Newhan Joins Select Scribes

NEW YORK —  Ross Newhan, The Times’ national baseball columnist who has covered the game for 40 years in Southern California, was elected to the writers’ wing of the Hall of Fame on Wednesday as the recipient of the J.G. Taylor Spink Award for meritorious contributions to baseball writing.

Newhan, known for a graceful, dignified prose that is unafraid to bite when necessary, will be formally inducted into the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y. on Aug. 5.

He will enter along with those players who are elected in voting held in December. Among the favorites are Dave Winfield and Kirby Puckett.

Newhan is the second Times staffer to win the award. The late Jim Murray was inducted in 1987. Other Southern California writers in the Hall are the late Bob Hunter, who reached prominence with the Herald Examiner, and Phil Collier of the San Diego Union-Tribune.

Newhan, 63, will have his photo forever hanging in the Hall of Fame library, just around the corner from the gallery of player and manager busts. He is the 52nd member of the wing, which also includes Ring Lardner, Grantland Rice, Damon Runyan and Red Smith.

In a close vote among members of the Baseball Writers Assn. of America, Newhan edged Peter Gammons, formerly of the Boston Globe, and Joe Falls of the Detroit News.

Shortly after receiving the award to a standing ovation among colleagues, the prolific author of 190 baseball stories already this season was, well, speechless.

“I’m . . . thrilled and flattered,” Newhan said. “Forty years of covering ball, all the stadiums, all the miles, this is a great reward.”

For those 40 years, Newhan has been Southern California’s journalistic version of Tony Gwynn. Always coming up with the big base hit, always working to perfect his swing, always there.

When many of his younger competitors left the baseball beat for other sports, he stayed behind the batting cage. When many older competitors have moved on to other parts of the newspaper, he remained in the dugout.

Newhan covered the Angels for the Long Beach Independent, Press-Telegram from 1961 to 1967, then joined The Times in 1968 in a similar capacity.

He covered the Angels and Dodgers for the Times until 1986, when he became the national baseball writer, a title he holds today.

He covered the first game in Angel franchise history . . . and the Angels on the final weekend of the 2000 season.

He covered Hank Aaron’s 715th homer . . . and Mark McGwire’s 62nd. He covered the Dodger-Yankee World Series in 1963 . . . and the Subway Series this week.

“I like the personalities, and I like the fact that it’s a game that seldom repeats itself,” Newhan said. “Of all the sports, it presents more opportunity for strategy and drama and writing.”

Newhan’s wife Connie, a librarian, and daughter Sara, a teacher, are known for their patience.

His son David is better known for his hitting.

David, 27, is a second baseman for the Philadelphia Phillies.

Since making his major league debut with the San Diego Padres two seasons ago, he has been the one player about whom Newhan has never written a word.

But he knows his father’s power.

“Traveling around the league the first time, it was unbelievable how many people would ask me to say hello to my father,” David said. “Every town we were in, people would come over and talk about my dad. I knew he had made an impact on the game but . . . I had no clue it was this big.”

It turns out, even managers such as former Toronto and Angel boss Jim Fregosi were lobbying writers for Newhan’s induction.

Said baseball’s official historian, Jerome Holtzman, also a Hall of Famer: “He has broken lots of stories, he’s an excellent writer, he’s done it 40 years, what more do you want?”

What Newhan wanted Wednesday night was another scoop. Shortly after his election, instead of celebrating, he was busy combing the files, working the dugouts, trying to find out more about troubled Darryl Strawberry, one Southern California legend writing about another.