Hall Of Fame Picks 10 Nominees For 2023 Ford C. Frick Broadcast Honor

Seven current big-league announcers are finalists for the annual Ford C. Frick award, given annually by the Baseball Hall of Fame for excellence in broadcasting.

They are Joe Castiglione (Red Sox), Gary Cohen (Mets), Jacques Doucet (Blue Jays), Tom Hamilton (Guardians), Pat Hughes (Cubs), Duane Kuiper (Giants), and Steve Stone (White Sox).

Along with Dave Campbell, Jerry Howarth, and the late Ernie Johnson, Sr., they are finalists for the award, with the winner announced at the Baseball Winter Meetings in San Diego Dec. 7.

As part of a new five-year election cycle approved by the Hall of Fame’s Board of Directors in April, this year’s ballot has been expanded from the previous eight-name list and features local and national voices who broadcast during the wild-card era that began in 1994.

After four years of considering the more recent announcers, a ballot will be devoted exclusively to broadcasters who pre-dated the wild-card era. That will happen for the first time with voting for the 2027 Frick award.

The new electoral system will reserve one ballot spot for a foreign-language broadcaster. That nominee this year is Doucet, who spent 33 years on the French network of the Montreal Expos (1969-2004) and then returned to the air as the French-speaking voice of the Toronto Blue Jays in 2012.

The list of nominees for the 2023 Frick award was created by a committee that included past winners Marty Brennaman, Ken Harrelson, and Eric Nadel plus broadcast historians Curt Smith and David J. Halberstam. All will be on the 15-man panel that picks the next winner.

Voters will also include past Frick winners Bob Costas, Jaime Jarrin, Tony Kubek, Denny Matthews, Tim McCarver, Al Michaels, Jon Miller, Bob Uecker, and Dave Van Horne plus former Dallas Morning News columnist Barry Horn.

The winner will be honored during 2023 Induction Weekend ceremonies at the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown next July 22.

To be considered, a candidate must have shown a “commitment to excellence, quality of broadcasting abilities, reverence within the game, popularity with fans, and recognition by peers.”

All candidates must have had at least 10 years of continuous major-league broadcast service wit a team, network, or both.

Castiglione has been the lead radio voice of the Red Sox for the past 40 years and has called games for 43 seasons.

Doucet has also broadcast baseball for 43 years, including the entire tenure of the Expos, who began play as an expansion team but became the Washington Nationals after 2004.

Cohen, in the broadcast booth with the Mets for 34 years, is the team’s top play-by-play man on SNY television.

Hamilton and Howarth have both spent more than three decades as radio play-by-play men, for the Cleveland Guardians (nee Indians) and Blue Jays, respectively.

Hughes started with the 1983 Minnesota Twins, moved to the Milwaukee Brewers in 1984, and then to the Chicago Cubs for the last 27 seasons. He’s been behind the microphone for a total of 40 seasons.

He worked with Stone, a former pitcher who’s been on the air for 35 seasons with the Cubs and White Sox.

Stone, with the Sox for the past 15 years, has also called national games for ESPN and TBS.

Kuiper, like Stone, is a former major-leaguer who found a second career as a broadcaster. He played second base in Cleveland and San Francisco for 12 seasons before jumping into the Giants’ broadcast booth, where he has done both television and radio for 36 years.

Campbell was also an infielder but found new life in the booth, working for ESPN from 1990-2008 after eight years as a player. He has also worked for the Giants, Padres, and Rockies.

Ernie Johnson, Sr. won a World Series ring with the 1957 Milwaukee Braves and served the club as a publicist before moving into the broadcast booth. During his 35 years announcing Braves games, he moved with the team from Milwaukee to Atlanta, where he teamed for three decades with Pete Van Wieren and Skip Caray on TBS, the first superstation, to earn national exposure.

The Frick award honors the memory of Ford C. Frick, a one-time sportswriter who became a radio broadcaster, National League president, and Commissioner of Baseball.

It was first given in 1978, when both Mel Allen and Red Barber were honored. It was the only time multiple winners were named. Last year’s recipient was Jack Graney, the first former player to move to the broadcast booth.