Spink was born on November 6, 1888, in
St. Louis, Missouri, the son of Charles and Marie (née Taylor) Spink. Charles had acquired
The Sporting News from its founder, his brother
Alfred H. Spink. In 1913, Spink was an
official scorer for the
World Series between the
Philadelphia Athletics and the
New York Giants. Taylor Spink inherited
The Sporting News when his father died in 1914; he would run
The Sporting News for nearly a half-century, until his own death. During his tenure,
The Sporting News published its first
Baseball Register in 1940. Spink was known for ruling the paper with "an iron will and an iron fist", working every day of the week and making phone calls at any time of day, often so loudly that "he really didn't need a telephone." On the issue of
racial integration in baseball, Spink wrote an editorial titled "No Good From Raising Race Issue", published in August 1942, which read in part: "There is no law against Negroes playing with white teams, or whites with colored clubs, but neither has invited the other for the obvious reason they prefer to draw their talent from their own ranks, and because the leaders of both groups know their crowd psychology and do not care to run the risk of damaging their own game." In 1947, Spink published his biography of
Kenesaw Mountain Landis, the first
Commissioner of Baseball, titled
Judge Landis and 25 Years of Baseball. Spink died on December 7, 1962, at his home in
Clayton, Missouri, and is buried in a
mausoleum at
Bellefontaine Cemetery.
Legacy In 1962, the
Baseball Writers' Association of America (BBWAA) inaugurated an annual award "for meritorious contributions to baseball writing"; the BBWAA named it the
J. G. Taylor Spink Award and honored Spink as the first recipient. In 1969, Spink was inducted into the
National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association Hall of Fame. As of 1970, the
Topps Minor League Player of the Year Award was also named in honor of Spink. Circa 1974, Spink's son published a collection of stories about his father, titled
Taylor Spink... The Legend and The Man. A third award bearing Spink's name, dating to at least the early 1960s, and
Jack Flaherty for the 2019 season. ==Notes==