston. Established in 1898, the university offers undergraduate and graduate programs on its main campus as well as satellite campuses in ...

before graduating from

Suffolk University Suffolk University is a private research university in Boston, Massachusetts. With 7,560 students (includes all campuses, 7,379 at the Boston location alone), it is the eighth-largest university in metropolitan Boston. It was founded as a l ...

. He was inducted into the Whitman-Hanson hall of fame in 1993.

Career

Cafardo got his start covering local news for '' The Enterprise'' of

Brockton, Massachusetts Brockton is a city in Plymouth County, Massachusetts, Plymouth County, Massachusetts, United States; the population is 105,643 as of the 2020 United States Census. Along with Plymouth, Massachusetts, Plymouth, it is one of the two county seats of ...

, and sports for ''

The Patriot Ledger ''The Patriot Ledger'' is a daily newspaper in Quincy, Massachusetts, that serves the South Shore. It publishes Monday through Saturday. Known for its thorough news coverage of the 26 communities south of Boston, ''The Patriot Ledger'' has won ...

'' of

Quincy, Massachusetts Quincy ( ) is a coastal U.S. city in Norfolk County, Massachusetts, United States. It is the largest city in the county and a part of Greater Boston, Metropolitan Boston as one of Boston's immediate southern suburbs. Its population in 2020 was 1 ...

, before moving to ''

'' in 1989. He was hired at the ''Globe'' at the suggestion of

Will McDonough William McDonough (July 6, 1935 – January 9, 2003) was an American sportswriter for ''The Boston Globe'' who also worked as an on-air football reporter for CBS and NBC. Biography Newspaper career The youngest of nine children of Irish immigran ...

. Cafardo covered the

New England Patriots The New England Patriots are a professional American football team based in the Greater Boston area. They compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) AFC East, East divisio ...

for the ''Globe'' when he wasn't covering the Red Sox. His "Sunday Baseball Notes" column in the ''Globe'' was nationally read. Cafardo was the author of several books on sports. He wrote ''The Impossible Team: The Worst to First Patriots’ Super Bowl Season'' (2002), ''Boston Red Sox: Yesterday and Today'' (2007), and ''100 Things Red Sox Fans Should Know and Do Before They Die'' (2008). With

Tom Glavine Thomas Michael Glavine (born March 25, 1966) is an American former professional baseball pitcher who played 22 seasons in Major League Baseball, for the Atlanta Braves (1987–2002, 2008) and New York Mets (2003–2007). With 164 victories durin ...

, he wrote ''None But the Braves: A Pitcher, a Team, a Champion'' (1996) and ''Inside Pitch: Playing and Broadcasting the Game I Love'' (2016), while with

Jerry Remy Gerald Peter Remy (November 8, 1952 – October 30, 2021) was an American professional baseball player and sports broadcaster. Remy played in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a second baseman for ten seasons—three with the California Angels (1 ...

, he wrote ''If These Walls Could Talk'' (2019). In 2001, Cafardo joined

New England Sports Network New England Sports Network, popularly known as NESN , is an American regional sports cable and satellite television network owned by a joint venture of Fenway Sports Group (which owns a controlling 80% interest, and is the owner of Boston Red So ...

(NESN) as an analyst for the Red Sox, and contributed to NESN reports covering the team. Cafardo was co-recipient of the Massachusetts Sportswriter of the Year award in 2014, shared with colleague Kevin Dupont of the ''Globe''. In January 2017, Cafardo received the Dave O'Hara Award from the Boston chapter of the

Baseball Writers' Association of America The Baseball Writers' Association of America (BBWAA) is a professional association for journalists writing about Major League Baseball for daily newspapers, magazines and qualifying websites. The organization was founded in 1908, and is known fo ...

(BBWAA), recognizing his long and meritorious service to BBWAA Boston. On December 10, 2019, Cafardo was posthumously named the recipient of the 2020

, given by the

, for "meritorious contributions to baseball writing."

Personal life

Cafardo and his wife, Leeanne, were married in 1979 and lived in

Plymouth, Massachusetts Plymouth (; historically known as Plimouth and Plimoth) is a town in Plymouth County, Massachusetts, United States. Located in Greater Boston, the town holds a place of great prominence in American history, folklore, and culture, and is known as ...

. The couple had two children. His son, Ben, has worked as a senior communications director for

ESPN ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). The ...

. Cafardo died on February 21, 2019. He apparently suffered an

embolism An embolism is the lodging of an embolus, a blockage-causing piece of material, inside a blood vessel. The embolus may be a blood clot (thrombus), a fat globule ( fat embolism), a bubble of air or other gas (gas embolism), amniotic fluid (amniot ...

JetBlue Park JetBlue Park (also styled as jetBlue Park) is a baseball park in Fort Myers, Florida, part of the Fenway South training and development facility. Opened in March 2012, it is primarily the spring training home of the Boston Red Sox, replacing e ...

, and died at

Gulf Coast Medical Center Gulf Coast Medical Center (GCMC) is a 356-bed hospital located in Fort Myers, Florida. History Gulf Coast Medical Center was created through the merging of Southwest Florida Regional Medical Center and Gulf Coast Hospital in March 2009. Both we ...

; both are in

Fort Myers, Florida Fort Myers (or Ft. Myers) is a city in southwestern Florida and the county seat and commercial center of Lee County, Florida, United States. The Census Bureau's Population Estimates Program calculated that the city's population was 92,245 in 20 ...

. In August 2019, the Red Sox honored Cafardo in a pregame ceremony at

Fenway Park Fenway Park is a baseball stadium located in Boston, Massachusetts, United States, near Kenmore Square. Since 1912, it has been the home of the Boston Red Sox, the city's American League baseball team, and since 1953, its only Major League Base ...

, which included his two grandchildren throwing out

ceremonial first pitch The ceremonial first pitch is a longstanding ritual of baseball in which a guest of honor throws a ball to mark the end of pregame festivities and the start of the game. Originally, the guest threw a ball from their seat in the grandstand to ...

es.

References

External links

Baseball Hall of Fame

The Boston Globe Journalist Series: Nick Cafardo
via

YouTube YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...

Remembering Nick Cafardo
with

Peter Gammons Peter Gammons (born April 9, 1945) is an American sportswriter Sports journalism is a form of writing that reports on matters pertaining to sporting topics and competitions. Sports journalism started in the early 1800s when it was targeted ...

via

Facebook Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin M ...

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Cafardo, Nick 1956 births 2019 deaths American writers of Italian descent People from Plymouth, Massachusetts Journalists from Massachusetts People from Hanson, Massachusetts The Boston Globe people Sportswriters from Massachusetts Deaths from embolism 20th-century American male writers 21st-century American male writers 20th-century American journalists 21st-century American journalists American male journalists BBWAA Career Excellence Award recipients Whitman-Hanson Regional High School alumni People from Weymouth, Massachusetts Northeastern University alumni Suffolk University alumni

Early life

Career

Personal life

References

Further reading

External links