CLEVELAND, Ohio — Paul Hoynes, the dogged baseball voice of The Plain Dealer and cleveland.com, has been named the 2026 recipient of the Baseball Writers’ Association of America Career Excellence Award — the highest honor a baseball writer can receive.

One year after Guardians broadcasting legend Tom Hamilton enjoyed his moment in Cooperstown, Hoynes will be celebrated there during the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum’s induction weekend July 24–27.

Hoynes becomes the 77th winner of the award and fourth from the Cleveland market joining Gordon Cobbledick (1977), Hal Lebovitz (1999) and Sheldon Ocker (2018). The honor is presented annually “for meritorious contributions to baseball writing,” and if ever an individual embodied what it means to be a baseball beat writer, it’s Hoynsie.

Of the 407 ballots cast by BBWAA members with at least 10 consecutive years of service, Hoynes appeared on 177, finishing ahead of the late Scott Miller (128 votes) and veteran writer and broadcaster Tom Verducci (100). Hoynes was a finalist for the 2025 award, but finished nine votes behind longtime Washington Post columnist Thomas Boswell.

The ballot was selected by a three-member BBWAA committee and announced at the All-Star Game meeting on July 15 in Atlanta. Voting took place by mail in November.

A Cleveland institution for parts of five decades

Players, managers and executives have cycled through Cleveland at dizzying speed over the last 42 years, but Hoynes is the one constant who has remained. The city’s senior baseball chronicler, and a tireless road warrior, his unmistakable “Hawk Call” is the stuff of legend in the Progressive Field press box.

Since starting on the beat in 1983, Hoynes has covered 13 managers, 18 opening day starters and seven general managers. He has documented 105-loss seasons where seagulls outnumbered fans in the stands, and 100-win juggernauts playing before record-setting sellout crowds. He has witnessed the rise of franchise icons such as Sandy Alomar Jr, Jim Thome, Corey Kluber and José Ramírez, as well as the heartbreak of three World Series defeats, two of them in extra innings of Game 7.

Hoynes also covered Cleveland’s darkest moments with unwavering integrity, including the 1993 spring training boating accident that claimed pitchers Steve Olin and Tim Crews. Through triumphs and tragedies, Hoynes’ voice has remained a steady fixture trusted by generations of readers.

A career of quirks, commitment and countless miles

For all his reporting acumen, Hoynes may be equally celebrated for the legendary tales that follow him. Everybody in baseball, it seems, has a Hoynsie story to share. Like booking a Chicago-to-Cleveland flight with a layover in Atlanta or forgetting to renew his driver’s license, which rendered him unable to rent a car during spring training — twice; 30 years apart.

The stories are as legendary as the teams he has chronicled. From wearing two belts by accident, to an infamous confrontation with former Indians outfielder Mel Hall. Hoynes even took a chilly plunge into Lake Erie to pay the piper after prematurely declaring the 2016 team finished before its magical run to the World Series.

Colleagues marvel at his stamina. Forty-two years on the beat with the way Hoynes attacks the day-to-day grind would have already worn down a mortal scribe.

But when the pandemic halted major league games in 2020, Hoynes covered Little League contests with the same passion that he brings nightly to his seat in the Progressive Field press box.

It’s one of the reasons he owns more bylines in The Plain Dealer than anyone in the paper’s history.

A veteran writer who never lost the joy of baseball

Baseball often ages writers into cynics, but Hoynes has never succumbed. His unmistakable laugh has echoed through every press box in the big leagues. His curiosity remains undimmed. Even after decades of late nights, deadline sprints and grueling travel, the game still pulls him in: every pitch, every storyline, every season.

Cooperstown bound

Hoynes will join the sport’s legends in Cooperstown in July. He will be honored not for taking the field, but for bringing the game to life for hundreds of thousands of readers. For Cleveland baseball fans, it will be the highlight of a career defined by devotion, durability and a love of the game that has never wavered.