The BBWAA Career Excellence Award, formerly the J. G. Taylor Spink Award, is the highest award given by the Baseball Writers' Association of America (BBWAA). It is given "for meritorious contributions to baseball writing" and voted on annually by the BBWAA.[1] Winners are typically announced in December, with the award presented during induction festivities of the Baseball Hall of Fame in July.

Quick Facts Sport, Awarded for ...
BBWAA Career Excellence Award
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J. G. Taylor Spink, the award's first recipient and former namesake
SportBaseball
Awarded for"Meritorious contributions to baseball writing"
LocationNational Baseball Hall of Fame
Cooperstown, New York
Presented byBaseball Writers' Association of America (BBWAA)
History
First award1962
First winnerJ. G. Taylor Spink
Most recentGerry Fraley (2024)
WebsiteOfficial website
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Winners of the award are not members of the Hall. They are not "inducted" or "enshrined." They are not "Hall of Fame sportswriters." There is no "writers' wing of the Hall of Fame." But winners are permanently recognized in an exhibit at the Hall's library.

The award was instituted in 1962 and named after J. G. Taylor Spink, publisher of The Sporting News from 1914 to 1962, and the award's first recipient. In February 2021, the BBWAA voted to remove his name from the award "due to Spink’s troubled history in supporting segregated baseball."[1][2][3]

Eligibility

The honoree does not have to be a member of the Baseball Writers' Association of America (BBWAA), but every recipient from the award's 1962 inception through 2013 had been a BBWAA member at some time. The first recipient who had never been a BBWAA member was 2014 recipient Roger Angell.[4] Despite having written on baseball for more than a half-century, Angell never worked a specific baseball writing beat, thereby making him ineligible for BBWAA membership.

Veterans Committee role

For several years in the early 2000s, honorees became life members of the Veterans Committee, which elects players whose eligibility for BBWAA consideration has ended, and is also the sole body that elects non-players for induction into the Hall. Starting with elections for induction in 2008, voting on the main Veterans Committee, which then selected only players whose careers began in 1943 or later, was restricted to Hall of Fame members. After further changes announced for the 2011 and 2017 elections, BBWAA Career Excellence Award winners are eligible to serve on all of the era-based voting bodies that succeeded the Veterans Committee (and are still colloquially referred to as such).

Recipients

Through 2006, the BBWAA designated honorees based on the announcement year (typically in December). In the below table, winners through 2006 are listed with both their announcement year, and their induction ceremony year (the ensuing summer). In 2007, the BBWAA changed the year designation for the award to coincide with the induction ceremony. Thus, while the official BBWAA year designations jump from 2006 to 2008, the award has been bestowed annually since inception, except for one year missed due to the 1994–95 Major League Baseball strike.

From 1972 through 1981, there were multiple honorees each year. This again occurred in 1988 and 1992. Since that time, there has been a single winner each year.

Through 2010, the award was presented during the actual induction ceremony; since then, it has been presented at the Hall of Fame awards presentation, held the day before the induction ceremony. In recent years, the Hall of Fame has announced the finalists for the award and final vote totals. Previously, such detail was not made public, with only the winner announced.

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1963 recipient Ring Lardner
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1967 recipient Damon Runyon
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1975 recipient Shirley Povich
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2004 recipient Peter Gammons
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2014 recipient Roger Angell
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2019 recipient Jayson Stark
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2022 recipient Tim Kurkjian
More information Year, Honoree ...
Year Honoree Beat Ref.
Name Born Died
1962 (1963) J. G. Taylor Spink 18881962 St. Louis [5]
1963 (1964) Ring Lardner 18851933 Chicago [6]
1964 (1965) Hugh Fullerton 18731945 Chicago [7]
1965 (1966) Charles Dryden 18601931 Chicago [8]
1966 (1967) Grantland Rice 18801954 New York City [9]
1967 (1968) Damon Runyon 18801946 New York City [10]
1968 (1969) H. G. Salsinger 18851958 Detroit [11]
1969 (1970) Sid Mercer 18801945 New York City [12]
1970 (1971) Heywood Broun 18881939 New York City [13]
1971 (1972) Frank Graham 18931965 New York City [14]
1972 (1973) Dan Daniel 18901981 New York City [15]
Fred Lieb 18881980 New York City [16]
J. Roy Stockton 18921972 St. Louis [17]
1973 (1974) Warren Brown 18941978 Chicago [18]
John Drebinger 18911979 New York City [19]
John Kieran 18921981 New York City [20]
1974 (1975) John Carmichael 19021986 Chicago [21]
James Isaminger 18801946 Philadelphia [22]
1975 (1976) Tom Meany 19031964 New York City [23]
Shirley Povich 19051998 Washington, D.C. [24]
1976 (1977) Harold Kaese 19091975 Boston [25]
Red Smith 19051982 New York City [26]
1977 (1978) Gordon Cobbledick 18981969 Cleveland [27]
Edgar Munzel 19072002 Chicago [28]
1978 (1979) Tim Murnane 18511917 Boston [29]
Dick Young 19171987 New York City [30]
1979 (1980) Bob Broeg 19182005 St. Louis [31]
Tommy Holmes 19031975 New York City [32]
1980 (1981) Joe Reichler 19151988 New York City [33]
Milton Richman 19221986 New York City [34]
1981 (1982) Allen Lewis 19162003 Philadelphia [35]
Bob Addie 19101982 Washington, D.C. [36]
1982 (1983) Si Burick 19091986 Dayton, Ohio [37]
1983 (1984) Ken Smith 19021991 New York City [38]
1984 (1985) Joe McGuff 19262006 Kansas City, Missouri [39]
1985 (1986) Earl Lawson 19232003 Cincinnati [40]
1986 (1987) Jack Lang 19212007 New York City [41]
1987 (1988) Jim Murray 19191998 Los Angeles [42]
1988 (1989) Bob Hunter 19131993 Los Angeles [43]
Ray Kelly 19141988 Philadelphia [44]
1989 (1990) Jerome Holtzman 19262008 Chicago [45]
1990 (1991) Phil Collier 19252001 San Diego [46]
1991 (1992) Ritter Collett 19212001 Dayton, Ohio [47]
1992 (1993) Leonard Koppett 19232003 New York City [48]
Bus Saidt 19201989 Philadelphia [49]
1993 (1994) Wendell Smith 19141972 Pittsburgh [50]
1994 (1995) (not presented)  
1995 (1996) Joe Durso 19242004 New York City [51]
1996 (1997) Charley Feeney 19242014 New York City [52]
1997 (1998) Sam Lacy 19032003 Washington, D.C. [53]
1998 (1999) Bob Stevens 19162002 San Francisco [54]
1999 (2000) Hal Lebovitz 19162005 Cleveland [55]
2000 (2001) Ross Newhan 1937 Los Angeles [56]
2001 (2002) Joe Falls 19282004 Detroit [57]
2002 (2003) Hal McCoy 1940 Dayton, Ohio [58]
2003 (2004) Murray Chass 1938 New York City [59]
2004 (2005) Peter Gammons 1945 Boston [60]
2005 (2006) Tracy Ringolsby 1951 Seattle, Kansas City, Dallas, Denver [61]
2006 (2007) Rick Hummel 19462023 St. Louis [62]
2008 Larry Whiteside 19372007 Kansas City, Milwaukee, Boston [63]
2009 Nick Peters 19392015 San Francisco [64]
2010 Bill Madden 1946 New York City [65]
2011 Bill Conlin 19342014 Philadelphia [66]
2012 Bob Elliott 1949 Montreal / Toronto [67]
2013 Paul Hagen c. 1950 Dallas–Fort Worth / Philadelphia [68]
2014 Roger Angell 19202022 The New Yorker [69]
2015 Tom Gage 1948 Detroit [70]
2016 Dan Shaughnessy 1953 Baltimore, Boston [71]
2017 Claire Smith c. 1954 New York City [72]
2018 Sheldon Ocker 1942 Akron, Ohio [73]
2019 Jayson Stark 1951 Philadelphia [74]
2020 Nick Cafardo 19562019 Boston [75]
2021 Dick Kaegel c. 1940 St. Louis, Kansas City [76]
2022 Tim Kurkjian 1956 Dallas, Baltimore, Sports Illustrated, ESPN.com [77]
2023 John Lowe c. 1959 Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Detroit [78]
2024 Gerry Fraley 19542019 Dallas, Atlanta, The Sporting News [79]
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Notes

This award should not be confused with the Topps Minor League Player of the Year Award, which was also known as the "J. G. Taylor Spink Award".

See also

References

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