December 4, 2020

From Official National Baseball Hall of Fame Around the Horn Newsletter

Eight of the National Pastime’s beloved voices have been named as the finalists for the 2021 Ford C. Frick Award, presented annually for excellence in baseball broadcasting by the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum.

Candidates from the National Voices category will be considered for the 2021 Frick Award in accordance with the three-year Frick Award election cycle.

The eight finalists for the 2021 Frick Award are: Buddy Blattner, Joe Buck, Dave Campbell, Dizzy Dean, Don Drysdale, Ernesto Jerez, Al Michaels and Dan Shulman (Toronto, Ont.)

The winner of the 2021 Frick Award will be announced live on MLB Network as part of the network’s programming beginning at 2 p.m. ET on Wednesday, Dec. 9.,and will be honored along with 2020 Frick Award winner Ken Harrelson during the July 24 Awards Presentationas part of the July 23-26 Hall of Fame Weekend 2021 in Cooperstown. All candidates except for Blattner, Dean and Drysdale are living.

The Frick Award election cycle rotates annually among Major League Markets (team-specific announcers); National Voices (broadcasters whose contributions were realized on a national level); and Broadcasting Beginnings (early team voices and pioneers of baseball broadcasting). This cycle repeats every three years, with the Broadcasting Beginnings ballot to be reviewed in the fall of 2021 and the Major League Markets ballot to be reviewed in the fall of 2022.

Criteria for selection is as follows: “Commitment to excellence, quality of broadcasting abilities, reverence within the game, popularity with fans, and recognition by peers.”

Final voting for the 2021 Frick Award will be conducted by an electorate comprised of the 12 living Frick Award recipients and three broadcast historians/columnists, including past Frick honourees Marty Brennaman, Bob Costas, Ken Harrelson, Jaime Jarrín, Tony Kubek, Denny Matthews, Tim McCarver, Jon Miller, Eric Nadel, Vin Scully, Bob Uecker and Dave Van Horne, and historians/columnists David J. Halberstam (historian), Barry Horn (formerly of the Dallas Morning News) and Curt Smith (historian)

The 2021 Frick Award ballot was created by a subcommittee of the voting electorate that included Costas, Matthews, Nadel, Smith and Van Horne. To be considered, an active or retired broadcaster must have a minimum of 10 years of continuous major league broadcast service with a ball club, network , or a combination of the two.

For bios on the eight candidates, please visit baseballhall.org/frickaward2021.

FRICK AWARD HISTORY: The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum’s Ford C. Frick Award has been presented annually since 1978 by the Museum for excellence in baseball broadcasting. Annual winners are announced as part of Baseball’s Winter Meetings each year, while awardees are presented with their honour the following summer during Hall of Fame Weekend in Cooperstown, New York. Ken Harrelson became the 44th winner of the Frick Award in 2020.