Paul Hoynes, still churning out copy deep into his fifth decade as a down-in-the-trenches baseball beat writer, was elected the 2026 winner of the BBWAA Career Excellence Award. He will be honored with the award that is presented annually to a sportswriter “for meritorious contributions to baseball writing” during the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum’s induction weekend next July 24-27 in Cooperstown, N.Y.
Of the 407 ballots, including two blanks, cast by BBWAA members with 10 or more consecutive years’ service, Hoynes was named on 177 in becoming the 77th winner of the award since its inception in 1962. Finishing second with 128 votes was the late Scott Miller, who covered baseball for more than 30 years prior to his death in June at age 62 after an 18-month battle with pancreatic cancer. Tom Verducci, the multi-faceted writer for Sports Illustrated and commentator for MLB Network and Fox Sports’ MLB coverage, received 100 votes. Candidates were chosen by a three-member, BBWAA-appointed committee and announced during the All-Star Game meeting July 15 in Atlanta. Voting was conducted by mail in November.
Hoynes has trekked to press boxes throughout North America and entertained colleagues with his patented “hawk call.” Covering more than 6,000 major league games, “Hoynsie” is the owner of the most bylines in Cleveland Plain Dealer history. Starting with Mike Ferraro in 1983, Paul has covered 12 Cleveland managers as well as 18 Opening Day starters and seven general managers. He chronicled 105-loss teams in front of hordes of seagulls and a handful of diehards at old Municipal Stadium and 100-win teams before capacity crowds at a buzzing Progressive Field.
Hoynes covered Cleveland’s last three World Series teams (all losses, two in Game 7 extra innings) and the tragic spring training boating accident in 1993 that claimed the lives of pitchers Steve Olin and Tim Crews. Hoynes was elected to the Cleveland Journalism Hall of Fame in 2013. He served as president of the BBWAA in 2007 and was on the Cooperstown stage that year when Cal Ripken Jr. was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame, a fitting pairing of baseball’s Iron Man player and baseball’s Iron Man writer.