2015 Ford C. Frick Award Winner Dick Enberg

It’s almost impossible to have been a sports fan during the 1980s and 90s and not heard Dick Enberg’s voice broadcasting any multitude of signature athletic events. But when he learned in December 2014 that he would be the 2015 recipient of the Ford C. Frick Award for major contributions to baseball broadcasting, Enberg called it the culmination of his professional life.

“I've loved this game as far back as I can remember, being teethed on a baseball bat,” Enberg said. “To have this, and my love for a sport, it's too good to be true, especially in light of those who are so qualified to earn this Ford C. Frick Award.

“In a way I accept this honor today as saying, ‘Hey, Enberg, you hit a grand slam,’” added Enberg, who became the 39th winner of the Frick Award.

Raised in Michigan, Enberg began his broadcasting career as an undergraduate at Central Michigan and later broadcast both football and basketball games at Indiana. By 1968, Enberg was calling California Angels games, a position he held until 1978. He also called games of the Los Angeles Rams and UCLA men’s basketball team and joined NBC Sports in 1975, remaining with the network for 25 years while working assignments that included the MLB Postseason as well as Wimbledon, college football and the National Football League.

Despite leaving the Angels to join NBC, the team brought him back in 1985 to broadcast 40 games during the franchises 25th anniversary season. After moving to CBS Sports in 2000, Enberg covered events including football, tennis, basketball and golf before joining the Padres as their television play-by-play voice in 2010.

“I've been lucky enough to receive a lot of wonderful honors in my life, but the investment that I have in this game of baseball going back to being a young boy is more than any other sport,” Enberg said. “The poetry of this game, there is so much more that gets deeply into the soul of me than the other sports. The other sports, they certainly are eye-popping, but baseball has its own wonderful slow pace that allows you to really absorb its beauty.”

The 14-time Emmy Award winner, recognized for his signature “Oh, my!” call, made his first trip to the Hall of Fame back in August 2007 to participate in a “Voices of the Game” event. It was there that he talked about the origins of his love of the National Pastime.

“When I was four years old my grandfather owned a small grocery story in Mount Clemens, Mich., where I was born,” Enberg said. “I can remember him saying ‘Dickie, come in here. If you can answer this baseball question you can pick out some Superman bubblegum.’ I would study my baseball because I knew grandpa would give me some free bubblegum.”

Enberg’s fascination with the game continued after the family moved to Southern California.

“We lived in California during World War II. There was no major league baseball there but we had the Pacific Coast League’s Hollywood Stars and Los Angeles Angels,” Enberg said. “We didn’t have a lot of money, but my dad, whenever we could get two-for-one, we’d go to the ball park. So on Sunday we’d go to the doubleheaders of the Stars and the Angels.”

Enberg always remembered the advice he was given only minutes before his first game as a big league play-by-play announcer.

“Fred Haney was the man I listened to as a very young boy calling Pacific Coast League games and now (in 1968) he’s the general manager of the Angels,” Enberg said. “He came into the broadcast booth about a half hour before the first pitch, and I’m very nervous, and he said, ‘Enberg, I heard you during spring training. I know you’re going to do a fine job for us. I just want to give you a little piece of advice: Report the ball. Don’t tell me what you hope the ball is going to do, what you think it’s going to do, why it didn’t do it. Report the ball.’ Then he said, ‘That’s all I have to say to you. I won’t come in your booth the rest of the year.’