NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. - Claire Smith didn’t just help open baseball clubhouses to female journalists. She fought those battles and also helped other women and people of color as they established themselves in the profession.
Her contributions to baseball writing throughout her 40 years in the business extend far beyond her newspaper career, and now she’ll take her rightful place among the immortals at the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum.
Smith added another major milestone to her pioneering resume on Tuesday morning when she became the first woman to win the National Baseball Hall of Fame’s prestigious J.