Frick Award Finalists Announced

The Baseball Hall of Fame announced its Ford Frick Award finalists today, and it's a brilliant crop.

Joe Nuxhall.
Tom Cheek.
Jacques Doucet.
Skip Caray.
Lanny Frattare.  (Ithaca College!)
Graham McNamee.  (The pioneer!)
Billy Berroa.
Herb Score.
Jon Miller.
Dave Van Horne.

I don't get how you narrow that list down at all, other than throwing out both Miller and Van Horne, each of them phenomenal, because they're still active.

As for the others...

McNamee has to go in, doesn't he?  He's the ultimate pioneer of baseball broadcasts.  Nuxhall (Cincinnati), Caray (Atlanta), Berroa (Dominican Republic), and Cheek (Toronto) all passed away recently and are legendary in their home regions.  Frattare is similarly beloved in Pittsburgh, as is Score in Cleveland and Doucet in Montreal.

So what do you do?  Do you claim that Billy Berroa meant more to Spanish-language broadcasts than Jacques Doucet meant to French-language broadcasts?  Do you claim that Caray reached more people thanks to Turner Broadcasting?

Heck, let's do two at a time just to prevent the logjam.

2010:  Cheek, Doucet
2011:  Nuxhall, Caray
2012:  Berroa, Score
2013:  Frattare, McNamee

Otherwise, we'll be in the year 2020 with a list of deserving candidates long enough to stretch to the 22nd century... just like the NFL Hall of Fame, actually.

Comments

Popular Posts