Peter Gammons, who in many ways defined baseball coverage both in print and on the airwaves for 35 years, was elected the 2004 winner of the J.G. Taylor Spink Award in balloting by the BBWAA. Gammons will receive the award that is presented annually to a sportswriter "for meritorious contributions to baseball writing" during the 2005 induction ceremony July 31 at the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown, N.Y.

Gammons received 248 votes from the 448 ballots cast by BBWAA members with 10 or more consecutive years' service in becoming the 56th winner of the award since its inception in 1962 and named for the first winner, the founder of The Sporting News, known during his lifetime as the "Baseball Bible."

Tracy Ringolsby, who has covered the Colorado Rockies for the Rocky Mountain News since they entered the National League in 1993 and completed his 30th season as a baseball writer, received 134 votes. The late Vern Plagenhoef, who covered the Detroit Tigers for Michigan's Booth Newspaper Group, got 66. The candidates were selected by a BBWAA-appointed committee and announced at the All-Star Game meeting July 13 at Houston. Voting was conducted in November through a mail ballot, a process that began in 2002.

Newspaper journalist (Boston Globe), magazine writer (Sports Illustrated, ESPN Magazine), author ("Beyond the Sixth Game") and broadcaster (ESPN), Gammons has been a giant of our industry since coming out of the University of North Carolina and joining the Globe in 1969. The Groton, Mass., native quickly developed a reputation as a tireless worker, always the first to arrive at the ballpark and last to leave. Gammons' work habits and ability to find connections with even the most difficult players earned him boundless respect and allowed him to develop a vast network of sources.

Peter was voted the National Sportswriter of the Year in 1989, 1990 and 1993 by the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association and was awarded an honorary Pointer Fellow from Yale University. Gammons' passion for the game, intense interest in the minor leagues, news-breaking ability and talent for incorporating his eclectic outside interests into his writing found favor with baseball fans and made him a role model for writers.

Gammons developed the Sunday notes column, which has become a staple in sports sections. Peter writes with skill and flair in a style filled with allusions to cultural icons from Robert Frost to Warren Zevon. His effortless transition from print reporter to TV analyst can be credited for opening the door for many current baseball writers at various electronic media outlets across the continent.

While the present generation may know him best as an electronic journalist, the hallmark of Gammons' career remains his service as a print reporter. Peter has maintained that he is a newspaper reporter who happens to make a living on television. It explains why he has always had time for aspiring baseball reporters and many among our ranks today credit him in one way or another for their start or success in this business.

Previous Spink Award Recipients:
2003 Murray Chass; 2002 Hal McCoy; 2001 Joe Falls; 2000 Ross Newhan; 1999 Hal Lebovitz; 1998 Bob Stevens; 1997 Sam Lacy; 1996 Charley Feeney; 1995 Joseph Durso; 1994 No award; 1993 Wendell Smith; 1992 Leonard Koppett, Bus Saidt; 1991 Ritter Collett; 1990 Phil Collier; 1989 Jerome Holtzman; 1988 Bob Hunter, Ray Kelly; 1987 Jim Murray; 1986 Jack Lang; 1985 Earl Lawson; 1984 Joe McGuff; 1983 Ken Smith; 1982 Si Burick; 1981 Bob Addie, Allen Lewis; 1980 Joe Reichler, Milton Richman; 1979 Bob Broeg, Tommy Holmes; 1978 Tim Murnane, Dick Young; 1977 Gordon Cobbledick, Edgar Munzel; 1976 Harold Kaese, Red Smith; 1975 Tom Meany, Shirley Povich; 1974 John Carmichael, James Isaminger; 1973 Warren Brown, John Drebinger, John F. Kieran; 1972 Dan Daniel, Fred Lieb, J. Roy Stockton; 1971 Frank Graham; 1970 Heywood C. Broun; 1969 Sid Mercer; 1968 H.G. Salsinger; 1967 Damon Runyon; 1966 Grantland Rice; 1965 Charles Dryden; 1964 Hugh Fullerton; 1963 Ring Lardner; 1962 J.G. Taylor Spink.