Longtime Boston Globe sports columnist Dan Shaughnessy was elected the 2016 winner of the J.G. Taylor Spink Award, named for the longtime publisher and driving force behind Sporting News and presented annually to a sportswriter “for meritorious contributions to baseball writing.”
Balloting was by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America and results were announced at baseball's winter meetings in Nashville, Tenn.
Shaughnessy, 62, will be honored with the award during the Baseball Hall of Fame's induction weekend July 22-25, 2016, in Cooperstown, N.Y.
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Shaughnessy received 185 votes from the 417 ballots, including one blank, cast by BBWAA members with 10 or more consecutive years’ service. He is the 67th winner of the award since its inception in 1962; Spink was the first winner.
The late Furman Bisher, who wrote more than 15,000 columns in a 59-year career for the Atlanta Journal and Constitution, received 157 votes. Juan Vene, who for more than 60 years both in print and on the airwaves has connected strongly with baseball fans throughout Latin America, got 74.
