APSE Red Smith Award winners

[Dick Whitman]

The APSE should give him the award, though. They let the guy a few years ago judge the APSE writing and section contest after he was already working for MLB. Everyone here said he was a good guy, a guy you'd love to have a beer with, so it was fine.

 

[LanceyHoward]

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. (ashuming 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.

I think most announcers on national broadcasts work for the rights holder but have to be approved by the league. For example, Mike Tirico was hired by NBC but the NFL would not him let allow to do Thursday night football because they preferred Michaels.

One could argue that if a sportswriter like Thompson works for ESPN and his ashignments are not dependent on someone he covers. I doubt any league has any influence on Thompson's ashignments or copy. But I wonder about someone like Reilly, who worked the Monday night post-games for ESPN.

 

[Della9250]

Big year for Thomas Boswell. Wins the Red Smith Award in addition to Baseball Hall of Fame Career Excellence Award.

 

[Michael_ Gee]

He deserves them.