Thomas Boswell, who for 52 years at the Washington Post as a baseball beat writer and later a columnist became one of the most notable and recognizable names in sports writing, was elected the 2025 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 25-28 in Cooperstown, N.Y.

Of the 394 ballots, including two blanks, cast by BBWAA members with 10 or more consecutive
years’ service, Boswell was named on 167 in becoming the 76th winner of the award since its inception in 1962. Finishing second with 158 votes was Paul Hoynes, who is into his fifth decade as a baseball beat writer in Cleveland. Bruce Jenkins, a baseball writer and columnist for almost half a century for the San Francisco Chronicle, received 67 votes. Candidates were chosen by a three-member, BBWAA-appointed committee and announced during the All-Star Game meeting July 16 in Arlington, Texas. Voting was conducted in November.

Boswell has already been enshrined in the National Sports Media Association Hall of Fame, the Washington D.C. Sports Hall of Fame, and the Society of Professional Journalists D.C. Pro Chapter Hall of Fame. He began his career at the Post in 1969. Boswell covered the 1975 World Series as a national baseball writer, a new concept at the paper, and went on to cover every World Series game that followed until 2020, when he sat out due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Tom moved to the Baltimore Orioles beat in 1980 and worked as a columnist from 1984 until his retirement in 2021.

In the early 1980s, before advanced metrics were commonplace, Boswell invented the Total Average statistic, an early attempt to quantify offensive contribution by valuing walks and extra-base hits. Along the way he covered tennis, boxing, and the Olympics, but baseball was his sweet spot. Among Tom’s many books are Why Time Begins on Opening Day, The Heart of the Order and How Life Imitates the World Series.

He wrote of the Washington Nationals winning the National League pennant in 2019, a full 50 years after his career began: “I went down to the packed Nationals Park infield and just slowly looked
around, a full 360. No revelations, just a memory.”