Claire Smith, the first African-American female newspaper reporter to cover major league baseball on a daily basis, has won the J.G. Taylor Spink Award, the top honor for a baseball writer.
The Spink Award goes to a writer for "meritorious contributions to baseball writing" and is presented during Hall of Fame Weekend. The announcement was made Tuesday during the winter meetings.
Smith represented the New York chapter of the Baseball Writers Association of America.
Smith currently is a coordinating editor for ESPN's universal news group, with an emphasis on baseball. She previously worked as a reporter for the Hartford Courant, as a national baseball columnist at The New York Times and as a columnist for The Philadelphia Inquirer.