APSE Red Smith Award winners

[Kayaugstin Kott]

The death of Edwin Pope (1989 recipient of the Red Smith Award) had me thinking about which writers may be due to receive the honor.

Recent recipients are:
2015, Bob Ryan
2014, Wendell Smith (posthumous)
2013, Dan Jenkins
2012, Frank Deford
2011, Bill Millsaps
2010, Mitch Albom
2009, Vince Doria
2008, W.C. Heinz
2007, Van McKenzie

Many household names in the world of sports writing.

Rick Reilly? Joe Posnanski? Bill Plaschke? Peter King or the guys from PTI? Chris Mortensen or Tom Verducci?

In all likelihood, I feel like those writing regularly today are not as likely to receive the award, which is sort of a lifetime achievement prize.

 

[Moderator1]

Leigh Montville in 2016, right? I think anyway, I could be wrong

 

[Fran Curci]

Bill Plaschke? Rick Telander (taking into account his famed book, SI, Sun-Times). How about the hugely accomplished John Schulian?

 

[Michael_ Gee]

Bill Plaschke? Rick Telander (taking into account his famed book, SI, Sun-Times). How about the hugely accomplished John Schulian?

John would be a great winner.

 

[Dick Whitman]

The death of Edwin Pope (1989 recipient of the Red Smith Award) had me thinking about which writers may be due to receive the honor.

Recent recipients are:
2015, Bob Ryan
2014, Wendell Smith (posthumous)
2013, Dan Jenkins
2012, Frank Deford
2011, Bill Millsaps
2010, Mitch Albom
2009, Vince Doria
2008, W.C. Heinz
2007, Van McKenzie

Many household names in the world of sports writing.

Rick Reilly? Joe Posnanski? Bill Plaschke? Peter King or the guys from PTI? Chris Mortensen or Tom Verducci?

In all likelihood, I feel like those writing regularly today are not as likely to receive the award, which is sort of a lifetime achievement prize.

Tom Verducci covers baseball for Sports Illustrated while collecting a paycheck from Major League Baseball. You could hold a dual ceremony in which Kellyanne Conway also receives the Pulitzer Prize.

 

[playthrough]

I got out of the sports biz at the end of 2016 after almost 20 years, took a job with my alma mater. Reported to a room at the student center for orientation my first week -- the APSE Hall of Fame room, which I had no idea existed on campus. Plaques for all the APSE presidents lined one wall, all the Red Smith Award recipients on another wall -- a whole lot of people that inspired me, and there I was, starting a new life outside of sports. Just struck me as funny.

 

[Fran Curci]

Tom Verducci covers baseball for Sports Illustrated while collecting a paycheck from Major League Baseball. You could hold a dual ceremony in which Kellyanne Conway also receives the Pulitzer Prize.

Verdict does a heck of a job.

 

[Dick Whitman]

Verdict does a heck of a job.

He covers a league and also takes a paycheck from it. Unacceptable.

 

[Fran Curci]

It's not ideal, but what about every person who works for ESPN? They certainly are paid indirectly by the leagues. Can you trust Michael Wilbon? Bob Ryan? Jason Stark?

 

[Michael_ Gee]

I don't share deck's opinion, but there is a significant difference between working for a rightsholder and working for the organization that sells said rights.

 

[Dick Whitman]

I don't share deck's opinion.

Maybe the New Yorker can hire Sean Spicer then. How is it different?

It's a travesty that Verducci draws an MLB paycheck. And it's a travesty of absolutely Biblical proportions that he's allowed to do so and Sports Illustrated does not note it in his pieces.

I have brought this up before: A couple years ago, he wrote a wet kiss about how MLB's drug-testing program is working swimmingly, and he savaged the testing programs in other sports, in particular the NFL, in doing so. In the pages of SI.

How the fork is that permitted to happen?

 

[Dick Whitman]

It's not ideal, but what about every person who works for ESPN? They certainly are paid indirectly by the leagues. Can you trust Michael Wilbon? Bob Ryan? Jason Stark?

What Gee said, Also, it's not really a secret that ESPN is a rights holder. When I read an ESPN piece on college basketball, football, the NFL, etc., I'm well aware that ESPN has a relationship with them. Wright Thompson is a fantastic writer, for example. But he's essentially positioned the same way that, say, Troy Aikman is. (Assuming Aikman is employed by Fox, not the NFL. I'm not sure how the relationship is set up.) ESPN is allowed to have content. It's not necessarily a conflict of interest, because it's transparent.

Sports Illustrated, on the other hand, has no rights relationship with MLB. Verducci is simply allowed to merrily write love letters, then turn around and work for the league. It's a joke.