Joe Buck, Paul Hoynes, Rick Monday and Bill White were honored Saturday, July 25, at the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum’s 2026 Awards Presentation at the Alice Busch Opera Theater at the Glimmerglass Festival in the town of Springfield.
BBHOF Board Chair Jane Forbes Clark moderated the event, and she and HOF President Josh Rawitch gave out the awards in front of a crowd of hundreds of baseball dignitaries, dozens of Hall of Fame members and the family and friends of the honorees.
The intimate affair in the grand theater began with a standing ovation as Rawitch helped White, 92, a former player, announcer, National League president, and the 2026 Buck O’Neill Lifetime Achievement Award winner, on stage and to his seat.
White is the seventh winner of the O’Neill Award, which is given out no more than once every three years to someone who has served as an ambassador of the game, help broaden its appeal and whose character, integrity and dignity are similar to O’Neill, a Negro League standout and organizer, and a 2022 HOF inductee.
“Bill White blazed trails in this sport at every level,” Clark said.
White was the first Black man to be a president of a major American sports league, as well as a pioneer in the announcing booth with the New York Yankees and on national broadcasts. With Phil Rizzuto as his partner, he made several iconic calls during the Yankees 1970s heyday, including Bucky Dent’s home run in the 1978 American League championship. He also had 202 home runs and 870 RBI and was an eight-time All-Star and seven-time Gold Glove Award winner during 13 major league seasons with the Giants, Cardinals and Phillies. He won a World Series title in 1964 in St. Louis.
White did not speak but a video was shown of prerecorded remarks he made.
“This award is meaningful, because when I grew up, I never imagined life in baseball,” he said. “Baseball was a way to earn money for medical school, but signing with the New York Giants put me on a different path. Rooming with Willie Mays helped me become a better baseball player.”
Buck won the Ford C. Frick Award, following in the footsteps of his father, Jack, who called games for the Cardinals, including in 1964.
Named for one of the co-founders of the HOF, the Frick Award goes to an outstanding baseball announcer. With partners Tim McCarver, another Frick winner, and Hall of Famer John Smoltz, Buck called 24 World Series events on Fox. He left in 2021 to become the lead announcer on Monday Night Football on ESPN. His partner Troy Aikman, an NFL Hall of Famer, was in the audience Saturday.
Buck said he does not miss every baseball fanbase thinking he is biased against their team, noting even some Cardinals fans felt that way. He said he also does not like many of the changes in the game, calling himself a grumpy, old man. However, he said he missed the people, the games and the stories.
“With apologies to Lou Gehrig, I want to take the next 10 minutes to try to convince you that I am indeed the luckiest man on the face of the Earth, at least when it comes to calling this great game into a microphone,” he said.
Buck said he benefited from nepotism and the novelty of having Jack Buck’s kid call games while sitting next to his dad. He noted it was hard to make the speech not all about his dad, who won his Frick Award in 1987.
Hoynes, also known as Hoynsie around the baseball world, has more bylines in the Cleveland Plain Dealer – more than 6,000 – than any other reporter. He has covered Cleveland baseball since 1986, including three trips to the World Series and a revival of a team that was moribund when he began covering it.
He thanked his family for tolerating his absences, said his wife was the real person deserving of an award, and said his family has been more excited about his award than he is.
“Even my wife is excited,” Hoynes said, “and we’ve been married for over 50 years.”
Monday was honored for making a “great save” in April 25, 1976, in Chicago, grabbing an American flag from protesters who were trying to set fire to it on the field at Wrigley.
“This country needs more men like Rick Monday,” Buck said.
The flag was given to Monday later that season by the Cubs. Monday lent the flag to the Hall this year, giving the museum the best possible America 250 artifact, Clark said.
Monday, who served in the Marine reserves, said he hoped the story of his save and the appearance of the flag on the third floor of the Hall of Fame would inspire people to do what he did, act with courage and honor during difficult times.
“We are extremely proud to share this flag and this moment with everyone else here, because it brings awareness of where we are in this country and where we can be in the future,” he said.
Induction Weekend will continue Sunday, July 26, when Carlos Beltrán, Jeff Kent and Andruw Jones will be inducted. The ceremony begins at 1:30 p.m., at The Clark Sports Center in the town of Middlefield.
Hall officials said they expect 60 of the 77 living Hall of Famers, a record number, to attend Sunday’s ceremony. The record for member attendance is 58 in 2019.
The ceremony can be viewed on the MLB Network and heard on the MLB Network Radio on SiriusXM.