Hawkins comes up short in Hall of Fame bid

Former Superiorite Jim Hawkins finished second in the recent voting for the J.G. Taylor Spink Award for baseball coverage.

Longtime Philadelphia Daily News baseball reporter and columnist Paul Hagen won the award which was voted on by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America and announced during the recent Major League Baseball winter meetings.

Hagen, whose baseball writing career has spanned 40 years, including the past 26 in Philadelphia, will be honored at the Hall of Fame’s induction weekend July 26-29 in Cooperstown, N.Y.

Hawkins, a 1962 graduate of Superior Cathedral High School, finished second behind Hagen and Russell Schneider was third.

The award is presented annually to a sportswriter “for meritorious contributions to baseball writing.” Spink was a driving force of The Sporting News, known during his lifetime as the “Baseball Bible.”

Hagen received 269 votes from the 421 ballots. Hawkins, whose coverage of the Detroit Tigers and MLB extended over four decades, received 87 votes. Schneider, a fixture of baseball coverage in Cleveland for half a century and the author of 13 books on the game, got 60.

Hawkins attended Pattison Elementary School through the third grade before transferring to the new Cathedral School. After graduating from the University of Wisconsin in 1966, Hawkins knew he wanted to be a sports writer and took an intern position at the Milwaukee Journal.

Hawkins, who lives in St. Petersburg, Fla. and works part-time for MLB.com, is married to the former Penny Johnson of Brule. Penny’s mother, Minerva Johnson, still lives in Brule.

Previous Spink Award Recipients

2012 Bob Elliott; 2011 Bill Conlin; 2010 Bill Madden; 2009 Nick Peters; 2008 Larry Whiteside; 2006 Rick Hummel; 2005 Tracy Ringolsby; 2004 Peter Gammons; 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.

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