Sports Media Report
Eight of the National Pastime’s most recognizable and honored voices have been named as the finalists for the 2018 Ford C. Frick Award, presented annually for excellence in baseball broadcasting by the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum.
The eight finalists for the 2018 Frick Award are: Buddy Blattner, Joe Buck, Bob Costas, Dizzy Dean, Don Drysdale, Al Michaels, Joe Morgan and Pee Wee Reese. The winner of the 2018 Frick Award will be announced on Dec. 13 at baseball’s Winter Meetings in Lake Buena Vista, Fla., and will be honored during the July 28 Awards Presentation as part of the July 27-30 Hall of Fame Weekend 2018 in Cooperstown. Buck, Costas, Michaels and Morgan are living, while all other candidates are deceased.
The Frick Award election cycle rotates annually among Current 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 will repeat every three years, with the Broadcasting Beginnings ballot to be reviewed in the fall of 2018 and the Current Major League Markets ballot to be reviewed in the fall of 2019.
Criteria for selection is as follows: “Commitment to excellence, quality of broadcasting abilities, reverence within the game, popularity with fans, and recognition by peers.”
