October 9, 2013 – (COOPERSTOWN, NY) Ten of the National Pastime’s iconic voices have been named as the finalists for the 2014 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 2014 Frick Award 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 of the 2014 Frick Award will be announced on December 11 at the Baseball Winter Meetings and will be honored during the July 26 Awards Presentation as part of Hall of Fame Weekend 2014 in Cooperstown.
The 10 finalists for the 2014 Frick Award include the three fan selections produced from online balloting at the Hall of Fame’s Facebook site – www.facebook.com/baseballhall – in September. A total of 20,968 votes were cast. Doucet, King and Kuiper emerged as the top three fan selections in the online voting. The other seven candidates were chosen by a Hall of Fame research committee. All broadcasters on the ballot, with the exception of King and van Wieren, are active. All the finalists except for King are living.
The 2014 Frick Award ballot reflects recent changes in the selection process where eligible candidates are grouped together by years of most significant contributions of their broadcasting careers. The new cycle begins with the High Tide Era, which features broadcasters whose main body of work came from the mid-1980s – the start of the regional cable network era – through the present.
The new three-year cycle for the Frick Award will continue in the fall of 2014 with the Living Room Era, which will feature candidates whose most significant years fell during the mid-1950s through the early 1980s. In the fall of 2015, candidates will be considered from the Broadcasting Dawn Era, which features candidates from the earliest days of broadcasting into the early 1950s.
Final voting for the 2014 Frick Award will be conducted by a 20-member electorate, comprised of the 16 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, Tim McCarver, Denny Matthews, Jon Miller, Felo Ramirez, Vin Scully, Lon Simmons, Bob Uecker, Dave Van Horne and Bob Wolff, and historians/columnists Bob Costas (NBC), Barry Horn (Dallas Morning News), Ted Patterson (historian) and Curt Smith (historian).
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 160 broadcasters were eligible for consideration for the award based on these qualifications for 2014.
Career Highlights of the 10 finalists for the 2014 Frick Award
Castiglione has spent 33 years calling big league games, the last 30 as the Red Sox’s lead radio voice.
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 27 years in Chicago.
King worked for 25 seasons (1981-2005) as the A’s lead play-by-play voice on radio.
Kuiper has called games for 28 seasons, all but one with the Giants after spending 1993 with the expansion Rockies.
Nadel has spent the last 35 seasons with the Rangers – the longest tenure of any announcer in franchise history – including the last 21 as the club’s lead play-by-play voice.
Ortega has handled Spanish-language MLB broadcasts for 27 years, including the last 21 as the voice of the Padres on radio and TV.
Shannon has called Cardinals games for 42 years following a nine-year playing career with the Redbirds.
Staats has called big league games for 36 years, including the last 16 as the voice of the Rays.
Van Wieren called Braves games on television and radio from 1976-2008.
* * *