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.