Robert William Patrick Broeg (March 18, 1918 – October 28, 2005) was an American sportswriter. Born and raised in

St. Louis, Missouri St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the bi-state metropolitan area, which e ...

, he officially covered the

St. Louis Cardinals The St. Louis Cardinals are an American professional baseball team based in St. Louis. The Cardinals compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) Central division. Since the 2006 season, the Cardinals ha ...

for forty years. He graduated from Cleveland High School (Class of '36) and the

University of Missouri The University of Missouri (Mizzou, MU, or Missouri) is a public land-grant research university in Columbia, Missouri. It is Missouri's largest university and the flagship of the four-campus University of Missouri System. MU was founded in ...

before entering the

United States Marines The United States Marine Corps (USMC), also referred to as the United States Marines, is the maritime land force service branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for conducting expeditionary and amphibious operations through com ...

. He served in Washington as a result of an eye injury suffered at birth. After the war, Broeg joined the ''

St. Louis Post-Dispatch The ''St. Louis Post-Dispatch'' is a major regional newspaper based in St. Louis, Missouri, serving the St. Louis metropolitan area. It is the largest daily newspaper in the metropolitan area by circulation, surpassing the ''Belleville News-De ...

''. He was privy to many important events in baseball history. Broeg was partially responsible for the famous picture of

Eddie Gaedel Edward Carl Gaedel (June 8, 1925 – June 18, 1961) was the smallest player to appear in a Major League Baseball game. Gaedel gained recognition in the second game of a St. Louis Browns doubleheader on August 19, 1951. Weighing and standing t ...

at the plate in 1951. He told the photographer to stay at the game until Gaedel came to the plate and the picture was taken. Later, he helped

Bob Gibson Robert Gibson (born Pack Robert Gibson; November 9, 1935October 2, 2020) was an American professional baseball pitcher who played 17 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the St. Louis Cardinals (1959–1975). Nicknamed "Gibby" and "Hoot" ( ...

win the

1967 World Series The 1967 World Series was the championship series of Major League Baseball's (MLB) 1967 season. The 64th edition of the World Series, it was a best-of-seven playoff between the American League (AL) champion Boston Red Sox and the National Leag ...

. Gibson was unable to get breakfast at the Cardinals' hotel in Boston, so Broeg delivered a ham and egg sandwich to the star right-hander. Gibson pitched a complete game and carried his team to victory. Among other things, Broeg is known for coining the nickname "Stan the Man" for Cardinal baseball player Stan Musial, championing the Hall of Fame causes of Cardinals

Red Schoendienst Albert Fred "Red" Schoendienst (; February 2, 1923 – June 6, 2018) was an American professional baseball second baseman, coach, and manager in Major League Baseball (MLB), and is largely known for his coaching, managing, and playing years wi ...

Enos Slaughter Enos Bradsher Slaughter (April 27, 1916 – August 12, 2002), nicknamed "Country", was an American Major League Baseball (MLB) right fielder. He played for 19 seasons on four major league teams from 1938 to 1942 and 1946 to 1959. He is noted prima ...

and

Chick Hafey Charles James "Chick" Hafey (February 12, 1903 – July 2, 1973) was an American player in Major League Baseball (MLB). Playing for the St. Louis Cardinals (1924–1931) and Cincinnati Reds (1932–1935, 1937), Hafey was a strong line-drive hitt ...

and helping to devise, and successfully push for the first pension plan for veteran major-league players. Broeg was named to the board of directors of the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1972, a position he held for 28 years. He was also a longtime member of the Committee on Baseball Veterans. His knowledge was reported to be encyclopedic, even into his 80s. His willingness to share that knowledge with everyone from colleagues and loyal readers to complete strangers at the ballpark or on the street endeared him to fans spanning multiple generations. He penned his last column in 2004. Th
St. Louis chapter
of the

Society for American Baseball Research The Society for American Baseball Research (SABR) is a membership organization dedicated to fostering the research and dissemination of the history and record of baseball primarily through the use of statistics. Established in Cooperstown, New ...

is named for Bob Broeg. He was awarded 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 ...

in 1979. He was elected to the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Hall of Fame in 1997. Broeg said he wished his epitaph to read, "Hopefully, he was fair, as in just, not as in mediocre." Bob Broeg died five hours after the final game of the 2005 World Series. He was 87.

Awards and honors

*1964 Sportswriter of the Year award – Rockne Club *1969 University of Missouri Faculty Alumni Award *1971 University of Missouri journalism medal *1978 Missouri Sports Hall of Fame *1979 Cooperstown Baseball Writers Hall of Fame *1979 J. G. Taylor Spink Award – National Baseball Hall of Fame *1997 Sportswriters & Sportscasters Hall of Fame *1998 National Baseball Congress Hall of Fame

External links

Baseball Hall of Fame - Spink Award recipientBob Broeg Oral History Interview - National Baseball Hall of Fame Digital CollectionBob Broeg Papers
at The State Historical Society of Missouri {{DEFAULTSORT:Broeg, Bob 1918 births 2005 deaths American sportswriters Writers from Missouri Writers from St. Louis BBWAA Career Excellence Award recipients St. Louis Post-Dispatch people United States Marine Corps personnel of World War II