UTK Special 11/16/23

Future Spinks, Future Homes, Future Changes

My piece from last week, stating that I believe the Baseball Prospectus founders should be considered for the Hall of Fame, brought up some interesting questions from readers. One that really caught my interest was who else I believed should be considered for the J.G. Taylor Spinks … oh wait, the BBWAA Career Excellence Award. One reason I said that the Prospectus founders would need to be nominated under the Buck O’Neill banner is that none of them were members, though Christina Kahrl later was (and I think still is.) Later writers, including myself, were or are members.

However, the question remains - who of current baseball writers deserves that recognition in the near future? The list is largely really good, even when I disagree with someone who’s been so honored. A highlight of my career was walking around with Peter Gammons on the day he won the award. I can remember Jon Daniels congratulating him and Peter, being humble, but clearly thrilled.

With people like Gammons, Tim Kurkjian, Tracy Ringolsby, and Jayson Stark already honored, I first just went through my mental list before consulting a longer list of current members.

The first two names are absolute no-brainers and I’m legitimately surprised they’re not on the list: Tom Verducci and Ken Rosenthal. Both are active, among the best known, best sourced, and best respected writers in baseball. Both have transferred to TV for much of their work, but I can’t see how anyone who works in baseball could make a single argument against these two. If they became the next two nominees, I think it’d be deserved and even late.

The late Jim Caple, so recently taken from us, should definitely be considered. I’d say the same for his former ESPN colleague Rob Neyer. From the 1990’s to today, both those were among the “internet first” writers that should get heavy consideration. I will argue that Jerry Crasnick, another ESPN colleague, should get consideration and add Buster Olney to the WWL list also.

In another tier, I’d put people like Richard Justice, Bernie Miklasz, Ron Blum, Joe Posnanski, and Susan Slusser as more traditional-type picks, while wondering if Derrick Goold, C Trent Rosecrans, and Tyler Kepner are too young, though certainly on the path to recognition. I’d argue they’re already there and I’d like to see more people honored during their careers for many awards, even if they have years of career excellence ahead of them.

At some point, with MLB.com now being recognized as members, one of them will be the first to get the recognition. There’s a number who could be that one, though I think the first will likely be someone like Mark Feinsand who came over from a long newspaper career, though there’s several others who fit that pattern and are also deserving. I hope that some, like Matthew Leach or Brittany Ghiroli (now at the Athletic) get recognition after being MLB.com “lifers.” Add Jim Callis and Jonathan Mayo to that list, as prospect writers deserve someone from their ranks to pave a path for them, though I’m not sure if either are members.

Further down the line, internet first writers like Jay Jaffe, Eno Sarris, and David Laurila deserve consideration but as peers, I have a mental bias. They must be too young, right? Again, I don’t think age should be a major consideration if the work to support it has been done and these three have, for decades now and hopefully decades more. Giving them another award to add to the by-line would be great.

If the BBWAA is going to give one of these out a year, we can go for decades without running out of names, and there’s more coming. Baseball isn’t boring, or dying, and neither is baseball writing. It’s a far different game now, just as the sport they cover is changing and evolving. Bloggers are now creators, newspapers are dying even more swiftly, and who knows what will happen to even giants like ESPN if it’s spun off from Disney into its own streaming whirlpool. The game isn’t going to cover itself, robots and AI aren’t going to take all the jobs, and even if they do, we’ll still have plenty of writers that should get a plaque for the work they’ve done.

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