1963 BBWAA Career Excellence Award Winner Ring Lardner

Born in Niles, Mich., in 1885, Ring Lardner's fame as sportswriter, humorist and satirist transcended the sporting world. Lardner was a columnist for the Sporting News in 1911 and also wrote for newspapers in Chicago and Boston. But it was the famed "You Know Me Al" series in the Saturday Evening Post that elevated Lardner to his status as an American icon.

Along with fellow reporter and close friend Hugh Fullerton, Lardner was suspicious about the goings-on of the 1919 World Series from the very start. Though the Black Sox scandal may have dampened his feelings for the game he so loved, Lardner never forgot that his roots were in baseball. Long after his daily baseball reporting career had ended, Lardner appeared at a meeting of the Baseball Writers' Association of America. Given the cold shoulder by some of the attendees, Lardner remarked: "What's the matter with you boys? I belong here. I am still a baseball writer and always will be."

Fred Lieb reminisced that Lardner was "taller than most baseball writers, and towering above all in his genius for writing and expression. He won acclaim not only from the ordinary fan and reader but from the eggheads and top literati of the nation."

Lardner passed away on Sept. 25, 1933.