Who is Ron Perranoski? In 1963, the top five in te National League MVP voting looked like this:

Sandy Koufax 237 votes
Dick Groat 190
Hank Aaron 135
Ron Perranoski 130
Willie Mays 102

The rest of his career was quite impressive, too. Of course, the other lefty on his team drew most of the attention, but Perranoski, the reliever for Koufax and Drysdale, was every bit as critical to that championship team.

Thus I’m pleased to announce the Perranoski Prize as a supplement to Wampum’s Koufax Awards. This isn’t an effort to diminish, borrow glory from or intrude on those awards. Have you ever tried counting the nominations left in comments there? It’d be hard even if every nominator was crystal clear about their intended nominations, but more than a few require interpretation.

It’s an extraordinary task that MaryBeth and Dwight and Eric have undertaken each year. Hundreds of nominees must be tabulated and in some categories, I wouldn’t be surprised if over a thousand occur, such as best new blog. Though many have asked for more categories, I well understand why they limited it to 12 this year. It’s a ton of work.

After communicating with them, I got the green light to proceed, to alleviate that. The Perranoski Prize thus serves to relieve Koufax to close the game. (I’d be in favor of letting this one rotate to different websites each year, too, to emphasize that the centerpiece will always remain Wampum’s awards.)

They’ll have 12 categories; we’ll have 8 categories. (Update: I forgot one, so now there’s 9, with the Walt Kelly Best Toon Blog added) Remember, all besides the Drysdale and Humanitarian awards are supposed to be for bloggers considered left of center or progressive.

Best Designed Blog

Whether it’s the sheer beauty of the design, the readability and layout, or some other features that you like, this is the place to honor the aesthetic and functional aspects of your favorite designs.

Best Art or Photoblog

The written content may be equally important or not. But it’s the quality of the art, the photography, or the photoshopped graphics that rewards the visitor regularly. Not the place for moving images.

Best Moving Image Blog

The blog that’s created the best of one or more notable moving image presentations, which may be in any video format, Flash, or similar moving image.

Walt Kelly Best Toon Blog

Bloggers who write editorial toons or comics deserve their own category, named for the creator of Pogo.

Best Technical Achievement Blog

Perhaps it’s their blogging about blogging, or about blogging apps. Perhaps they created a blogging platform. Or created a great plug-in. Or a great app like an aggregate RSS reader or comments system. It could be an improved version of something previously created. But whatever they created, it permitted blogging to be advanced in some way, and it began in 2004.

Get your geek hats on for this one!

Best Humanitarian Blog

While this has an element of ‘expert’ to it, it’s expertise that has specifically advocated for or advanced the human condition. So a law blogger might deserve it for their work to end capital punishment - online and/or offline. Or an eco-blogger might desrve it for advancing the understanding of global warming. Maybe the blogger raised funds for a cause. Maybe they are recognized by their peers for research in a specific area. Maybe they’ve advanced or promoted music therapy for developmentally delayed kids.

You define the contribution with the nominee. It can be an individual, a group blog, or a group of blogs working together on a project. Also please note: since the point here is progessiveness in the advance of a humanitarian outcome, political ideology doesn’t matter. So a winner here could be an identified conservative or libertarian. The key is whether humanity has benefited.

Don Drysdale Award

Once again, there’s someone right of center in their politics whose blogging has been more than sheer vitriole. They’ve raised awareness and added to the debate and you could enjoy having them over for cocktails without fear that a fistfight would result. And note, this can be an individual, a group or even a humor blogger. (In the latter case, if PJ O’Rourke blogged, he’d make a great nominee). You might disagree with them most of the time but they raise good points or otherwise keep you entertained.

And again, please note what they did to deserve this honor.

Best Investigative Research Blog

Some blogs have prosaic writing or sharp-edged snark, but some are known as much or more for their work digging out the details of a news event (or several), or of things past. As an individual or as members of a group blog, these researchers have brought essential information to light through their research or their investigative journalism skills.

So with your nomination be sure to highlight one or more things they contributed. And if it was three members of a 5-member group blog that did it, name those key members.

Hall of Fame Award

In baseball, it takes many years of work and several years of retirement to be eligible. But there’s already more bloggers than all the pro baseball players that ever lived, so a shorter time frame is essential.

Any one of several ways can qualify one here:

1) Though it’ll take you some research, it could be any blogger who’s received a combined total of three Koufax awards, but the awards must have been won in at least two different years (winning three in one year won’t provide eligibility). And since this year’s winners aren’t known yet, there’s only been two years of awards previously (2002 and 2003), so the list of eligibles is probably very short currently under this criteria. Or…

2) The nominee has retired from blogging. While they blogged, they were known for their excellence, even if they never previously won a Koufax. Note: if a retiree wins on this criteria and later returns to blogging, they must cede the award. Or …

3) The nominee was known for their excellence. But they’ll blog no more because they’ve died. And note: even a well-regarded commenter who’s passed away can be eligible here.

4) When you make your nomination for one of the three criteria above, please define why they deserve to be a Hall-of-Famer, so people years hence will understand.

5) Unlike any other category the inductees will be the top three finishers in the balloting.

The Rules for nominating and voting

1) You may nominate more than one per category.

2) Please be clear about which award you’re nominating for. Saying “they deserve to win in every category’ is insufficient; you must name the categories. If you plan to make nominations in every category, here’s a list you can copy/paste to ease your task:

Best Designed Blog
Best Art or Photoblog
Best Moving Image Blog
Walt Kelly Best Toon Blog
Best Technical Achievement Blog
Best Humanitarian Blog
Don Drysdale Award
Best Investigative Research Blog
Hall of Fame Award

And where applicable,