McKenzie wins Red Smith Award

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/sports/local/orl-redsmith2507apr25,0,6737710.story?track=rss

Not a single bad thing to say about the pick, only noting that it does make Heinz wait at least another year.

 

Van deserved that award.

 

Yes, I have no problem with it at all.

These posthumous ones are always kind of sad, though, since you wish they could have been around to get the award personally.

 

I kind of thought this would get more discussion, but I guess it does kind of speak for itself.

 

I was going to come on and post this and was happy to see it already was. I was very exited to hear of this today. I will be going to the APSE convention in St Louis with my mom, Sandy, and hope to meet some of you there. -Von

 

Fabulous.
I've been out all day and just now, from a friend's e-mail, learned about it. So I came to the board to see if it had been posted.
I love it.
Ladies and gentlemen, as we did with the McKenzie Cup last week, when Jemele Hill filled it with beer and we all drank from a cup fit for the great man, raise one high for Van tonight.
And all the more I have to say is: About damned time!
Van was the best.

 

Well deserved and an obvious choice.
I would love to be there for the post-award toast.
I bet Von still has that big cooler from Orlando in 2005.

 

Hey, Kindred, what is the McKenzie Cup?

Tell us all about it. News, details, sidelines, all of that. Everything.

Wouldya please?

 

My privilege....

The McKenzie Cup will be presented every year to a young journalist who represents the values Van brought to the game. It's Buddy Martin's idea, created to be awarded at the Poynter Sports Journalism Summit. Buddy spoke about Van, his friend of 40 years. I spoke, so did Vince Doria and John Cherwa. Van's widow, Sandy, was there in the front row.

Before announcing the first winner, Buddy had me read a small piece written in tribute to Van. We didn't say whose words they were, but they were a thank-you to Van. At one point, the note said Van had seen "something in me that I didn't see in myself." They were Jemele Hill's words, and that was the first time she knew she'd won the award. She had tears in her eyes.

The award is a big, beautiful cup, maybe two feet tall, in the shape of an hourglass, dark blue with gold engraving. It could be a vase for three dozen long-stemmed roses. I think Buddy's idea all along was to fill it with beer because that's what Van would have thought was its best and highest use. And that's what we did that night.

We poured enough beer in it that we could lift it and drink from it at dinner on the pier and later at a bar by the bay. Because the thing is so big, eacj drinker's face practically disappeared into it, and beer sloshed onto your chin. Van'd have loved that part for sure.

Jemele was last seen walking out of the bar, smiling, the cup cradled in her arms.

 

Jemele Hill?

You mean my Eddie Hinton isn't considered a young journalist?

 

The Great Hinton is young only at heart, and will be until he's 90.