It's official: With Paul Hoynes and Mary Kay Cabot, Cleveland has the absolute best sports reporters

·33 min·3 clips

Cleveland Guardians writer Paul Hoynes is entering the Baseball Hall of Fame after 40 years of coverage.

The episode begins with a celebration of Cleveland sports writers, highlighting Paul Hoynes receiving the Baseball Writers Association of America Career Excellence Award and Mary Kay Cabot's earlier Bill Nunn Memorial Award. The hosts discuss their work ethic and the newsroom's strong sports coverage team. The conversation shifts to Ohio politics, covering Senate Bill 56, which regulates intoxicating hemp and adds new penalties to the recreational marijuana law, including restrictions on bringing marijuana from other states and unemployment benefits for those fired for use. Next, Ohio regulators' ban on most marijuana advertising is analyzed, with debates over First Amendment concerns and comparisons to alcohol advertising. A report from Cleveland's consent decree monitoring team reveals racial disparities in traffic stops, showing black drivers are 3.7 times more likely to be stopped than white drivers. The case of Natalie McDaniel, wife of a former Cleveland Heights mayor, is resolved with a guilty plea to criminal trespass for entering a home over a recall sign, resulting in probation and a mental health evaluation. Cuyahoga County's $34 million IT upgrade is discussed skeptically due to past failures with a previous $25 million project that took six years. A solar farm project in Slavic Village is shelved amid disputes between Cleveland and Cuyahoga County over power connections. Ohio's deer hunting season results are noted, with over 85,000 deer taken during gun season, including 74 in Cuyahoga County. The episode ends with a brief mention of health insurance proposals from Ohio senators, though it's noted they are likely moot as the Senate coalesces around another plan.

As heard by us

Paul Hoynes' Cooperstown honor anchors a brisk Cleveland roundtable that moves from sports pride to civic headaches.

Today in Ohio uses Paul Hoynes' 2026 Baseball Writers Association of America Career Excellence Award as a clean entry point into Cleveland sports reporting and civic pride.

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Why you'd press play

You get Paul Hoynes headed for Cooperstown, then Ohio cannabis billboard rules tested against free-speech common sense.

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