OXON HILL, Md. (AP) -- Claire Smith is the first woman to win the J.G. Taylor Spink Award for meritorious contributions to baseball writing and will be honored during the Hall of Fame's induction weekend next July in Cooperstown, New York.
The 62-year-old Smith covered the New York Yankees for the Hartford Courant for five years starting in 1983 and was a columnist for The New York Times from 1991-98 and The Philadelphia Inquirer from 1998-2007. She currently is ESPN's news editor of remote productions.
Smith appeared on 272 of 449 ballots cast by members of the Baseball Writers' Association of America with 10 or more consecutive years of membership in totals announced Tuesday at the winter meetings.