First Posted: 4/4/2015
Nearly everyone around Major League Baseball knows Hall of Fame baseball writer Hal McCoy.
But the former Dayton Daily News’ Reds beat writer might not be known as “Hal,” these days if it wasn’t for a mistake in his hometown Akron Beacon Journal.
McCoy was playing Little League in Akron at the time and a Beacon Journal photographer took his picture and asked him for his name. Those were the days he went by his nickname “Bubby” McCoy.
Not wanting to give out his nickname, McCoy gave out his real name, “Harold McCoy.”
But the photographer thought he said “Hal,” and the cutline under the picture read, “Hal McCoy.”
From that day forward, Bubby was history and he became Hal McCoy.
McCoy takes you along through his baseball-writing journey in his recently released book, “The Real McCoy, My half-century with the Cincinnati Reds.”
His writing career kicked off at Akron East High School, where he was “drafted” by his typing teacher to write a story on his high school basketball team for the school paper.
From there, he continued to writing sports for his paper at Kent State. McCoy got his first job out of college writing prep sports for the Dayton Journal Herald in 1964.
In 1966, he accepted a job at the Detroit Free Press to cover Michigan and Michigan State football.
Shortly after the Detroit riots in 1967, McCoy received a call from Dayton Daily News sports editor Si Burick to return to Dayton, but to work at the other Dayton paper.
He couldn’t pack his bags fast enough. When he returned to Dayton, his job was to cover the Dayton Flyers and auto racing.
By the late 1960s, he was the backup Reds’ writer and in 1972 he was given the option to be the beat writer for the Reds or the Bengals.
McCoy said, “I’ll take the Reds.”
The rest is history.
McCoy spends most of his book taking you inside the Reds’ clubhouse, the manager’s office and even in the pressbox.
McCoy tells you who his favorite players and managers were and which Reds’ player made sure even the surly players cooperated with the media.
He also pokes fun at himself and his fellow writers.
Once when he was the backup Reds’ writer in the late 60s, he was covering the team for beat writer Jim Ferguson, who gave him specific instructions to ask Reds manager Dave Bristol about pitcher Gary Nolan. Nolan was scheduled to test his sore right arm by throwing on the side before the game.
After a thrilling 2-1 Reds’ win, McCoy made sure to ask the first question in Bristol’s postgame press conference.
“How did Gary Nolan do during his bullpen session?” McCoy asked, very proud of himself for asking.
Bristol bristled and barked, “We just won a great damn ballgame and you want to know how a sore-armed pitcher did in the bullpen?”
Welcome to the majors, Hal.
McCoy also writes about how he’s covered the Reds since he became legally blind since 2002.
McCoy covered the Pete Rose betting on baseball incident, in which Rose was banned from baseball. Rose decided McCoy was “persona not grata” after that and didn’t talk to the writer for 17 years.
Reds Hall of Famer Joe Morgan also had a huge issue with McCoy after the Hall of Fame wrote a column about how that it was time for Morgan to go in 1979 because the Big Red Machine was being dismantled. He didn’t say that Morgan was over the hill or finished.
It didn’t matter.
The two didn’t talk for the next 35 years, until last April, when the two finally ended their feud.
Former Reds owner Marge Schott was never a fan of McCoy’s writing. McCoy proudly boasts that Schott banned him from the free media dining room a “record” four times.
There’s plenty of Reds’ insight in McCoy’s fun, entertaining style.
