BBWAA Career Excellence Award

The BBWAA Career Excellence Award has been voted upon annually since 1962.

The award honors a baseball writer (or writers) "for meritorious contributions to baseball writing" and is presented during Hall of Fame Weekend by that year's President of the Baseball Writers' Association of America (BBWAA).

The award is voted upon annually by the BBWAA.

Each award recipient (not to be confused with an inductee) is presented with a certificate during Hall of Fame Weekend and is recognized in the "Scribes & Mikemen" exhibit in the Library of the National Baseball Hall of Fame.

This award was originally named for J.G. Taylor Spink, the longtime editor and publisher of the Sporting News. Weeks before his death in 1962, the Baseball Writers’ Association of America created the award in his honor, naming him the first recipient. It is issued annually to select writers for “meritorious contributions to baseball writing.” Due to Spink’s troubled history in supporting segregated baseball, the BBWAA voted to remove his name from the award in 2021. It remains the most prestigious prize in baseball journalism.

Starting in 2008, the BBWAA Career Excellence Award bears the year in which it was presented at Induction.