Bill Conlin's perspective

Daily News columnist Bill Conlin won the J.G. Taylor Spink Award in balloting by the Baseball Writers' Association of America and will be enshrined in the writers' wing of the Baseball Hall of Fame.

Conlin will be honored July 24 in Cooperstown, N.Y. He is the 62nd winner of the award named for the driving force of The Sporting News.

Conlin received 188 votes from the 434 ballots cast by BBWAA members with 10 or more consecutive years' service. The results were announced yesterday at the winter meetings in Lake Buena Vista, Fla.

Here are some of Conlin's fondest memories from nearly 50 years of journalism in this city:

Biggest thrill: Phils finally winning the World Series under the leadership of Paul Owens and Dallas Green, two guys I really cared about.

Best assignments: Every World Series day game.

Worst assignments: Every World Series night game.

Biggest permanent turn-on: The 6 golden weeks of spring training.

Best Olympics moment: Tommy Lasorda willing to believe a ragtag bunch of Double A and Triple A players were better than the mighty Cubans in the 2000 Sydney Games.

Best recurring non-baseball assignment: Five Wimbledons. Hey, your day was over before the desk people even arrived at the paper, leaving you all night to do whatever.

Scariest baseball moment: On the day Elvis died, with Tug McGraw dressed in an Elvis costume, the Phillies charter 727 out of Montreal, landing at O'Hare in a violent thunderstorm and almost doing a tail plant when hitting a sudden wind sheer. Plane stopped about 50 feet from the fence at the end of the runway.

Runner-up: World Series earthquake in Candlestick Park.

Best times on the road: The almost daily tennis matches with Rich Ashburn and Harry Kalas.

Worst times on the road: Going something like 0-150 to Ashburn. Maybe worse. Won two sets from the guy in all those years.

Worst overall moment: Losing Irma, Sept. 12, 2009.