A fixture on Sportsnet’s baseball coverage is earning one of the top Canadian honours in the sport.
Hazel Mae is the 2025 recipient of the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame & Museum’s Jack Graney Award, the hall announced Wednesday.
The Jack Graney Award is presented annually to a member of the media who has made a significant contribution to the game of baseball in Canada through their life’s work, or for a singular outstanding achievement.
The award is named after former major-league player and broadcaster Jack Graney.
“Hazel Mae has set the bar extremely high for Major League Baseball’s in-game reporters,” said Scott Crawford, the director of operations at the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame & Museum, in a statement. “For many years, her in-depth player interviews and in-game insights have often been the highlight of Sportsnet’s Blue Jays coverage, but her impact on baseball in Canada reaches far beyond her work on the field. She has been a tremendous ambassador for baseball across the country.”
May’s professional career in the Toronto sports media began in 2001 when she was hired to anchor the morning edition of Sportsnet Central.
Mae moved to Boston in 2004 to be lead anchor for the New England Sports Network’s Sportsnet desk and was part of the Red Sox broadcast team in 2004 when they captured their first World Series in 86 years.
Mae then went on to work for the MLB Network in 2008 before returning to Sportsnet in 2011. In 2015, she began her current job as in-game reporter during Toronto Blue Jays broadcasts.
Mae was part of the Sportsnet crew that offered complete coverage of the Blue Jays’ run to Game 7 of the World Series this year.
“Thank you to the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame’s Board of Directors and selection committee,” Mae said in a statement. “Joining the distinguished group of Jack Graney Award winners leaves me feeling deeply humbled and profoundly grateful. This group includes incredible writers, broadcasters and storytellers whom I have long admired, been inspired by, and proudly call colleagues and friends.
“While each of us reached this milestone through our own very unique path, we all share a common passion and unwavering love for the game, and for this great country. Words cannot begin to express how honoured I am by this recognition.”
Previous winners of the Jack Graney Award include Sportsnet’s Dan Shulman, Buck Martinez and Jeff Blair, former broadcasters Tom Cheek, Jerry Howarth and Dave Van Horne, and reporters Bob Elliott, Dave Perkins and Milt Dunnell.
Details about the presentation of the 2025 Jack Graney Award will be announced in the coming months.
