Prominent MLB writer Jim Caple has died at 61, his wife announced.
Caple wrote for ESPN for 17 years, from 2001-17, and most recently was a features reporter for The Athletic.
His wife, Vicki, announced Caple’s passing on his Facebook account.
“My person, best friend and husband died on Sunday afternoon,” she wrote. “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.
Caple covered 20 World Series and six Olympics games for ESPN, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer and the St. Paul Pioneer-Press, ESPN said.
He was also a columnist on ESPN’s legendary Page 2 vertical, which featured a wide array of writers including Bill Simmons, David Halberstam, Jason Whitlock, Ralph Wiley and Hunter S. Thompson.
Caple’s Page 2 columns ribbing the Yankees led to the book “The Devil Wears Pinstripes.”
He also wrote a novel, “The Navigator,” based partially on his father’s experience in World War II, and co-authored “Best Boston Sports Arguments” with Steve Buckley.
Caple’s loss is being mourned in the tight-knit sportswriter community.
“Jim was a talented writer with a style and a mindset unlike anyone I ever met. He was creative, funny, inventive and passionate about the art of storytelling,” his former ESPN colleague Jerry Crasnick told The Post.
“And people just gravitated to him. It was a gift he had. We all feel a tremendous sense of loss today, and a sense of gratitude for the time we shared with him.”
Jayson Stark, now an MLB writer for The Athletic who worked alongside Caple at ESPN, remembered his talent and quirkiness.
“Jim was brilliant and hilarious, a true sportswriting genius who looked at the same things we looked at and saw a whole different landscape. Then he’d get to work on his life’s calling – illuminating and telling stories of that world that only he saw,” Stark told The Post.
“The rest of us would laugh about how bizarre the roof of Tropicana Field was. Jim would climb that roof. The rest of us would laugh about how much our wives had to put up with, being married to sportswriters. Jim would literally carry his wife in the International Wife Carrying Championships and write about it.
“You could find Jim working on his favorite stories at any hour, day or night, mostly night. But he always had time for his friends – especially his fellow sportswriters – because he had an ever-present smile, a great heart and a love for the unique camaraderie of our business. What a loss – to his family, his friends and a profession that allowed him to live such an amazing life.”