2012 Frick Award Fan Ballot

The Ford Frick Award is presented annually for excellence in baseball broadcasting by the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum.  This year, for the ninth consecutive year, fans have a chance to determine 3 of the 10 names that will be on the final ballot.

I did not know the fans had a voice in the nominee selection process for the Ford Frick Award.  I suspect neither did you.

From the press release:

The process will allow fans to cast votes at the Hall of Fame's Facebook page, www.facebook.com/baseballhall . . . Voting runs from September 1 through September 30, and fans can cast votes once per day through September for their favorite broadcaster.

A note on eligibility - Eligible candidates must have a minimum of 10 years of continuous major league broadcast service with a ball club, network, or a combination of the two.

Results will be announced October 5 when the final ballot is also published.  Committee to determine the awardee includes all the living Frick Award winners, plus Bob Costas, Barry Horn (Dallas Morning News), Stan Isaacs (formerly of New York Newsday), Ted Patterson, and Curt Smith (historians).  The winner will be announced December 6 during the winter meetings.

So who's on the ballot?  Every team has 2 nominees.  The three SOCAL teams are represented by:

• San Diego - Ted Leitner, Eduardo Ortega
• LAA of Anaheim - Dick Enberg, Jose Mota
• LA Dodgers - Rick Monday, Ross Porter

I've not had occasion to listen to Mr. Ortega, as he does the Spanish language broadcast of Padres games, so I'll have to defer to those who have heard him call a game.  Does Ted Leitner deserve your support?  Absolutely.  Ted's been an integral part of summer baseball in San Diego for over 30 years, but that's not why we should vote for him.  We should vote for him because he does a superb job calling a game and we enjoy listening to him.  You don't stay in one town for 30 years without connecting with your audience on a deep personal level.

If I'm allowed more than one vote per day, I'm picking Ross Porter, who called Dodger games when I was a kid.

I'll leave the Dick Enberg discussion to Avenging Jack Murphy.

The rest of the names on the ballot:

• AZ - Greg Schulte, Daron Sutton
• ATL - Skip Caray, Pete Van Wieren (both great choices, BTW)
• BAL - Joe Angel, Jim Hunter
• BOS - Joe Castiglione, Jerry Remy
• CHN - Pat Hughes, Ron Santo (Santo is sure to get a lot of votes)
• CHA - Ed Farmer, Ken Harrelson
• CIN - Waite Hoyt, Joe Nuxhall
• CLE - Mike Hegan, Herb Score
• COL - Jack Corrigan, Wayne Hagin
• DET - George Kell, Jim Price
• FLA - Tommy Hutton, Rick Waltz
• HOU - Bill Brown, Larry Dierker
• KC - Ryan Lefebrve, Paul Splittorff
• MIL - Merle Harmon, Bill Schroeder
• MIN - Dick Bremer, John Gordon
• NYM - Gary Cohen, Ralph Kiner (big fan of Kinerisms back in his WWOR days)
• NYA - Michael Kay, John Sterling
• OAK - Ray Fosse, Bill King
• PHI - Richie Ashburn, Chris Wheeler
• PIT - Steve Blass, Lanny Frattare
• SF - Mike Krukow, Duane Kuiper
• SEA - Ron Fairly, Rick Rizzs
• STL - Al Hrabosky, Mike Shannon (Shannon's another favorite of mine)
• TB - Todd Kalas, Dewayne Staats
• TEX - Mark Holtz, Eric Nadel
• TOR - Tom Cheek, Jerry Howarth
• WAS - Bob Carpenter, Charlie Slowes
• AT-LARGE - Thom Brennaman, Joe Buck, Ken Coleman, Jacques Doucet, Ernie Johnson Sr, Ned Martin, Buck Martinez, Tim McCarver, Al Michaels, Joe Morgan, Amaury Pi-Gonzalez, Phil Rizzuto, John Rooney, Steve Stone, Gary Thorne

Voting starts 0700 our time 1 Sept and concludes 1400 our time 30 Sept.  Vote Early, Vote Often, VOTE FOR TED!

Press Release data forwarded courtesy San Diego Padres media relations department