ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — Paul Hoynes, who has covered more than 6,000 games and set the byline record for Cleveland’s The Plain Dealer, was voted the BBWAA Career Excellence Award for meritorious contributions to baseball writing.
The honor was announced Tuesday by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America at the winter meetings. Hoynes will be honored during the Hall of Fame’s induction weekend from July 23-27 in Cooperstown, New York.
A 74-year-old who lives in Mentor, Ohio, Hoynes received 177 of 407 votes from BBWAA members with 10 or more consecutive years of service. Scott Miller, a baseball writer for more than 30 years prior to his death in June at age 62 due to pancreatic cancer, got 128 votes and Tom Verducci of Sports Illustrated, Fox Sports and the MLB Network got 100. There were two blanks.
Last year, Hoynes finished second to The Washington Post’s Thomas Boswell.
Known as Hoynsie, he covered the NFL’s Browns, NBA’s Cavaliers and high school sports before moving to the Indians beat in 1983. He has reported on 12 of the franchise’s managers, seven general managers and 18 opening day starting pitchers. He covered three Cleveland teams that reached the World Series, including two that lost in Game 7 and another defeated in Game 6.
Hoynes served as the BBWAA president in 2007. He works for Cleveland.com, which supplies stories for The Plain Dealer.