Bill Plaschke of the Los Angeles Times won first place in the Associated Press Sports Editors 2019 contest in Column writing for the A Division.
Plaschke will be presented a first-place plaque at the 2020 APSE Summer Conference Banquet at The Alexander Hotel in Indianapolis on June 27.
Plaschke edged runner-up Steve Politi of NJ Advance Media. Sally Jenkins of The Washington Post finished third.
Sports editors in the A Division submitted 64 column entries, consisting of four columns each. The contest is open to APSE members. Click here to join.
Contest chair Lisa Wilson and fellow APSE officers Todd M. Adams, Gary Potosky and Dan Spears prepared the entries.
In February, preliminary judges at the APSE Winter Conference in St. Petersburg, Fla., and off-site around the country, selected a top 10, with each judge ranking the entries in order from 1 to 10 separately on a secret ballot. Entries were given 10 points for a first-place vote, nine points for second and so on down to one point for a 10th-place vote. The final 10 were given to a second judging group, which ranked the entries 1-10 in the same fashion.
The winner and final rankings are determined by tallying the ballots.
The winner in each category will receive a plaque at the summer conference. The second- through 10th-place writers will receive frameable certificates.
Judging in the columns category was based on style, writing quality, originality and local appeal. There was no restriction on subject matter and no requirement that they appear regularly.
The top 10 is listed below with links to the winning entries.
1. Bill Plaschke, Los Angeles Times 1 2 3 4 — 52 points, 2 first-place votes
2. Steve Politi, NJ Advance Media (Newark) 1 2 3 4 — 45 points, 2 first-place votes
3. Sally Jenkins, The Washington Post 1 2 3 4 — 44 points, 1 first-place vote
4. Mitch Albom, Detroit Free Press 1 2 3 4 — 40 points, 1 first-place vote
5. Jesse Washington, The Undefeated 1 2 3 4 — 37 points
6. John Canzano, The Oregonian/OregonLive (Portland) 1 2 3 4 — 27 points
7. Dan Shaughnessy, The Boston Globe 1 2 3 4 — 26 points
8. William C. Rhoden, The Undefeated 1 2 3 4 — 25 points
9. Dave Hyde, South Florida Sun Sentinel (Fort Lauderdale) 1 2 3 4 — 18 points
10. John Romano, Tampa Bay Times 1 2 3 4 — 16 points
