White Sox broadcaster Ken Harrelson has been been named one of 10 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 winner will be announced on December 11 at the Baseball Winter Meetings and honored in Cooperstown, N.Y., during the Hall of Fame Awards Presentation on July 26.
The other nine finalists are Joe Castiglione, Jacques Doucet, Bill King, Duane Kuiper, Eric Nadel, Eduardo Ortega, Mike Shannon, Dewayne Staats and Pete van Wieren.
Final voting is conducted by a 20-member electorate, including the the 16 living Frick Award recipients.
Here are the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum’s capsule descriptions of the finalists:
* 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.
More information on the finalists can be found at www.baseballhall.org. Votes are based on longevity, continuity with a club, honors such as World Series and All-Star Games assisgnments and popularity with fans. The award is named in after Hall of Famer Ford C. Frick, a sportswriter, radio broadcaster, National League president and Baseball commissioner.
