Jim Caple, who spent 17 years writing about Major League Baseball for ESPN and was one of the main voices of ESPN’s Page 2 vertical, has died at the age of 61.
Along with ESPN, Caple also covered MLB and various sports for the St. Paul Pioneer-Press, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, and The Athletic.
Caple’s wife, Vicki, announced his passing.
“My person, best friend and husband died on Sunday afternoon,” she wrote on Facebook. “We all love Jim Caple so much and he loved you. Many great times, laughs and adventures with all of us with Jim. Go in peace my love.”
A cause of death was not immediately announced though his family said on social media that he had ALS and dementia.
Caple rose to prominence as one of the columnists on ESPN’s Page 2, where his columns and disdain for the New York Yankees lived alongside work by writers such as Bill Simmons, David Halberstam, Ralph Wiley, and Hunter S. Thompson. From his columns, he wrote “The Devil Wears Pinstripes,” which “takes on the rabid fans of baseball’s twenty-six-time World Champions, and offers a decidedly different slant on the New York Yankees—the losers of thirteen World Series.”
He also co-wrote “Best Boston Sports Arguments” with sportswriter Steve Buckley, as well as “The Navigator,” a novel based in part on his father, a World War II B-24 navigator.
Tributes poured in immediately from sportswriters and others in the sports media world after the news of the Washington native’s passing.
[ESPN]
About Sean Keeley
Along with writing for Awful Announcing and The Comeback, Sean is the Managing Editor for Comeback Media. Previously, he created the Syracuse blog Troy Nunes Is An Absolute Magician and wrote 'How To Grow An Orange: The Right Way to Brainwash Your Child Into Rooting for Syracuse.' He has also written non-Syracuse-related things for SB Nation, Curbed, and other outlets. He currently lives in Seattle where he is complaining about bagels. Send tips/comments/complaints to sean@thecomeback.com.