Jayson Stark wins Hall of Fame's J.G. Taylor Spink Award
Veteran baseball scribe Jayson Stark has been named winner of the National Baseball Hall of Fame’s J.G. Taylor Spink Award. Photo Credit: Twitter
December 11, 2018
Official National Baseball Hall of Fame Press Release
JAYSON STARK WINS J.G. TAYLOR SPINK AWARD
Jayson Stark, who for more than four decades has exhibited passion and humor in equal measure in his baseball coverage, was elected the 2019 winner of the J.G. Taylor Spink Award in balloting by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America.
He will be honored with the award that is presented annually to a sportswriter “for meritorious contributions to baseball writing” during the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum’s induction weekend July 19-22, 2019, in Cooperstown, N.Y.
Stark received 270 votes from the 463 ballots, including two blanks, cast by BBWAA members with 10 or more consecutive years’ service in becoming the 70th winner of the award since its inception in 1962 and named for the first recipient. Spink was a driving force of the Sporting News, known during his lifetime as the “Baseball Bible.”
Jim Reeves, an award-winning columnist and baseball writer in a 40-year career with the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, received 111 votes. Patrick Reusse, who has spent the better part of 44 years writing about baseball in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul, got 80.
Now writing for The Athletic and appearing regularly on MLB Network, Stark made his mark in Philadelphia for 21 years as a Phillies beat writer and national baseball columnist for the Inquirer and nationally for 17 years as senior baseball writer at ESPN.com. His popular “Baseball Week in Review” is a master example of that baseball writing staple – the notes column – in which Jayson has been a curator for all things weird, wacky, unique, statistically inclined and historically rare in the game.
Stark is equally at home in long-form writing and has authored three books, “Wild Pitches: Rumblings, Grumblings and Reflections on the Game I Love”; “Worth the Wait: Tales of the 2008 Phillies” and “The Stark Truth: The Most Overrated and Underrated Players in Baseball History”. The Syracuse University graduate had his first taste of big-league coverage for the Providence Journal on the Boston Red Sox beat before returning to his home town to cover the Phillies, including their first World Series championship in 1980. Twice named Pennsylvania Sportswriter of the Year and an Emmy Award winner for his work on ESPN’s “Baseball Tonight,” Jayson was honored by Topps in 2017 with his own baseball card.
Previous Spink Award Recipients
2018 Sheldon Ocker
2017 Claire Smith
2016 Dan Shaughnessy
2015 Tom Gage
2014 Roger Angell
2013 Paul Hagen
2012 Bob Elliott
2011 Bill Conlin
2010 Bill Madden
2009 Nick Peters
2008 Larry Whiteside
2006 Rick Hummel
2005 Tracy Ringolsby
2004 Peter Gammons
2003 Murray Chass
2002 Hal McCoy
2001 Joe Fall
2000 Ross Newhan
1999 Hal Lebovitz
1998 Bob Stevens
1997 Sam Lacy
1996 Charley Feeney
1995 Joseph Durso
1993 Wendell Smith
1992 Leonard Koppett, Bus Saidt
1991 Ritter Collett
1990 Phil Collier
1989 Jerome Holtzman
1988 Bob Hunter, Ray Kelly
1987 Jim Murray
1986 Jack Lang
1985 Earl Lawson
1984 Joe McGuff
1983 Ken Smith
1982 Si Burick
1981 Bob Addie, Allen Lewis
1980 Joe Reichler, Milton Richman
1979 Bob Broeg, Tommy Holmes
1978 Tim Murnane, Dick Young
1977 Gordon Cobbledick, Edgar Munzel
1976 Harold Kaese, Red Smith
1975 Tom Meany, Shirley Povich
1974 John Carmichael, James Isaminger
1973 Warren Brown, John Drebinger, John F. Kieran
1972 Dan Daniel, Fred Lieb, J. Roy Stockton
1971 Frank Graham
1970 Heywood C. Broun
1969 Sid Mercer
1968 H.G. Salsinger
1967 Damon Runyon
1966 Grantland Rice
1965 Charles Dryden
1964 Hugh Fullerton
1963 Ring Lardner
1962 J.G. Taylor Spink.