Baseball veteran Nick Cafardo dies

Nick Cafardo, the nationally recognized and respected Boston Globe baseball columnist, died Thursday in Fort Myers, Florida. He was 62 years old.

The love of Cafardo for baseball and his commitment to his art have forced him to travel to JetBlue Park, home of the Red Sox's drive in the spring, during one of his rare holidays. He was apparently hit by an embolism at the park and members of the Sox medical team were unable to revive him.

Cafardo joined the Globe in 1989 after covering the Sox for Patriot Ledger. Over the next three decades, he has established himself as one of Boston's most prominent sports journalists. He covered the "Patriots for the Globe" between two passages of the Sox Beat in the newspaper and he is the author of the 2002 book, "The Impossible Team: The worst Super Bowl season for the first patriots". "

While loving to cover the Patriots, Cafardo was eager to return to baseball. For the past 15 years, he has traveled the country covering the Sox and other major league games for the Globe. He was popular in all the major leagues and forged close relationships with personalities from all levels of the sport, whether it's gardeners or club attendants, players, scouts, rulers or team leaders.

His Sunday baseball chronicle was one of the most popular features of The Globe.

"Nick has been one of the best people ever to walk in – generous with his time and ideas, immensely informed, deeply dedicated to the Globe," said Brian McGrory, editor of The Globe. "He had a vision of the Red Sox and the game on a national scale that is virtually unmatched.

"It is for these reasons that he was one of our most widely read writers, constantly attracting followers both near and far, his column of weekly baseball notes being a destination reading for tens of thousands of people."

Cafardo wrote several other books, including "If these walls could talk" with Jerry Remy. He also wrote "Inside Pitch: Playing and Playing the Game I Love" with baseball player Tom Glavine.

Cafardo was a regular guest of Sox's pre-game shows on the New England Sports Network.

He is survived by his wife Leeanne and his two children, Ben and Emilee.

You can contact Bob Hohler at [email protected].