Claire Smith

ABOUT CLAIRE SMITH

Journalist known as the first female Major League Baseball beat writer. She covered the New York Yankees from 1983-1987 with the Hartford Courant and later was a columnist for The New York Times from 1991-1998. She was the subject of a documentary titled A League of Her Own.

She attended Penn State University and then Temple University , getting her first journalism job with the Bucks County Courier Times.

She was the 2017 recipient of the J. G. Taylor Spink Award, an annual award by the Baseball Writer's Association of America. She was the first woman and fourth African-American to receive this award.

Her mother Bernice was a chemist who worked with General Electric, and she credits her mother for instilling her love of Baseball. Her father William was an illustrator and sculptor.

In 1984, while working, she was forced out of the Wrigley Field visitors clubhouse by the San Diego Padres . The San Diego first baseman Steve Garvey proceeded to complete his interview with her outside the clubhouse. The next day, the Baseball Commissioner declared a new rule granting equal access to all major league locker rooms.