On Tuesday, Claire Smith officially received the Red Smith Award in Las Vegas. Smith, a pioneer in the industry and a two-time Pulitzer Prize nominee at that, was awarded this distinct honor by the Associated Press Sports Editors (APSE), which is annually given “to a writer or editor who has made major contributions to sports journalism.”
Smith is the first Black woman to win the award. Last year’s award was won by Leon Carter of The Athletic.
Congratulations to @MzCSmith this year's recipient of the Red Smith Award, @APSE_sportmedia's highest honor. Claire is a trailblazer and previous #AWSM Mary Garber Pioneer Award winner. pic.twitter.com/2Qz3s6Eutp
— AWSM (@AWSM_SportMedia) July 11, 2023
Smith won the BBWAA’s Career Excellence Award, previously known as the JG Taylor Spink Award, in 2017. That same year, she won the Jackie Robinson Foundation’s ROBIE Award, which honors “extraordinary individuals who have devoted a lifetime to improving the circumstances of others by promoting equal opportunity and inclusion.”
Smith was the first female to cover a Major League Baseball beat full-time, covering the New York Yankees for the Hartford Courant for half a decade. She then became the second national baseball columnist in the country. Following stints with the New York Times and Philadelphia Inquirer, Smith worked for ESPN for 13 years before being let go at the end of 2020.
Since leaving ESPN, Smith returned to her alma mater and became the executive director for the Claire Smith Center for Sports Media at the Lew Klein College of Media and Communication at Temple University, where she is also an assistant professor.
About Sam Neumann
Since the beginning of 2023, Sam has been a staff writer for Awful Announcing and The Comeback. A 2021 graduate of Temple University, Sam is a Charlotte native, who currently calls Greenville, South Carolina his home. He also has a love/hate relationship with the New York Mets and Jets.