Cooperstown is about career numbers. The longtime Washington Post columnist got there through more than a half-century of words.

Thomas Boswell, a reporter and columnist for The Washington Post for 52 years until his retirement in 2021, won the BBWAA Career Excellence Award for meritorious contributions to baseball writing.

Boswell joins a prestigious cavalcade of writers previously honored, including such luminaries as Ring Lardner (1963), Grantland Rice (1966), Damon Runyon (1967), Fred Lieb (1972), Shirley Povich (1975), Red Smith (1976), Jim Murray (1987), Wendell Smith (1993), Roger Angell (2014) and Claire Smith (2017).

Boswell, whose 52-year career at The Washington Post included coverage of 44 World Series, will receive career excellence award in Cooperstown, New York.