December 16, 2024

Baseball Canada

The Bob Elliott Media Recognition Award is named after Bob Elliott, a former winner (2012) of the BBWAA Career Excellence Award, the highest award given by the Baseball Writers' Association of America (BBWAA), presented annually by the National Baseball Hall of Fame. Elliott covered both the Montréal Expos and Toronto Blue Jays during a distinguished career that spanned four decades, but it’s Bob’s long-lasting contributions to Canadian baseball and raising the profile of Canadians in the game and telling their stories which has resulted in this award being named after him. The Kingston, Ontario native’s Canadian Baseball Network website has been a go-to source for information for years from Canadian baseball sandlots all the way to the big leagues. When a Canadian reaches the majors, chances are the Canadian baseball community read about them years earlier via Elliott and the Canadian Baseball Network. His coverage of Canadian prospects eligible for the annual MLB Draft has must read material for years while his annual Top 100 Most Influential Canadians in Baseball list has provided deserved recognition for many year-over-year. It’s through Bob’s work that he’s forged relationships across Canada allowing him to tell great Canadian baseball stories to this very day.

Very few in the province of Québec cover baseball with the knowledge and passion of this journalist who brings baseball stories from La belle province to readers of Le Journal de Montréal. Baseball Canada is thrilled to announce that Benoît Rioux is the recipient of the Bob Elliott Media Recognition Award for 2024.

A graduate of Cégep de Jonquiére, Rioux began his career as a statistician covering the National Hockey League (NHL) and Major League Baseball (MLB) for TVA Sports before being hired as a sports journalist by the QMI Agency in 2011. He has also penned books on Canadian baseball legends Russell Martin and the late Derek Aucoin.

The Montréal Alouettes (Canadian Football League) and the storied Montréal Canadiens (NHL) are part of Rioux’s regular coverage with ‘le journal” but baseball, from the sandlots in Québec to the big leagues, provide baseball enthusiasts with in-depth coverage on a regular basis.

When "Expos Fest," which took place in Laval last April, a celebration of the Montreal Expos, featuring a gathering of former players and figures who were iconic during the team's history, Rioux, was there to share stories of the 1994 team and their legendary manager Felipe Alou.

Rioux also told stories of the four Québecers (Édouard Julien, Charles Leblanc, Otto Lopez and Abraham Toro) who played in the big leagues in 2024 in what was a banner year for the province.

An active player himself, Rioux and twenty of his closest buddies from the Montréal suburb of Ste Julie made the trek to the hallowed grounds of the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York in May where they played at Doubleday Field with Rioux chronicling the journey.

Regular Frontier League coverage of both the Trois-Riviéres Aigles and Québec Capitales along with international coverage of the Women’s Baseball World Cup in Thunder Bay were highlights for Rioux in 2024.

In March 2023, Rioux was in Arizona at Team Canada’s training camp and the first round of the World Baseball Classic where he provided words for Le Journal and also had the chance to meet Bob Elliott.

Elliott, the person behind the name of this award had this to say about Rioux:

"My friends always tell me that Le Journal de Montréal has set the standard for baseball coverage in Montréal. Serge Touchette covered the Montréal Expos from Year two until their departure. But the province's passion for the game did not die when Les Expos departed for Washington DC. And Benoit stepped into Serge's shoes.

"Benoit has provided blanket coverage of the sport from Québec players in the majors, to the Québec Capitales dominating the Frontier League, to Québec players in the July draft, to Women's World Cup, to Expos Fest, to the ABC and the best of the Québec Junior League (LBJEQ). No event was too big or too small -- if it was baseball he covered it -- like a tarpaulin. "

Bob Elliott Media Recognition Award recipients:

2020-Mike Wilner
2021-Alexis Brudnicki
2022-Kevin Glew
2023-Shi Davidi 
2024-Benoit Rioux