2012 Ford C. Frick Award Ballot Finalized

COOPERSTOWN, NY) – Ten of baseball’s most beloved and honored broadcasters were named today as the finalists for the 2012 Ford C. Frick Award, presented annually for excellence in baseball broadcasting by the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum.

The 10 finalists for the 2012 Frick Award are: Skip Caray, Rene Cardenas, Tom Cheek, Ken Coleman, Jacques Doucet, Bill King, Tim McCarver, ASA Hall of Famer Graham McNamee, ASA member Eric Nadel and Mike Shannon. The winner of the 2012 Frick Award will be announced on December 6 at the Baseball Winter Meetings and honored during Hall of Fame Weekend, July 20-23, 2012 in Cooperstown.

The 10 finalists for the 2012 Frick Award include the three fan selections produced from online balloting at the Hall of Fame’s Facebook site – www.facebook.com/baseballhall – throughout September. A total of 37,212 votes were cast, a record under this voting format. Shannon, Cheek and Doucet emerged as the top three fan selections, respectively, in the online voting. The other seven candidates were chosen by a Hall of Fame research committee. McCarver, Nadel and Shannon are the active broadcasters on the ballot. Cardenas and Doucet are the only other living candidates among the finalists.

Final voting for the 2012 Frick Award will be conducted by a 20-member electorate, comprised of the 15 living Frick Award recipients and five broadcast historians/columnists, including past Frick honorees Marty Brennaman, Jerry Coleman, Gene Elston, Joe Garagiola, Jaime Jarrin, Milo Hamilton, Tony Kubek, Denny Matthews, Jon Miller, Felo Ramirez, Vin Scully, Lon Simmons, Bob Uecker, 2011 Frick Award winner Dave Van Horne and Bob Wolff, and historians/columnists Bob Costas (NBC), Barry Horn (Dallas Morning News), Stan Isaacs (formerly of NY Newsday), Ted Patterson (historian) and Curt Smith (historian).

The 10 finalists for the 2012 Frick Award: Caray broadcast Braves games on TBS for 33 years while bringing the team to a national audience via cable television; Cardenas helped create the first Spanish-language MLB broadcast in 1958 with the Dodgers, working a total of 38 years for the Dodgers, Astros and Rangers; Cheek broadcast 31 major league seasons covering the Montreal Expos (1974-’76) and Toronto Blue Jays (1977-2004), the last 28 seasons as the Jays’ radio play-by-play man with 4,603 straight games broadcast, before his death during the 2005 season; Coleman spent 35 years with the Indians (1954-63), Reds (1975-78) and Red Sox (1966-74, 79-89); Doucet spent his entire 34 year career broadcasting for the Expos as the play-by-play radio voice on their French network (1969-2004); King worked for 25 seasons (1981-2005) as the A’s lead play-by-play voice on radio; McCarver has broadcast for 31 seasons, the last 16 for Fox-TV on their national broadcast – extending a string of 21 seasons working the postseason; McNamee was a national pioneer in sports broadcasting, calling games for 13 seasons for Westinghouse and NBC, also calling 12 World Series; Nadel has spent the last 33 seasons with the Rangers – the longest tenure of any announcer in franchise history – including the last 17 as the club’s lead play-by-play voice; and Shannon has called Cardinals games for 40 years following a nine-year playing career with the Redbirds.

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 250 broadcasters were eligible for consideration for the award based on these qualifications for 2012.

The annual award is named in memory of Hall of Famer Ford C. Frick, renowned sportswriter, radio broadcaster, National League president and Baseball commissioner.