Congratulations to Paul Hagen, one of the good guys. He is this year’s winner of the J.G. Taylor Spink Award, an honor handed out “for meritorious contributions to baseball writing.”

I knew Paul back when he was working in Dallas covering the Texas Rangers. The bulk of his career has been in Philadelphia, where he joined the Daily News in 1987.

From Philly.com:

“I don’t think you ever really know how you’re being perceived,” Hagen said. “So when something like this happens, that your peers thought enough of you to vote you an award like this, it’s overwhelming, it really is.”

Hagen, who has been writing about baseball for 40 years, including more than a quarter century in Philadelphia, received 269 votes from eligible BBWAA voters. The next closest candidate received 87 votes.

Hagen got a standing ovation when he was announced as this year’s recipient before the BBWAA’s Tuesday morning meeting in Nashville, where Major League Baseball’s winter meetings are being held this week.

“A consummate pro,” said St. Louis Post-Dispatch baseball writer Rick Hummel, who received the Spink Award in 2006. “He always seems to have a smile on his face . . . And he has the neatest notes – you can actually read them. I don’t think many of us can say that.”

Hummel laughed.

“I’ve never gone to a Hall of Fame induction when I wasn’t covering one,” Hummel said. “But I’ll be going this year [to see Hagen].”