2017 Ford C. Frick Award Ballot Finalized

Eight of the National Pastime’s beloved voices have been named as the finalists for the 2017 Ford C. Frick Award, presented annually for excellence in baseball broadcasting by the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum.

The eight finalists for the 2017 Frick Award are: Gary Cohen, Jacques Doucet, Ken Harrelson, Pat Hughes, Bill King, Mike Krukow, Ned Martin and Dewayne Staats. The winner of the 2017 Frick Award will be announced on Dec. 7 at the Baseball Winter Meetings in National Harbor, Md., and will be honored during the July 29 Awards Presentation as part of the July 28-31 Hall of Fame Weekend 2017 in Cooperstown. All candidates except King and Martin are living.

The 2017 Frick Award ballot reflects the changes made in July by the Hall of Fame’s Board of Directors to the annual Frick Award process. A new election cycle for the Frick Award was established, rotating annually between Current Major League Markets (team-specific announcers) for the 2017 Frick Award; National Voices (broadcasters whose contributions were realized on a national level) for the 2018 Frick Award; and Broadcasting Beginnings (early team voices and pioneers of baseball broadcasting) for the 2019 Frick Award. This cycle will repeat every three years.

As established by the Board of Directors, new criteria for selection is as follows: “Commitment to excellence, quality of broadcasting abilities, reverence within the game, popularity with fans, and recognition by peers.”
Final voting for the 2017 Frick Award will be conducted by an electorate comprised of the 13 living Frick Award recipients and four broadcast historians/columnists, including past Frick honorees Marty Brennaman, Dick Enberg, Jaime Jarrin, Tony Kubek, Denny Matthews, Tim McCarver, Jon Miller, Eric Nadel, Felo Ramírez, Vin Scully, Bob Uecker, Dave Van Horne and Bob Wolff, and historians/columnists David J. Halberstam (historian), Barry Horn (Dallas Morning News), Ted Patterson (historian) and Curt Smith (historian).

The 2017 Frick Award ballot was created by a subcommittee of the voting electorate that included Enberg, McCarver, Nadel, Smith and Wolff.

To be considered, an active or retired broadcaster must have a minimum of 10 years of continuous major league broadcast service with a ball club, network, or a combination of the two. More than 200 broadcasters were eligible for consideration for the 2017 Frick Award based on these qualifications.

The eight finalists for the 2017 Frick Award:

- Cohen has spent the last 28 years with the Mets, and currently serves as the team’s TV play-by-play voice on SNY;
- Doucet spent 34 years broadcasting for the Expos as the play-by-play radio voice on their French network (1969-2004), and he returned to the booth in 2012 for select games as the Blue Jays’ French-speaking TV voice;
- Harrelson has brought a passionate voice to the air for the Red Sox, Yankees and White Sox, including 26 years in Chicago;
- Hughes has called MLB games for 34 seasons, starting with the Twins in 1983 before working Brewers games from 1984-95 and serving as the Cubs’ radio voice for the last 21 seasons;
- King worked for 25 seasons (1981-2005) as the A’s lead play-by-play voice on radio;
- Krukow has spent the last 26 seasons on radio and TV for the Giants following a 14-year career as a pitcher where he won 124 games for the Cubs, Phillies and Giants;
- Martin worked as the Red Sox’s radio and television voice from 1961-92, covering the 1975 World Series for NBC-TV;
- Staats has called big league games for 36 years, including the last 19 as the voice of the Rays on television.

Additional information on the eight finalists can be found at www.baseballhall.org.

The annual award is named in memory of Hall of Famer Ford C. Frick, renowned sportswriter, radio broadcaster, National League president and Baseball Commissioner. Past recipients of the Ford C. Frick Award:

• Mel Allen
  (1978)
• Red Barber
  (1978)
• Bob Elson
  (1979)
• Russ Hodges
  (1980)
• Ernie Harwell
  (1981)
• Vin Scully
  (1982)
• Jack Brickhouse
  (1983)
• Curt Gowdy
  (1984)
• Buck Canel
  (1985)
• Bob Prince
  (1986)
• Jack Buck
  (1987)
• Lindsey Nelson
  (1988)
• Harry Caray
  (1989)
• By Saam
  (1990)
• Joe Garagiola
  (1991)
• Milo Hamilton
  (1992)
• Chuck Thompson
  (1993)
• Bob Murphy
  (1994)
• Bob Wolff
  (1995)
• Herb Carneal
  (1996)
• Jimmy Dudley
  (1997)
• Jaime Jarrín
  (1998)
• Arch McDonald
  (1999)
• Marty Brennaman
  (2000)
• Felo Ramírez
  (2001)
• Harry Kalas
  (2002)
• Bob Uecker
  (2003)
• Lon Simmons
  (2004)
• Jerry Coleman
  (2005)
• Gene Elston
  (2006)
• Denny Matthews
  (2007)
• Dave Niehaus
  (2008)
• Tony Kubek
  (2009)
• Jon Miller
  (2010)
• Dave Van Horne
  (2011)
• Tim McCarver
  (2012)
• Tom Cheek
  (2013)
• Eric Nadel
  (2014)
• Dick Enberg
  (2015)
• Graham McNamee
  (2016)