Hal McCoy is a former beat writer for the Dayton Daily News (Dayton, Ohio), covering the Cincinnati Reds baseball team. He was honored by the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 2002 as the winner of the J. G. Taylor Spink Award, which is awarded annually "for meritorious contributions to baseball writing." He has won 52 Ohio and national writing awards and was the first non-Cincinnati newsperson elected to the Cincinnati Journalists Hall of Fame. He also was inducted into the National Sports Media Association Hall of Fame and the Irish-American Baseball Hall of Fame. He has a stone on Dayton's Walk of Fame and the press box at Dayton's Howell Field is named the Hal McCoy Press Box. McCoy has been the Cincinnati BBWAA Chapter Chair 22 times and was the BBWAA national president in 1997. He is the third writer from the Dayton Daily News to win the J. G. Taylor Spink Award, joining Si Burick (1982) and Ritter Collett (1991). Residing in Englewood, Ohio, McCoy is an honors graduate in journalism from Kent State University.
Joey Votto's batting average is approaching respectability again, but he won't be an All-Star. And if the All-Star game is to be merely an exhibition game with no reason to win other than pride, which as it should be, then it is OK to include a .255 hitter if he's the best his team has to offer. Read Hal McCoy "at large" in today's feature.
Call me old school, but I still want to see the take-out slide at second, collisions at home plate, umpiring without replay, and a little head-hunting only adds passion to the game. They've tinkered with the game too much...and they've tinkered with the wrong things! Read more in today's Press Pros.