LAT diversifies in Sports

You might remember that after losing Tim Brown to Yahoo last November, LAT sports editor Randy Harvey put out the call (second item) for a Spanish-speaking writer to work general assignment but focus on baseball and soccer. He found his man. It's former Timesman Kevin Baxter, returning to the fold from the Miami Herald. Memo after the jump.

To: The Staff
From: Randy Harvey, Sports Editor

After a nationwide search for a general assignment sportswriter fluent in Spanish, Sports is pleased to announce we have lured an esteemed former colleague for the job. Kevin Baxter is returning from the Miami Herald, where he has served the last four years as the national baseball reporter and columnist.

Kevin worked for The Times from 1988-99 in numerous roles -- for the Valley edition, the Washington edition, Business, Book Review, Real Estate, Calendar and the Life & Style sections. He also served as a beat reporter for Latino television and radio. It was in that role that he and Greg Braxton shared the Raul Julia Award presented by the National Hispanic Foundation for the Arts for their positive portrayals of Latinos in the arts.

Kevin went to the Herald initially as an arts editor with an emphasis on Spanish-language pop music, dance, television, radio, visual arts and theater. He contributed to the Herald's Pulitzer Prize winning coverage of the Elian Gonzalez story in 2000. He earlier had contributed to the Times' Pulitzer-winning coverage in 1992 of the Los Angeles riots and in 1994 of the Northridge earthquake.

During his previous years with The Times, Kevin contributed numerous articles to the sports section. He since has become nationally recognized for his baseball reporting, particularly for his coverage of Latin Americans in the sport and the issues that affect them.

But his work is not limited to baseball. For the Herald, he also has covered NASCAR and the National Hockey League.

Kevin has a Bachelor of Arts degree in English, an Associate of Sciences degree in physical education and has done post-graduate work in education, communications, English literature and Nicaraguan poetry. We welcome his versatility in his general assignment role here. He will resume his career at The Times on Feb. 5.