Award-Winning Sports Writer Claire Smith Hosts Zoom Webinar for Comm Students
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. –– Claire Smith, a pioneer in women sports writing, hosted a Zoom webinar with students on Monday night. The session, brought together by the Bellisario College of Communications, was a Women’s History Month event.
Smith, who attended Penn State and graduated from Temple University, is the first woman and fourth African American to win the J.G. Taylor Spink Award, which is the highest honor given by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America.
Smith grew up with parents who were huge fans of sports and a mother who loved the Dodgers. Smith’s hero became Jackie Robinson, and she was always intrigued by the history of the integration of baseball.
“It always seemed, even at a younger age, I could sense that there was something larger at work than just balls and strikes,” Smith said. “I always wanted to know more about baseball intertwining with the history of America before the Civil Rights movement.”
Her career started in the 1980s, and her first article of this year will mark her 40th anniversary in baseball writing. She has contributed for newspapers such as the New York Times and ESPN and has worked with the New York Yankees for many years.
She expressed how frightening her job as a woman, specifically a woman of color, could be. She described her experiences walking into baseball clubhouses as a writer.
“You were very much alone, even though you were often in a pack of journalists pursuing the same story, but you would have to look far and wide to see another woman,” Smith said. “You went in knowing you were going to stand out for one or both reasons.”
Smith made it clear that she believes race and gender do not compare and that race discriminations are often more intense than those of gender; however, when she was asked which of the two was tougher to deal with throughout her career, she responded quickly.
“That’s easy,” Smith said. “Gender.”
She added that she was frequently with a few other African-American writers when in baseball press boxes but almost never with another woman.
Smith also touched on her beliefs that baseball is not just a sport but a national pastime. She went on to say that baseball gets the most critique of any other sport because everyone thinks they can do what the players do. Smith was amazed by the talent of the baseball players she has seen throughout her career.
Smith’s advice to women pursuing sports media, and young writers of any kind is to focus on what you want, be true to yourself and hit doubters with knowledge.
Emma Aken is a freshman majoring in journalism. To contact her, email ena5119@psu.edu.
