Rob Rains, B.J. Rains are first ever father-son duo to win National Sports Media Association State Sportswriter of the Year the same year

Longtime St. Louis sportswriter Rob Rains received the Missouri Sportswriter of the Year award on Monday presented by the National Sports Media Association (NSMA) at their annual dinner in Greensboro, N.C. National sports reporters including Mike Tirico, Ken Rosenthal, Ian Eagle and Dan Shaughnessy were also honored.

Rains was honored for his work for STLSportsPage.com covering the Cardinals in 2024. The Association recognizes a writer and broadcaster from every state as well as selecting national writers and broadcasters of the year.

Rains has been covering the Cardinals and Major League Baseball for 45 years. He is a member of the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame and the St. Louis Media History Hall of Fame. He is the author of 35 books, including his latest, soon to be released: “All Roads Lead to St. Louis, A Guide to the Cardinals and their Minor League Teams” with Foreword by John Rooney, published by Peppertree Press.

One of the highlights of the dinner was that B.J. Rains, the son of Rob and Sally Rains, won the state writer of the year award for Idaho, where he runs the Bronco Nation News website covering Boise State athletics.

Rob Rains and B.J. Rains are the first father and son to win the sportswriter of the year award in the same year.

Rob Rains currently does the “Rains on the Cardinals” Podcast which runs on STLSportsPage.com and other podcast platforms, with his other son, Mike Rains who made the trip to North Carolina also, so it was a family affair

The Missouri broadcaster of the year award was won by Chris Kerber, the radio voice of the St. Louis Blues.

Veteran baseball writer Dan Shaughnessy, of the Boston Globe, who has won sportwriter of the year from Massachusetts several times went into the NSMA Hal of Fame.

Shaughnessy and Rains have known each other as beat writers since the early 1980’s.

“It was good to reconnect with Dan,” said Rains. “We’ve shared many a pressbox over the years and he is ruly deserving of this award.

The Awards featured many well-known names and sportswriters and broadcasters from the various states:

•  2025 Hall of Fame inductees, Mike Tirico, Dan Shaughnessy, the late Charlie Jones, and the late Wendell Smith;
• 2024 National Sportscaster of the Year, Ian Eagle (CBS, Westwood One, TNT);
• 2024 National Sportswriter of the Year, Ken Rosenthal (The Athletic);
• 2024 State Sportscasters and Sportswriters of the Year from 49 states plus DC

Ken Rosenthal, who was the national Sportswriter of the year– even though he does both sportswriting and sportscasting. Rains and Rosenthal go back to their early days when Rosenthal was the beat writer in Baltimore before he became a national writer. When Rains was at USA TODAY Baseball Weekly they continued seeing each other and remain friends.

Mike Rains is shown in the photo, right with Rob Rains and Ken Rosenthal. Mike Rains does the “Rains on the Cardinals” Podcast with Rob Rains.

“Ken is one of the best baseball writers in the business,” said Rains. “He’s very well-connected with sources and always a good guy to go to for information. It was great to catch up with Ken at the awards weekend.”

Most of the state awardees are from major daily newspapers and Rains offered his appreciation to all his readers.

“I appreciate everybody who comes to STLSportsPage.com for their Cardinals news because I know you have other choices to get some of that information,” said Rains. “Receiving an award like this lets me know that we are doing a good job of serving our readers.”

Rob and B.J. Rains got their Journalism Degree from Kansas University and Mike Rains got his Masters in Sports Management from Missouri Baptist University. Ever since his sons went into their chosen field– which he refers to as “the family business” there has been collaboration. In the 1990’s Rob and B.J. did a radio show together called “The Sports Zone” on 1380 and currently Rob and Mike do the weekly podcast “Rains on the Cardinals” available on most podcast platforms.

“One of the great joys of my current life is being able to work with Mike on the podcast and I always enjoyed doing the daily radio show with B.J. on 1380,” said Rob Rains. “Both of these discussions are just like we are talking around the dinner table at our house, when baseball frequently dominates the conversation.

“In fact any time we are together we end up talking base4ball and it’s always a great time. I was very fortunate to have both sons at the awards dinner– that was the real prize.”