Newsday sports reporters honored for stories

Newsday's Steven Marcus and the team of Tom Rock, Jim Baumbach and Stephen Haynes were recognized by The Associated Press Sports Editors with Top 10 honors in writing categories at judging completed Wednesday in Orlando, Fla.

The Newsday sports department also received honorable mentions for its Sunday and Baseball Preview sections.

Marcus' winning story in the Breaking News category reported that the Mets ended negotiations with David Einhorn, a hedge fund manager who was in serious talks to invest $200 million in the cash-strapped team, over control issues.

Marcus has been a Newsday sports reporter since 1972 and has covered the Yankees and Mets.

Rock, Baumbach and Haynes won Top 10 in the Explanatory category for stories that examined the problem of concussions in girls lacrosse and why girls are prohibited from wearing the hard-shell helmets that boys wear. The package included a story about a girl whose father helped craft a protective soft helmet after she suffered a concussion.

Rock, who has been at Newsday since 1996, has been the Giants beat writer for the past three seasons.

Baumbach, who joined Newsday's high school sports staff in 1998, has covered the Yankees and is presently doing investigative, feature and spot news reporting.

Haynes came to Newsday as a sports intern in 2008 and is a member of the high school sports staff.

The Baseball Preview section included a special foldout feature on "101 games you should have seen," a tribute to the fact that ballgames come in all shapes and sizes, have wildly varied beginnings and endings and produce all kinds of dramas and laughs.

Newsday's Sunday section entries included live coverage of Derek Jeter's 3,000th hit, along with a commemorative Jeter section the same day.