Baseball writer Paul Hoynes will be off the Cleveland Guardians beat for the weekend of July 24–27.
After his peers voted for him to receive the 2026 Baseball Writers’ Association of America (BBWAA) Career Excellence Award, unequivocally the most prestigious prize in baseball journalism, and after covering another spring training schedule of the Guardians in Arizona, Hoynes still has to pinch himself to prove he’s not dreaming.
Hoynes has been reporting for The Cleveland Plain Dealer, now published online at Cleveland.com, in Northeast Ohio since 1983.
“I was at the Winter Meetings in Orlando [Florida] when the announcement was made,” Hoynes, 74, told The Epoch Times earlier this week during a phone conversation at a Cleveland airport.
“The night before, I had been writing stories until 8 p.m. The next day, I’m back at it, then [BBWAA secretary-treasurer] Jack O‘Connell comes in the room and sits down next to me. Then, he says I’m ’the guy,’ [and] I was shocked.”
Getting the news that he was the 77th winner of the Career Excellence Award, until 2021 known as the JG Taylor Spink Award, stretched Hoynes emotionally. He remembers shaking with joy—so much so that he couldn’t call his wife and children. He had to struggle to send them text messages.
The official line for the criteria of the Career Excellence Award posted by the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown is—for “meritorious contributions to baseball writing.” After Hoynes picks up the award on July 25 at the Alice Busch Opera Theater eight miles north of the Village of Cooperstown, his plaque will be placed on the second floor of the baseball museum, in the “Scribes and Mikemen” exhibit in the National Baseball Library.
Hoynes recalled that the only Induction Weekend that he had attended was in 2007—the year that Tony Gwynn and Cal Ripken Jr. entered the Hall of Fame. That year’s newest members of the Hall of Fame drew the largest all-time crowd to the Clark Sports Center grounds in Cooperstown for the ceremonies. An estimated 82,000 fans came to show their support for the former Padre and Oriole. Hoynes, as 2007 BBWAA president, presided over the events.
“Induction Weekend was like Woodstock,” he said.
As a writer, Hoynes is having to come to terms with being the news instead of reporting it during the upcoming induction festivities. Along with Joe Buck, who will be sharing the stage at the Alice Busch theater in July as the recipient of the Ford C. Frick Award, baseball’s top honor for broadcasting excellence, Hoynes will address an audience of friends, family, colleagues, and readers who have come to rely on him as the eyes and ears of everything Cleveland baseball.
Stepping up to the podium, and delivering a speech of appreciation to those who influenced and supported his road to Cooperstown is something that Hoynes has thought about often.
“I’m sweating it out. I haven’t started writing it yet,” Hoynes said, referring to his preparations for talking about himself while being the target of a stage spotlight. “I know I'll talk about when I started out at The Painesville Telegraph, and the mentors I’ve had in Mike Starkey and Ted Diadiun.”
Perhaps a major contributor to Hoynes’ success in being the beacon of baseball truth in Cleveland through the decades is his love for the club dating back to his childhood. Growing up in Cleveland Heights, Ohio, Hoynes has countless memories of attending Indians’ games with his father. His favorite player was Rocky Colavito.
“In those days, you had to dress up to go to a ballgame,” Hoynes recalled.
As the news spread of Hoynes being ticketed for “The Home of Baseball,” phone calls and texts of congratulations were plentiful. Among the first to connect with him was Hall of Famer Ted Simmons, who in his post-playing days served as a longtime scout for the Indians. There were also current Guardians’ coach Sandy Alomar Jr., former MLB pitcher Orel Hersheiser, and Hall of Famer Johnny Bench.
“While I was at my grandson’s wrestling match, I saw Bench’s name come up on my phone. That call was the best. I was a little intimidated by taking that call,” Hoynes confessed.
Hoynes will be in Seattle for the start of the 2026 MLB season for the Guardians’ four-game series with the Mariners, and then off to cover three games in Los Angeles between Cleveland and the Dodgers, before coming home for the Guardians’ first homestand of the schedule with the visiting Chicago Cubs starting on April 3.
So the countdown is on for Induction Weekend in Cooperstown. In four months, along with Hoynes and Buck being honored, three new members of the Hall of Fame—Andruw Jones, Carlos Beltran, and Jeff Kent—will join baseball’s most elite roster. On Sunday July 26, the Class of 2026 will be inducted.
