Jack O’Connell has covered Major League Baseball the past 34 years for three New York-area newspapers and one Internet site. He covered the Mets for nine seasons (1980-88) with the Bergen (N.J.) Record and New York Daily News and the Yankees for 11 seasons (1989-99) with the Hartford Courant. O’Connell was the national baseball columnist at The Courant for five seasons (2000-04) and a general assignment reporter at MLB.com for three years (2006-08). He is the national secretary-treasurer of the Baseball Writers’ Association of America representing 700 active members in 25 chapters throughout North America. In that role since 1993, O’Connell conducts the annual balloting of the Most Valuable Player, Cy Young, Jackie Robinson Rookie of the Year and Manager of the Year awards as well as the annual election for the National Baseball Hall of Fame. He represents the BBWAA on issues concerning player access and press box working conditions and coordinates with MLB officials the annual distribution of press credentials to BBWAA members. O’Connell is chairman of the BBWAA Historical Overview Committee, which meets bi-annually to establish Hall of Fame Veterans Committee ballots, and served on the Hall’s Veterans Committee for Managers and Umpires in 2007 and 2009, the Golden Era Committee in 2011 and the Expansion Era Committee in 2013. O’Connell has written for the Yankees Universe website since 2010 and is a regular contributor to Yankees Magazine.