Pioneering baseball writer Claire Smith recognized at Cooperstown

COOPERSTOWN, N.Y. — Claire Smith, a mentor to and inspiration for a generation of women and minority sports journalists, was as gracious Saturday in accepting the J.G. Taylor Spink Award as she was in dealing with the flak that came with being the first woman to cover baseball as a full-time beat.

“I stand here on this stage on behalf of every person in my profession who has been stung by insidious gender discrimination or racism and continued,” Smith said Saturday at Doubleday Field. “You are unbreakable. I am proud.”

As a child, Smith recalled, her older brother got to attend a doubleheader she’d wanted to go to.