The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum on Wednesday
announced the 10 finalists for the Ford C. Frick Award, which is given to
baseball broadcasters of long and meritorious service.
According to MLB.com, a broadcaster cannot be considered for the Frick Award
unless he's called big league games for at least 10 years, and nine of the 10
finalists have worked for two decades in the same market. Last year's winner,
the late Tom Cheek, called 27 consecutive seasons for the Blue Jays.
The 10 finalists are: Joe Castiglione, Jacques Doucet, Ken
Harrelson, Bill King, Duane Kuiper, Eric Nadel, Eduardo Ortega, Mike Shannon,
Dewayne Staats and Pete van Wieren. The winner will be announced at the Winter
Meetings and then be feted as part of the Hall of Fame's induction weekend.
This year's pool of candidates featured 160 qualified
broadcasters from the "High Tide" era, which consists of men who
called games from the mid-1980s to the present day. The finalists were culled
from online balloting at the Hall of Fame's Facebook site during the month of
September.
More than 20,000 votes were cast, and three men -- Doucet,
King and Kuiper -- separated themselves from the pack in balloting. The other
seven finalists were chosen by a Hall of Fame research committee. Eight of the
10 finalists -- except for King and van Wieren -- are still active.
All these men, giants in their field, will be vying for an
honor named after one of the legends of the game. Ford C. Frick, a Hall-of-Fame
executive, worked as a sportswriter and broadcaster before later impacting the
game as MLB Commissioner and president of the National League.
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