BWAA Barney Awards-Congrats To The TSS Crew, And All!

PUGMIRE, TSS.com, LA TIMES LEAD WAY IN BWAA “BARNEYS” WRITING CONTEST

TheSweetScience.com Leads The Pack With 6 Stories In The Spotlight, Tied For First With The Esteemed LA Times

Lance Pugmire of the Los Angeles Times took top individual honors in the 10th annual Boxing Writers Association of America writing contest, known as the “Barneys” in honor of Barney Nagler, the late former president of the BWAA.

The contest period covered the 2010 calendar year. Winning entrants will be honored at the 86th annual BWAA Awards Dinner on May 6 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.

Pugmire was the only winner of two first-place awards, in judging by a panel of nationally recognized sports writers and journalism instructors. He tied John Whisler, of the San Antonio Express News, for first in Event Coverage, for a story on a winning but lackluster victory by Shane Mosley, and in Column, which cited the unconvincing attempt by Antonio Margarito and his trainer to explain their mocking gestures toward Manny Pacquiao’s trainer, Freddie Roach, who has Parkinson’s disease. But Pugmire wasn’t the only LA Times writer to place highly. Bill Dwyre and Kevin Baxter shared third place in the Feature Under 1,750 Words category.

Other first places, based on a blind scoring system in which independent scores by a panel of judges are tablulated, went to T.K. Stewart, of T.K. Stewart on Boxing, Column; Robert Mladinich, of Thesweetscience.com, Feature Under 1,750 words (tie); Pablo S. Torre, Sports Illustrated, Feature Under 1,750 words (tie) David Weinberg, The Press of Atlantic City, Feature Under 1,750 words (tie); Peter Owen Nelson, Sports Illustrated, Feature Over 1,750 words, and Thomas Hauser, Secondsout.com, Investigative Reporting.

Multiple placers in addition to Whisler, who also took a third in Column; Torre, added a second in Feature Over 1,750 Words; Hauseer, who also was third in Column; Lee Groves, of Boxingscene.com, with ties for second in Column as well as News Story, and Dave Skretta, of the Associated Press, with a second-place tie in Feature Under 1,750 Words and a third in Event Coverage.

10th annual BWAA writing contest

Event Coverage

First place (tie)
Lance Pugmire, Los Angeles Times
John Whisler, San Antonio Express News

Second place
Chris Mannix, SI.com

Third place
Dave Skretta, The Associated Press

Honorable Mention
Michael Rosenthal, RingTV.com; Don Steinberg, Philadelphia Inquirer; Springs Toledo, Thesweetscience.com; David Weinberg, The Press of Atlantic City

Column

First  place
T.K. Stewart, T.K. Stewart on Boxing

Second place (tie)
Adam Berlin, Thesweetscience.com
Lee Groves, Boxingscene.com

Third place (tie)
Tim Dahlberg, The Associated Press
Thomas Hauser, Secondsout.com
John Whisler, San Antonio Express News

Honorable mention
Lyle Fitzsimmons, Boxingscene.com; Matthew Hurley, Secondsout.com; George Kimball, Thesweetscience.com; Don Stradley, donstradleyblogspot.com

News story

First place
Lance Pugmire, Los Angeles Times

Second place (tie)
Ron Borges, Boxing Monthly
Lee Groves, Boxingscene.com

Third place
Bill Dwyre, Los Angeles Times

Honorable mention
Bart Barry, 15rounds.com; Kevin Iole, Yahoosports.com; Armando Paz, Ironchinboxing.com

Feature under 1,750 words
First place (tie)

Robert Mladinich, Thesweetscience.com
Pablo S. Torre, Sports Illustrated
David Weinberg, The Press of Atlantic City

Second place (tie)
Norm Frauenheim, 15rounds.com
Dave Skretta, The Associated Press

Third place (tie)
Kevin Baxter, Los Angeles Times; Bill Dwyre, Los Angeles Times; Rick Folstad, Thesweetscience.com

Honorable mention
William Detloff, The Ring; Bernard Fernandez, Philadelphia Daily News; Thomas Hauser, Boxing Monthly

Feature Over 1,750 Words

First place
Peter Owen Nelson, Sports Illustrated

Second place
Pablo S. Torre, Sports Illustrated

Third place
Ivan Solotaroff, Details

Honorable mention
Bill Dwyre, Los Angeles Times; Charles Farrell, Post Road Issue #19; Bernard Fernandez, Philadelphia Daily News; Gabriel Montoya, Maxboxing.com

Investigative reporting

First place
Thomas Hauser, Secondsout.com

Second place
Springs Toledo, Thesweetscience.com

Third place
Mark Kram, Philadelphia Daily News

Honorable mention
Bernard Fernandez, Philadelphia Daily News; Norm Frauenheim, The Ring; Don Stradley, HVB magaxine

Judges

Randy Galloway, Fort Worth Star-Telegram; Kurt Kragthorpe, Salt Lake Tribune; Angelique Chengelis, Detroit News; George Solomon, University of Maryland College of Journalism; Neil Reisner, Department of Journalism and Broadcasting, Florida International University.