2027 Ford C. Frick Award Ballot Finalized

(COOPERSTOWN, NY) – Ten of the National Pastime’s most historic and respected voices have been named as the finalists for the 2027 Ford C. Frick Award, presented annually for excellence in baseball broadcasting by the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum.

This ballot will mark the first election featuring a composite ballot of local and national voices whose broadcast careers concluded prior to the advent of the Wild Card in 1994. The election cycle will then return, starting with the 2028 Frick Award, to four straight years of candidates whose careers began or mostly comprise the years after the advent of the Wild Card era. The cycle then repeats.

The 2027 Frick Award ballot consists of 10 candidates, including a requirement that at least one candidate be a foreign language broadcaster.

The 10 finalists for the 2027 Frick Award are: Buddy Blattner, Ken Coleman, Dizzy Dean, Earl Gillespie, Merle Harmon, Ned Martin, Monte Moore, Gustavo Lopez Moreno, Bill O’Donnell and Jack Quinlan. The winner of the 2027 Frick Award will be announced on Dec. 9 at Baseball’s Winter Meetings in San Diego and will be honored during the July 24 Awards Presentation as part of the July 23-26 Hall of Fame Weekend 2027 in Cooperstown. Moore and Moreno are the only living candidates on the ballot.

Criteria for selection is as follows: “Commitment to excellence, quality of broadcasting abilities, reverence within the game, popularity with fans, and recognition by peers.”

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.

The 2027 Frick Award ballot was created by a subcommittee of the voting electorate that included past Frick honorees Joe Castiglione, Bob Costas, Tom Hamilton and Eric Nadel and broadcast historian Curt Smith.

Final voting for the 2027 Frick Award will be conducted by an electorate comprised of the 14 living Frick Award recipients and two broadcast historians/columnists, including past Frick honorees Marty Brennaman, Joe Buck, Castiglione, Costas, Hamilton, Ken Harrelson, Pat Hughes, Jaime Jarrín, Tony Kubek, Denny Matthews, Al Michaels, Jon Miller, Nadel and Dave Van Horne, and historians/columnists Barry Horn (formerly of the Dallas Morning News), and Smith (historian).

The 10 finalists for the 2027 Frick Award:

  • Blattner worked 26 seasons for outlets primarily in the 1950s and 1960s including the Liberty Game of the Day, Mutual Game of the Day, ABC Game of the Week, CBS Game of the Week and NBC, along with several stops with individual teams.
  • Coleman spent 35 years with the Indians (1954-63), Reds (1975-78) and Red Sox (1966-74, 79-89), calling the action for five World Series teams.
  • Dean, elected to the Hall of Fame as a pitcher in 1953, made his mark as the voice of CBS’ Game of the Week from 1955-65 following several seasons with the Cardinals and Browns.
  • Gillespie called 11 seasons of games with the Milwaukee Braves (1953-63), including the 1957 and 1958 World Series for NBC Radio.
  • Harmon worked for 30 seasons with the Kansas City A’s (1955-61), Milwaukee Braves (1964-65), Minnesota Twins (1967-69), Milwaukee Brewers (1970-79) and Texas Rangers (1982-89) along with the ABC Game of the Week (1965) and NBC Game of the Week (1980-82).
  • Martin worked as the Red Sox’s radio and television voice from 1961-92, covering the 1975 World Series for NBC-TV along with three Red Sox World Series teams.
  • Moore called games for 22 years (1962-77, 1987-1992) for the Athletics and spent three years as Game of the Week announcer for NBC-TV and six years with USA Network.
  • Moreno called games for 23 years with the San Diego Padres (1969-91), bringing Padres’ action to Spanish-speaking fans from the club’s inception.
  • O’Donnell joined the Orioles broadcast team in 1966 after spending 13 years as the voice of Syracuse University football, calling Baltimore games for 17 seasons. He was a member of NBC’s Game of the Week team from 1969 to 1976.
  • Quinlan called Cubs games from 1955-64 before his promising career was cut short by a fatal automobile accident in Spring Training of 1965.

Additional information on the 10 finalists can be found at baseballhall.org/frickaward2027.

The annual award is named in memory of Hall of Famer Ford C. Frick, renowned sportswriter, radio broadcaster, National League president and MLB Commissioner. For a list of past recipients of the Ford C. Frick Award, please click here.