Jayson Stark: Syracuse University Grad to National Baseball Hall of Fame

Syracuse University graduate Jayson Stark, national baseball writer, the 2019 J. G. Taylor Spink Award recipient will be enshrined in Cooperstown.

Jayson Stark was named the 2019 J. G. Taylor Spink Award recipient. Stark was named the 70th honoree on December 11, 2018 “for meritorious contributions to baseball writing.”

The J. G. Taylor Spink Award was named after the inaugural participant in 1962. The winners are voted by the members of the Baseball Writers’ Association of America (BBWAA) and are immortalized in an exclusive part of the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York.

Stark’s Central New York roots come from his time as an undergrad at Syracuse University before graduating with a degree in Journalism in 1973.

Stark was the news editor for The Daily Orange during his time on campus, and when the paper gained independent status in 1971. Stark came to Syracuse from North East Philadelphia and returned to his home time working for the Philadelphia Inquirer from 1979-199, covering the Phillies before shifting focus as a national writer.

After leaving his hometown paper, Stark headed to the “World Wide Leader,” in 2000 as a writer and contributor for programs such as SportsCenter and Baseball Tonight. Stark left ESPN after a round of layoffs in 2017 in that effected “about 100 other on-air personalities and writers.”

After almost a year Stark joined the Athletic where he has been prominently, as well as a reoccurring contributor on the MLB Network.

Stark’s popular Useless Info Dept., that can find roots back to 1983 with his Week in Review column, is a fantastic encapsulation of what Stark’s writing has brought to fans of baseball and his fellow colleagues around the game he has now covered for 40 years. Fellow noted national baseball writer and insider for The Athletic Ken Rosenthal summed Stark up on the site Friday as:

"“There is no other baseball writer like him. There will never be another baseball writer like him. And the coolest, most amazing thing about him is that after four decades of baseball writing….his passion for the game, and ability to see things no one else can, remains unchanged.” Rosenthal wrote."

No one has cornered the baseball trivia market like Stark. He has done it on a National Stage on the former ESPN radio show Mike and Mike before heading to MLB Central and television. Fans of the obscure set reminders to take on the challenge Stark set for them that week.

Stark changed the game for baseball writing and how to dive deep in the game and the numbers and they allow someone to consume the game.

"“More than anything, he uses the numbers to tell a story, to illuminate us and, perhaps most of all, to show why baseball is so much fun.” Rosenthal writes to sums up Stark’s charm to baseball fans of all generations."

Stark will be one of the eight inductees on Sunday afternoon, in front of an audience that is expected to reach 100 thousand in the small New York town that homes the greats and moments that Stark can dive into and share like no other in the game. Stark now he will be always known as one of those greats.