Lon Simmons, Legendary Bay Area Sportscaster, Receives Ford C. Frick Award

Lon Simmons, legendary Bay area broadcaster, received the Ford C. Frick Award during the annual Induction Ceremonies at the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, NY, on July 25, 2004.

An original voice of the Giants when they moved west, Simmons called games for San Francisco and the Oakland A's for 41 years before retiring after the 2002 season.

When the Giants moved to San Francisco in 1958, Russ Hodges was the only announcer to make the move, and Simmons joined him for the team's initial broadcasts at Seals Stadium. Simmons and Hodges worked together for 13 years before Simmons retired in 1973 after the death of his first wife. He returned to the Giants in 1976 for three more years, then moved across the bay to Oakland, where he teamed with Bill King to broadcast Athletics games from 1981-95. In 1996, he returned to the Giants and worked a partial schedule until his retirement in 2002.

Simmons broadcast the pennant-winning Giants team of 1962 and the A's teams which reached the World Series from 1988 to 1990. He counts as his biggest thrills calling the 600th home run of Willie Mays and the dramatic home run that marked the return of Willie McCovey to San Francisco in 1977. For those and many other home runs, Simmons gave his trademark call of "tell it goodbye!"