Big news from winter meetings: Peter Gammons leaving ESPN

The big news from baseball’s winter meetings doesn’t involve trades or free agent signings.  Hall of Fame journalist Peter Gammons has decided to leave ESPN after the meetings to join the MLB Network and the New England Sports Network.

Gammons’ knowledgable and thoughtful reports will be missed by ESPN viewers.  He will be a studio analyst for MLB and a studio analyst, reporter and online contributor for NESN.

Said Norby Williamson, ESPN executive vice president: “As a print journalist moving to television, Peter was a pioneer who became a Hall of Famer. His contributions to ESPN will never be forgotten. We’re sad to see Peter go, but understand his desire for new challenges and a less demanding schedule.”

Said Gammons: “My decision to leave ESPN and move on at this point in my life has been conflicted. I owe a great deal of my professional life to ESPN, having spent more than half of my 40 years in journalism working for the network, and the choice to move on was made with nothing but the strongest feelings for the people with whom I worked. ESPN gave me a great deal more than I gave it, and will always be a huge part of who I am.”

 “My friend Tom Rush – who taught James Taylor and me our first guitar chords – once wrote how strange it seems to walk away alone. With no regrets.”

Gammons, 64, was honored as the recipient of the 2004 J.G. Taylor Spink Award for outstanding baseball writing during the 2005 Hall of Fame induction ceremony July 31 in Cooperstown, N.Y. He was selected in balloting by the Baseball Writers Association of America.

He began his career as a reporter for the Boston Globe in 1969 and wrote a very popular weekly Sunday baseball column for many years. He has also worked for Sports Illustrated covering the National Hockey League, college basketball and Major League Baseball (1976-78, 1986-90).

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