Boston Globe baseball writer Nick Cafardo dies at 62

FORT MYERS, FLA. >> Boston Globe baseball writer Nick Cafardo, who covered the Red Sox and the rest of the sport for more than three decades, died Thursday after collapsing outside the team’s spring training clubhouse. He was 62.

The newspaper said Cafardo appeared to have an embolism. The team’s medical staff responded quickly but was unable to revive him.

“The world is darker today without (at)nickcafardo. His fairness, love for the game and great heart made fans of us all,” baseball starturned-broadcaster Alex Rodriguez wrote on Twitter . “We will miss you from field to booth, Nick.”

The Red Sox said they were saddened by Cafardo’s death and would find the appropriate time to honor his legacy.

“For over three decades, Nick was a fixture at Fenway Park and throughout ballparks across the country. His coverage was as consistent as the game itself,” the team said in a statement. “The Cafardo family will always be a part of the Boston baseball family.”

Cafardo joined the Globe in 1989 from The (Quincy) Patriot Ledger, where he had been on the baseball beat. He continued to cover the Red Sox before switching to the New England Patriots in time for the team’s first NFL championship, in 2001.

He returned to baseball and has covered the Red Sox and the major leagues for the past 15 years, writing a Sunday notes package and an “On Baseball” column that kept New England’s fervent baseball fans in touch with their team and the rest of the major leagues.

“Nick Cafardo was a man whose talent, enthusiasm, and contribution to Boston’s sports coverage was incomparable and something that I always enjoyed reading,” Boston Mayor Marty Walsh tweeted.

Cafardo collapsed on the sidewalk between the ballpark and the batting cages where players were work-