Claire Smith, a former Hartford Courant New York Yankees beat writer, has won the J.G Taylor Spink Award. It is a top honor for baseball writers.
Smith, who now works for ESPN, is the first African-American woman to cover Major League Baseball on a daily basis. The award is presented during Hall of Fame induction weekend in Cooperstown in July.
From ESPN:
Smith was given a standing ovation when her election was announced, and she asked the other half dozen women in the room to stand alongside her as she spoke.
Her voice quavering, Smith thanked “the guys that stood up to the athletes and teams and said that we are your peers and we deserve to be treated like you.
“I want to thank you as well as the women who walked the walk and fought the battles and got all of us to this point,” she said. “No one does this by themselves.”
