LAS VEGAS (AP) -Nick Peters, who covered the San Francisco Giants for 47 years mostly with the Oakland Tribune and Sacramento Bee, received the Hall of Fame’s J.G. Taylor Spink Award on Wednesday for meritorious contributions to baseball writing.
Peters will be honored July 26 during the Hall of Fame induction ceremony in Cooperstown, N.Y. He began covering the Giants in 1961, three years after the club moved West from New York. Peters retired following the 2007 season, the year Barry Bonds broke Hank Aaron’s home run record.
“I was kind of humbled by it. I didn’t have any expectations because I was never a national guy,” the 69-year-old Peters said in a phone interview. “I never campaigned. I kept things low key. I figured if there was a guy on the East Coast or Midwest, they would get it. I always wanted to be a baseball writer. I considered that the epitome of sports writing.”
He became a full-time, traveling baseball writer in 1979 for the Tribune.
he job, not about making friends.”
Peters, a San Francisco native, has attended every Giants’ home opener since 1958 and has written five books about the franchise.
“It’s a tremendous honor and a very well-deserved honor for all of his contributions to the baseball community over the decades,” Giants spokeswoman Staci Slaughter said. “We’re thrilled for him.”
Peters received 210 votes from the 447 ballots cast from the members of the Baseball Writers’ Association of America. Toronto’s Bob Elliott, credited for helping boost the popularity of baseball in Canada, received 123 votes and 26-year Chicago baseball writer Dave Van Dyck got 107.
“Wow,” Peters said when told of the vote count. “I didn’t realize that many people knew me. I was always a local guy because I never wanted to leave the Bay Area.”
Peters received 119 votes for the award last year and was runner-up to former Boston Globe sports writer Larry Whiteside.
“When you do something so well for so long, people kind of take you for granted,” said Tom Negrete, the Bee’s assistant managing editor. “With Nick, you never had to worry about your reporter calling in sick, missing deadline, getting the story, being accurate.”
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