NomarFan5
12-13-2004, 02:36 AM
ANAHEIM -- Peter Gammons, the longtime baseball writer for the Boston Globe and now a baseball analyst for ESPN, was elected as the 2004 J.G. Taylor Spink Award winner by the Baseball Writers Association of America.
He'll be presented with the award at the annual Hall of Fame induction ceremonies this summer and then be honored in the writers' wing of baseball's most hallowed museum.
Gammons was one of three candidates and received votes on 248 of the 448 ballots cast by BBWAA members with more than 10 consecutive years of baseball writing experience. Tracy Ringolsby, who covers the Colorado Rockies for The Rocky Mountain News, finished second, while the late Vern Plagenhoef, who covered the Detroit Tigers for the Booth Newspaper Group, finished third.
"To me it's the greatest honor I've ever had in my life," Gammons said after the announcement on Sunday during a BBWAA session at MLB's annual Winter Meetings. "I may have been associated with ESPN for the last 10 years or so, but first and foremost I'm a baseball writer. I go about television in the same way as when I was writing running on a game story or writing two stories a day for the Globe. That's what I'm most proud of. That's who I am."
Gammons joined the Boston Globe staff in 1969 and became a BBWAA member three years later. His full-page Sunday baseball notes column set the tone for a generation of baseball writers, whose papers followed by instituting similar Sunday notes formats.
A native of Massachusetts, Gammons was voted National Sportswriter of the Year in 1989, 1990 and 1993 by the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association. His election as this year's Spink Award winner, won last year by Murray Chass of the New York Times, came on the heels of New England's beloved Red Sox winning their first World Series title in 86 years.
"It's been a great year for Boston," said Jack O'Connell, the BBWAA secretary-treasurer, in announcing that Gammons had won the award.
Gammons has also written for Sports Illustrated and ESPN the Magazine. He can be seen daily on ESPN adding his particular opinionated style to shows like Baseball Tonight and SportsCenter. With his myriad Major League Baseball contacts, he has become one of the regular voices to listen to for newsy notes and rumors spun from the marvelous mill that swirls around the sport.
"I was lucky," he said. "I got an opportunity at the age of 24 to start covering. The Globe treated me great. Living in New England, I still run into people all the time, who think I'm not only with ESPN, but still writing for the Boston Globe, even though I haven't been working there fulltime for almost 20 years. To me, that's really something."
He'll be presented with the award at the annual Hall of Fame induction ceremonies this summer and then be honored in the writers' wing of baseball's most hallowed museum.
Gammons was one of three candidates and received votes on 248 of the 448 ballots cast by BBWAA members with more than 10 consecutive years of baseball writing experience. Tracy Ringolsby, who covers the Colorado Rockies for The Rocky Mountain News, finished second, while the late Vern Plagenhoef, who covered the Detroit Tigers for the Booth Newspaper Group, finished third.
"To me it's the greatest honor I've ever had in my life," Gammons said after the announcement on Sunday during a BBWAA session at MLB's annual Winter Meetings. "I may have been associated with ESPN for the last 10 years or so, but first and foremost I'm a baseball writer. I go about television in the same way as when I was writing running on a game story or writing two stories a day for the Globe. That's what I'm most proud of. That's who I am."
Gammons joined the Boston Globe staff in 1969 and became a BBWAA member three years later. His full-page Sunday baseball notes column set the tone for a generation of baseball writers, whose papers followed by instituting similar Sunday notes formats.
A native of Massachusetts, Gammons was voted National Sportswriter of the Year in 1989, 1990 and 1993 by the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association. His election as this year's Spink Award winner, won last year by Murray Chass of the New York Times, came on the heels of New England's beloved Red Sox winning their first World Series title in 86 years.
"It's been a great year for Boston," said Jack O'Connell, the BBWAA secretary-treasurer, in announcing that Gammons had won the award.
Gammons has also written for Sports Illustrated and ESPN the Magazine. He can be seen daily on ESPN adding his particular opinionated style to shows like Baseball Tonight and SportsCenter. With his myriad Major League Baseball contacts, he has become one of the regular voices to listen to for newsy notes and rumors spun from the marvelous mill that swirls around the sport.
"I was lucky," he said. "I got an opportunity at the age of 24 to start covering. The Globe treated me great. Living in New England, I still run into people all the time, who think I'm not only with ESPN, but still writing for the Boston Globe, even though I haven't been working there fulltime for almost 20 years. To me, that's really something."