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Tuesday, December 07, 2010

Baseball HOF: Longtime Philadelphia Writer Bill Conlin honored

Bill Conlin, whose professional career has covered half a century during which he distinguished himself as a reporter, author and television commentator with an emphasis on baseball, was elected the 2011 winner of the J.G. Taylor Spink Award in balloting by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America.

He will be honored with the award that is presented annually to a sportswriter for “meritorious contributions to baseball writing” during the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum’s Induction Weekend July 22-25 in Cooperstown, N.Y.

Conlin received 188 votes from the 434 ballots cast by BBWAA members with 10 or more consecutive years’ service. He became the 62nd winner of the award since its inception in 1962, when the award was named for its first recipient. Spink was a driving force of The Sporting News, known during his lifetime as the “Baseball Bible.”

I eagerly await the calm, thoughtful commentary from the BTF community…

AndrewJ Posted: December 07, 2010 at 04:13 PM | 31 comment(s) Login to Bookmark
Tags: hall of fame, media, phillies

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1. Repoz

Posted: December 07, 2010 at 06:49 PM (#3704987)

Congrats, Bill!

2. TerpNats Posted: December 07, 2010 at 07:02 PM (#3705011)

Congratulations. I enjoyed his writing at the Daily News for years when I lived in Philadelphia and he regularly excoriated "the Gang of Four." He also beat the drum for Ryan Howard, and probably kept the Phillies from trading him while they had Jim Thome.

I know many people here regard him as an old f--- (rhymes with art), but in his prime he was excellent, and just remember, everybody -- 30 years from now, we'll be regarded as old f---s. It's human nature.

3. Edmundo got dem ol' Kozma blues again mama

Posted: December 07, 2010 at 07:04 PM (#3705012)

I really don't care about the award per se, and Conlin's first 20 years of work may well have deserved an award of some sort but I am opposed to this because now bill1chair will be all over the local airwaves.

4. Edmundo got dem ol' Kozma blues again mama

Posted: December 07, 2010 at 07:08 PM (#3705017)

Terp, true what you say other than I don't think he has that much pull that he kept the Phils from trading Howard.

Now he is just annoying, a pompous man who thinks he invented baseball because he sat at the feet of Gene Mauch as a young pup.

I'm an old fart, but I know that I didn't invent nuttin'.

5. rr

Posted: December 07, 2010 at 07:13 PM (#3705025)

In the pic with the article, Conlin looks like a severely pissed-off Santa Claus.

6. Edmundo got dem ol' Kozma blues again mama

Posted: December 07, 2010 at 07:18 PM (#3705033)

#5, that's exactly how he sounds these days.

7. bads85 Posted: December 07, 2010 at 07:20 PM (#3705035)

In the pic with the article, Conlin looks like a severely pissed-off Santa Claus.

I was thinking a convicted, unremorseful child molester, which I guess is kind of the same thing.

8. Pat Rapper's Delight (as quoted on MLB Network) Posted: December 07, 2010 at 07:30 PM (#3705047)

In the pic with the article,

Nice wig.

9. BDC

Posted: December 07, 2010 at 07:30 PM (#3705049)

Conlin wrote some of the best game stories about the Schmidt/Carlton era Phillies: he could take the bare facts of a game and write literate, rueful narratives. (Most of the time, there was a lot to be rueful about :) He certainly deserves the Spink Award, and if he checks in here to see what we make of it, I say, congratulations, Bill!

10. Bob Tufts Posted: December 07, 2010 at 08:44 PM (#3705145)

The BBWAA ignored Conlin's past comment about Hitler wiping out bloggers and another racially insenstive comment caught on tape. I guess the scribes would have also voted for Rick Sanchez and/or Helen Thomas if they were on the ballot.

I would have given him the Murray Chass Award in lieu of the Spink.

11. Crispix Attacksel Rios Posted: December 07, 2010 at 08:56 PM (#3705158)

Of course it's unacceptable that the BBWAA would ignore one sentence Conlin said at some point in favor of his 30 years of interesting articles [plus 10 recent years of baffling bilge] and status as a beloved local figure and inspiration to many. But I don't think you're right to suggest that it was ONLY the fact that he made a vaguely racist statement that made him eligible for this award. It was definitely mostly because of the baseball writing.

Pissed-off Santa Claus, eh? I think we know who [if he was younger] should star in One Chair: The Bill Conlin Story.

12. ERROR---Jolly Old St. Nick

Posted: December 07, 2010 at 09:04 PM (#3705160)

If it only took 188 out of 434 votes to elect Conlin, they were probably going to elect somebody, and the only other two writers on the ballot were Bob Elliott of the Toronto Sun and Joe Giuliotti of the Boston Herald. What's the dirt on those two? Are they really any better?

I would have loved to have seen Elliott win, and then have someone note that he voted for Sabathia for the 2010 CYA. That would have made for an interesting thread.

13. TerpNats Posted: December 07, 2010 at 09:22 PM (#3705175)

I would have loved to have seen Elliott win, and then have someone note that he voted for Sabathia for the 2010 CYA. That would have made for an interesting thread.

Had he voted for Price (or anyone else other than Felix Hernandez), would it have been any different? Or is the criteria CC's Yankeeness?

14. Ron Johnson Posted: December 07, 2010 at 09:22 PM (#3705176)

#12 I like Elliott. My experience is that he argues in good faith and seems to enjoy a good back and forth with a reader. He's never been all that interested in publishing a party line either.

But I can't honestly see what would make him worthy of a major award.

15. Padgett Posted: December 07, 2010 at 09:26 PM (#3705180)

I love how the BBWAA members engage in ridiculous behavior even when voting for their own colleagues:

. . . Three blank ballots were among those submitted.

16. ERROR---Jolly Old St. Nick

Posted: December 07, 2010 at 09:54 PM (#3705204)

I would have loved to have seen Elliott win, and then have someone note that he voted for Sabathia for the 2010 CYA. That would have made for an interesting thread.

Had he voted for Price (or anyone else other than Felix Hernandez), would it have been any different? Or is the criteria CC's Yankeeness?

The point wasn't whom he voted for, but whom he didn't vote for (meaning Hernandez), in light of the general opinions expressed in all those pre-CYA threads. That's what would have made an Elliott award interesting, and probably not too popular.

(Although for all I know Conlin might have voted for Jack Morris. So it's all relative....)

17. Bob Tufts Posted: December 07, 2010 at 10:06 PM (#3705214)

“The only positive thing I can think of about Hitler's time on earth - I'm sure he would have eliminated all bloggers. In Colonial times, bloggers were called "Pamphleteers." They hung on street corners handing them out to passersby. Now, they hang out on electronic street corners, hoping somebody mouses on to their pretentious sites. Different medium, same MO. Shakespeare accidentally summed up the genre best with these words from a MacBeth soliloquy: ". . .a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing. . ."

BBWAA award winner Bill Conlin

18. SoSHially Unacceptable Posted: December 07, 2010 at 10:18 PM (#3705224)

Well, as tempting as it is to reduce his career to a stupid e-mail response to Crashburn, I don't have it in me. Congrats to Conlin.

19. bads85 Posted: December 07, 2010 at 10:18 PM (#3705225)

In Colonial times, bloggers were called "Pamphleteers."

A fine example of unintentional hilarity --- Thomas Paine was a pamphleteer, as were Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton.

20. bobm Posted: December 07, 2010 at 10:23 PM (#3705232)

First Madden, now this guy? It's like the writer's equivalent of Jack Morris being inducted, but every year.

21. AndrewJ Posted: December 07, 2010 at 10:30 PM (#3705241)

I'm upset Conlin got in before Stan Hochman.

22. Bob Tufts Posted: December 07, 2010 at 10:39 PM (#3705252)

Reporters love to summarize an athlete's entire career by one unfortunate moment that tends to obscure all of the rest. I think it's only fair to hold reporters to the same standard - and then really piss them off by blogging about their indiscretions.

23. Greg K Posted: December 07, 2010 at 10:43 PM (#3705260)

A fine example of unintentional hilarity --- Thomas Paine was a pamphleteer, as were Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton.

Are you implying that Paine wasn't an irresponsible, rebelious, rabble rouser?

On a more serious note, pamphleteering had a bit more complicated life in early modern England than the Shakespeare quote suggests. Ben Jonson was fond of mocking "newsmongers" too. But at the same time newspapers and pamphlets, (and before them, ballads, libels and manuscript pieces) were a huge industry. Publicly everyone complained about them, but pretty much everyone bought and read them too.

24. ERROR---Jolly Old St. Nick

Posted: December 07, 2010 at 10:47 PM (#3705265)

Are you implying that Paine wasn't an irresponsible, rebelious, rabble rouser?

Well, he was an atheist, and every "Tom Paine" political club I can recall was cited as a Communist front. I'm not exactly sure that the DAR or the Tea Party Patriots would welcome him with open arms today.

25. Greg K Posted: December 07, 2010 at 10:54 PM (#3705272)

Well, he was an atheist, and every "Tom Paine" political club I can recall was cited as a Communist front. I'm not exactly sure that the DAR or the Tea Party Patriots would welcome him with open arms today.

My knowledge of Paine comes almost exclusively from spending a year reading Anglican sermons delivered in the winter of 1792-3 in England. Needless to say I came out of that experience with a slightly impartial view of Mr. Paine. I actually am not very familiar with the American Revolution (though I know what the DAR is from Gilmore Girls!) except that both sides of my family were forced to leave their homes as refugees because our side lost.

So I probably have a less positive view of Paine than most here.

26. SoSHially Unacceptable Posted: December 07, 2010 at 11:50 PM (#3705303)

Reporters love to summarize an athlete's entire career by one unfortunate moment that tends to obscure all of the rest. I think it's only fair to hold reporters to the same standard - and then really piss them off by blogging about their indiscretions.

In that case, congratulations on being their equal.

27. Steve Treder Posted: December 07, 2010 at 11:56 PM (#3705305)

But at the same time newspapers and pamphlets, (and before them, ballads, libels and manuscript pieces) were a huge industry. Publicly everyone complained about them, but pretty much everyone bought and read them too.

In other words, just like pornography.

28. Bob Tufts Posted: December 08, 2010 at 12:42 AM (#3705323)

Thank you.

29. Best Regards, President of Comfort, Esq., LLC Posted: December 08, 2010 at 12:42 AM (#3705324)

Now he is just annoying, a pompous man who thinks he invented baseball because he sat at the feet of Gene Mauch as a young pup.

We all know that Harveys invented baseball.

30. larkin4HoF Posted: December 08, 2010 at 08:47 AM (#3705490)

Does Conlin believe that steroid use is a mortal sin, like most mediots, and if he does, did he do any reporting on steroids before the anti-steroids hysteria?

31. Gonfalon Bubble Posted: December 08, 2010 at 08:55 AM (#3705492)

Yes, and none that I'm aware of.

But at the same time newspapers and pamphlets, (and before them, ballads, libels and manuscript pieces) were a huge industry. Publicly everyone complained about them, but pretty much everyone bought and read them too.

In other words, just like pornography.

Why do you think there were so many Minutemen?

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Baseball HOF: Longtime Philadelphia Writer Bill Conlin honored

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