Stark wins Spink Award for baseball writing

Longtime baseball writer Jayson Stark has been honored as the 2019 J.G. Taylor Spink Award winner, the Baseball Writers' Association of America announced Tuesday.
The Spink Award annually recognizes a sportswriter who has made "meritorious contributions to baseball writing." Stark, who currently writes for The Athletic and works as an MLB Network studio analyst, will be recognized during Hall of Fame induction weekend in Cooperstown, N.Y., this coming July.
Stark is the 70th winner of the Spink Award, which is voted on by BBWAA members who have been in the organization for at least 10 consecutive years. He received 270 votes out of the 463 ballots cast this year.

Stark has covered baseball for more than four decades, both as a beat writer and a national writer. He wrote for the Philadelphia Inquirer for more than two decades from 1979-99, covering the Phillies and serving as a national baseball columnist. Stark then spent 2000-17 at ESPN as a senior national baseball writer before joining The Athletic.
This year's runner-up for the award was Fort Worth Star-Telegram columnist and baseball writer Jim Reeves. Minnesota baseball writer Patrick Reusse finished third in the voting.
The Spink Award was first given in 1962 and is named for its inaugural recipient, Spink, the publisher of The Sporting News from 1914 until his death in '62, upon which the award was established. Last year's winner was Sheldon Ocker, who covered the Indians for the Akron Beacon Journal from 1981-2013.