Few columnists can say their words triggered that kind of reaction. Shaughnessy could and often did.

It’s work like that and much more over a 53-year career that has earned Shaughnessy the 2026 Red Smith Award. The award is presented by the Associated Press Sports Editors each year to a writer or editor who has made major contributions to sports journalism.

Shaughnessy grew up in Groton, Mass., about 35 miles west of Fenway Park. His love of Boston sports comes naturally. His knowledge and experience are unquestioned. But as a sports columnist, he has long been a polarizing figure.

“He views himself as the ombudsman for the fans,’’ said Bob Ryan, his fellow Globe columnist and a Red Smith Award winner, too. “He definitely feels that his job as a columnist is to afflict the comfortable. He inherently challenges authority. He knows there’s going to be pushback. He doesn’t mind it; he can take it. He is fearless in that regard.’’

There has certainly been pushback in sublime and ridiculous ways.

At Fenway Park, Shaughnessy likes to position himself on the suite level during games. People with information they want to share are constantly parading past. Unhappy with this, Red Sox management instructed a security guard to escort him back to the press box. Undaunted, Shaughnessy solved the problem by getting a ticket from a suite owner he knew.

Then there was the man in full clown regalia on the streets of New Orleans before the Super Bowl in 1997 who recognized him.

“Shaughnessy, you suck,’’ he yelled.

Dan’s response: “Well, you’re a clown.’’

None of it ever stopped him from writing what he believed needed to be said. He is known for biting criticism, but he is a gifted writer when crafting a poignant, touching tale.

“Whatever he was doing, whether as a beat writer or a columnist, he would always know what story was the most important one to write,’’ said Don Skwar, the Globe sports editor who named Shaughnessy a columnist. “He’s a really good reporter and he knew what people wanted to read about. He had a bead on what was most important.’’

Despite his reputation, not every reader, fan, athlete or coach dislikes Dan. In fact, perhaps the grumpiest of all, Bill Belichick, likes him. During one Super Bowl week, Belichick agreed to take a survey Dan devised, featuring questions of incredible importance, such as Coke or Pepsi? Mary Ann or Ginger?

That may seem trivial; Dan’s work mostly wasn’t.

He has been named the Massachusetts Sportswriter of the Year 14 times and has earned APSE Top 10 columnist honors in the large-circulation category 15 times, including this year. He is the author of 13 books, most notably “The Curse of the Bambino,’’ which chronicled the tribulations of the Red Sox as they failed to win the World Series from 1918 until 2004.

Despite his great love of sports, Dan himself would acknowledge he was not a great athlete. It makes it all the more remarkable that he and his wife of 44 years, Marilou, have had three Division 1 athletes – daughters Sarah and Kate, and son Sam. With five grandchildren, there may be more big-time athletes on the way.

Despite a career forged in print journalism (and Dan has never forsaken his beloved print readers), he clearly discerned the best way to acquire readers was to adapt to the changes in how his column was delivered. He adapted his habits to make sure his column was in front of online readers at the best time of day.

His columnist persona is also balanced by his charitable work, notably with The Jimmy Fund and UNICEF. His connection to The Jimmy Fund is especially personal – his daughter Kate is a leukemia survivor. His co-workers will tell you he is a great teammate, someone willing to assist colleagues from the sports department’s high school writers to its managers, and even the Globe’s “Love Letters’’ columnist.

Shaughnessy was honored by the Baseball Hall of Fame with the BBWAA Career Excellence Award in 2016. He is the ninth person to win that award and the Red Smith, joining Red Smith, Shirley Povich, Jim Murray, Joe McGuff, Wendell Smith, Sam Lacey, Jerome Holtzman, and Thomas Boswell.

He is the sixth person associated with the Boston Globe to receive the Red Smith Award, joining Bud Collins, Dave Smith, Vince Doria, Leigh Montville, and Ryan.

Garry D. Howard, Hal Bodley, Mark Whicker, Michael Wilbon, and Gary Smith were the next five candidates receiving the highest totals in this year’s Red Smith voting and will automatically return to the ballot in 2027.

Joe Sullivan was sports editor of the Boston Globe from 2004 to 2018.

If you see a man pushing a cart full of protruding poles or flattened construction cones down Massachusetts Avenue, it’s probably Alex Alex, making his frequent commute to City Hall in an attempt to clean up Boston. 

“One of the most basic responsibilities of government is to keep areas clean, to manage resources right, and to manage the way that people move around. And I saw that, in Boston, there’s obviously a very clear failure in … those aspects,” Alex said.

Alex Alex, 25, may be familiar to some Boston residents after he ran a longshot campaign for mayor last fall. After his predicted loss, Alex has not stopped his campaign for a brighter Boston. 

Alex opted to change his last name to match his first after he became an American citizen in 2023.

Alex, who works part time at a restaurant on Beacon Hill, spends his free time pushing a cart around the city, collecting fallen state and city government materials like bus signs, broken traffic cones, and forgotten construction equipment, along with other trash.

He then carts the damaged infrastructure and garbage to City Hall plaza and leaves it there for all to see.

The goal, he said, is to raise awareness about what he describes as inaction from the city and a misallocation of resources that have left ordinary Bostonians behind.

“I’m not invited to these rooms where policies are being made. I really can’t go to school board meetings, and pitch ideas there, but what I can do is point out infrastructure that’s physically visible to everybody,” Alex said. 

Alex documents the process, filming his trash collections and posting videos on his social media platforms.

“The third time in ten days bringing damaged infrastructure to City Hall, totaling over 200 pounds,” Alex said in one of his more popular posts.

He’s picked up a total of 5,000 pounds of trash and other discarded materials in a year, Alex said.

The New York University graduate said he’s had a few encounters with police around City Hall. He’s never been arrested for dumping trash, but he did have to complete 16 hours of community service earlier this year after being arrested for spray painting statistics about fatal car crashes in Massachusetts outside of the State House.

Alex says that once, as he brought liquor bottles to City Hall after a cleanup last summer, 10 police officers circled him and about five police cruisers pulled into the plaza.

“It’s always a question of ‘Is there going to be law enforcement waiting for me? What is going to be the response?’ Because I can never really tell. Sometimes [authorities] tell me that it’s going to be a fine, and then they don’t do anything about it for a few months,” Alex said.

Alex said he’s fine with pressing the boundaries of the law. 

“I’m OK with doing it, because I know how to walk a line. I know that eventually there will be consequences I have to face that I wasn’t ready for,” he said.

City Councilors say they’ve been willing to listen

The idea of lugging hundreds of pounds of broken traffic cones, traffic barricades, or bus signs around the city may seem extreme. According to Alex, he has already tried speaking to city officials about the litter problem, but they always seem to brush him off.

“It’s kind of been an escalation after being ignored by an administration that says that they listen to residents and then work with them to deliver real results. So I was like, ‘Okay, you don’t want to work with me. You don’t want to talk about these issues that I brought up. You don’t want to review the data. Then I’ll bring it to your front steps,’” Alex said.

Boston.com reached out to the City Councilors whom Alex said he’s tried to contact, along with Mayor Michelle Wu.

Councilor John FitzGerald, who represents Dorchester and parts of the South End, Councilor Benjamin Weber, who represents West Roxbury and Jamaica Plain, and At-Large Councilor Julia Mejia all pushed back on Alex’s claims that they haven’t engaged with his concerns.

“This is not true. I met Alex once in my life at a South End event, we talked for about 10 minutes and I actually gave him advice and was very complimentary of him, though I did push back on some of his comments and educated him on things he was unaware of that make his demands more difficult to accomplish than he realizes. So not sure where he’s coming from with that statement,” FitzGerald said in an email to Boston.com. 

“I am sorry he feels that way, but I don’t think it is accurate. I have spoken to him at public meetings on a couple occasions and heard him out. If he has anything further to discuss, he is welcome to reach out to my office anytime,” Weber told Boston.com.

“We have connected and met with Alex Alex since that comment has been made (that her office is unresponsive), and look forward to partnering with him through our co-governance model, as we do with all Bostonians. We appreciate Alex’s advocacy and want to continue to amplify community’s voice,” a spokesperson for Mejia said in a statement to Boston.com.

Wu and City Councilors Liz Breadon, Sharon Durkan, and Enrique Pepén did not respond to requests for comment.

When Alex goes through neighborhoods picking up trash, some residents express their appreciation, he said. However, he stresses that he can’t be the only person cleaning up the city. He wants people to understand that “at some point you’re going to have to do this too,” Alex said. 

On Earth Day, April 22, Alex plans to host a protest at the State House. He’s asking participants to pick up trash from spaces that matter to them and bring their findings to the State House “to show the legislature what our state looks like and how dirty it is,” he said.

Alex is also working to launch his own consulting firm called 100ForDemocracy. 

“Part of this consulting agency would be to hire people like me and young people who don’t really have these opportunities to break into the professional world, but who have skills, who have the background knowledge, and who have expertise that is being underutilized,” he said.

In the meantime, Alex will carry on with his cleanups and continue to work at his restaurant job where, he said, his boss will continue to jokingly ask him if he’s gotten arrested lately.