Bill Madden (born 1946) is an American sportswriter formerly with the New York Daily News. A member of the Baseball Writers' Association of America, he has served on the Historical Overview Committee of the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2005, 2007 and 2008, helping to select candidates for the final ballots presented to the Veterans Committee.
Madden grew up in Oradell, New Jersey,[1] and graduated from Bergen Catholic High School.[2]
Madden was a sportswriter with United Press International for nine years before he joined the Daily News in 1978. He covered the New York Yankees before becoming a columnist in 1989. In 1990, he crossed picket lines while the Daily News writers were on strike. He has written the books Damned Yankees: A No-Holds-Barred Account of Life With "Boss" Steinbrenner (1991, with Moss Klein), Zim - A Baseball Life (2001, with Don Zimmer), Pride of October: What it Was to Be Young and a Yankee (2003), and Bill Madden: My 25 Years Covering Baseball's Heroes, Scoundrels, Triumphs and Tragedies 2004 Steinbrenner: The Last Lion of Baseball (2010), "1954 - The Year Willie Mays and the First Generation of Black Superstars Changed Baseball Forever" (2014), and "Lou - -Fifty Years of Kicking Dirt, Playing Hard and Winning in the Sweet Spot of Baseball" (with Lou Piniella) (2017).
In 2010, Madden was the recipient of the baseball scribe's highest honor, the J.G. Taylor Spink Award.[3]
On September 16, 2015, Madden was laid off from the Daily News by publisher Mort Zuckerman in a cost-cutting effort that included other longtime, well-known columnists. However, two years later, Madden was brought back on a freelance basis and continues to write several columns a week.[4]
In 2016 and 2017, Madden interviewed Tom Seaver in Seaver's winery for a documentary to be aired in 2019, when Seaver was already battling the effects of lyme disease which mimicked the memory loss symptoms of dementia or Alzheimer's disease. When Seaver died in 2020, Madden wrote Tom Seaver: A Terrific Life in honor of him.[5]
A 45-year resident of Oradell, he is the son of former Councilman Charlie Madden, Councilman James Koth read from the proclamation.... Madden grew up in Oradell and graduated from Bergen Catholic High School and majored in journalism at the University of South Carolina where he was awarded a track scholarship after being a two-time New Jersey state champion in both the 100 and 220-yard dashes.
Bill Madden: ... born in 1946 and grew up in New Jersey ... graduated from Bergen Catholic High School.