Padres broadcaster Dick Enberg, the spokesman and ambassador for the Capital One Academic All-America® program, was named the winner of the Ford C. Frick Award by the Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum on Wednesday. Enberg will be presented with the award on July 25, 2015, in Cooperstown, N.Y., during the Hall of Fame Weekend awards presentation.
Enberg, who will turn 80 on Jan. 9, has 22 years of experience broadcasting Major League Baseball, the last five as the television play-by-play voice of the Padres.
The other finalists were Richie Ashburn, Billy Berroa, Rene Cardenas, Dizzy Dean, Ernie Johnson Sr., Ralph Kiner, Ned Martin, Joe Nuxhall and Jack Quinlan.
See online article and videos here: Oh my! Enberg wins Hall of Fame Frick Award, by Barry B. Bloom/MLB.com
SAN DIEGO -- Dick Enberg, the iconic announcer for NBC and CBS Sports who is currently a television voice of the San Diego Padres, is the winner of the 2015 Ford C. Frick Award, the National Baseball Hall of Fame announced on Wednesday.
The other finalists were Richie Ashburn, Billy Berroa, Rene Cardenas, Dizzy Dean, Ernie Johnson Sr., Ralph Kiner, Ned Martin, Joe Nuxhall and Jack Quinlan. The award is presented annually for excellence in baseball broadcasting by the Hall of Fame.
Enberg will be honored during the July 25 awards presentation as part of the Hall of Fame Weekend in Cooperstown, N.Y. The ceremony at Doubleday Field will include the Detroit News' Tom Gage, Tuesday's winner of the J.G. Taylor Spink Award for a meritorious career of baseball writing.
"Dick Enberg's unmistakable voice and remarkable enthusiasm for the national pastime during the living-room era as voice of the California Angels from 1968-78 propelled his broadcast career into the national limelight, as his baseball foundation became a launching pad for other sports and national assignments," Hall of Fame president Jeff Idelson said. "In the years since, his assignments with NBC Sports and now the San Diego Padres, his passion for the games -- and for the fans who follow them through his friendly and ardent style -- have made him one of sport's most recognizable voices."
Dec. 9, 2014:
Padres broadcaster Dick Enberg is honored with a GIBBY Lifetime Achievement Award
Enberg was among three fan selections, along with Kiner and Quinlan, in an Internet vote earlier this year. The other seven were chosen by a Hall of Fame research committee. Cardenas and Enberg were the only two living candidates.
Born and raised in Michigan, the 79-year-old Enberg began his career as an undergraduate at Central Michigan and later broadcast both football and basketball games at Indiana University. By the end of the 1960s, Enberg was calling Angels games, a job he held from 1968-78, and he called games of the NFL's Rams and the UCLA men's basketball team. He joined NBC in 1975, remaining with the network for 25 years while working assignments that included baseball's postseason and World Series as well as Wimbledon, college football and the NFL.
Enberg called the 1982 World Series featuring the Cardinals and the Brewers, and returned to the Angels in 1985. After moving to CBS in 2000, he covered events including football, tennis, basketball and golf before joining the Padres to be their television play-by-play voice in 2010, a position he still holds.
Over a career that has spanned six decades and included 14 Emmy Awards, Enberg has established himself as one of sport's top play-by-play announcers, with his signature "Oh, my!" call recognized around the world.
The Frick Award electorate was comprised of the 16 living Frick Award recipients and four broadcast historians/columnists, including Frick honorees Marty Brennaman, Gene Elston, Joe Garagiola, Jaime Jarrin, Milo Hamilton, Tony Kubek, Denny Matthews, Tim McCarver, Jon Miller, Eric Nadel, Felo Ramirez, Vin Scully, Lon Simmons, Bob Uecker, Dave Van Horne and Bob Wolff, and historians/columnists Bob Costas (NBC/MLB Network), Barry Horn (Dallas Morning News), Ted Patterson (historian) and Curt Smith (historian).
A broadcaster cannot be considered for the Frick Award unless he's called big league games for at least 10 years. Last year's winner was Nadel, the radio voice of the Texas Rangers.
The Ford C. Frick Award is named in memory of the man who was a sportswriter, radio broadcaster, National League president and Major League Baseball's third Commissioner.