Fans to Cast Their Votes for Frick Award Ballot Candidates

More Than 20 Broadcasters from the ‘Broadcasting Dawn Era’ Eligible for 2016 Frick Award

(COOPERSTOWN, NY) – In the earliest years of wireless radio, the pioneers of the industry created a new genre: Baseball broadcaster.

This fall, one of those pioneers will win broadcasting’s most prestigious award.

The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum opened the annual Ford C. Frick Award online ballot vote today, and voting will continue through 5 p.m. ET on Oct. 2, giving fans the chance to select their favorite broadcaster as one of three fan choices on the final 10-person ballot for the 2016 Frick Award. The 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 the Baseball Winter Meetings each year, while awardees are presented with their honor the following summer during Hall of Fame Weekend in Cooperstown, N.Y.

The 2016 Frick Award online voting reflects a selection process where eligible candidates are grouped together by years of most significant contributions of their broadcasting careers. The cycle continues with the Broadcasting Dawn Era, which features broadcasters whose main body of work came from baseball’s earliest days on the radio in the 1920s to the mid-1950s.

Fans can vote once a day for their favorite broadcaster at www.facebook.com/baseballhall. More than 20 broadcasters are eligible within the Broadcasting Dawn Era. The totality of each candidate’s career will be considered, though the era in which the broadcaster is deemed to have had the most significant impact will be determined by a Hall of Fame research team.

Broadcasters eligible in the Broadcasting Dawn are:

Dick Bray, Jim Britt, Connie Desmond, Bill Dyer, Pat Flanagan, Jack Graney, Claude Haring, Harry Hartman, Harry Heilmann, George Helfer, Fred Hoey, Tom Hussey, France Laux, Tom Manning, Jocko Maxwell, Graham McNamee, Johnny O’Hara, Rosey Rowswell, Hal Totten, Ty Tyson and Bert Wilson.

Following the selection of the three fan ballot candidates through the online vote, a Hall of Fame research committee will set the remainder of the ballot. The final 10-name ballot will be announced Oct. 6.

The 19-member Frick Award Committee will cast ballots during November, with the 2016 winner to be announced during the 2015 Baseball Winter Meetings from Nashville, Tenn., on Wednesday, Dec. 9. The Frick Award electorate is comprised of the 15 living Frick Award recipients and four broadcast historians/columnists, including Frick honorees Marty Brennaman, Dick Enberg, Joe Garagiola, Jaime Jarrin, Milo Hamilton, Tony Kubek, Denny Matthews, Tim McCarver, Jon Miller, Eric Nadel, Felo Ramirez, Vin Scully, 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).

The three-year cycle for the Frick Award will continue in the fall of 2016 with the High Tide Era, which will feature candidates whose most significant years fell from the mid-1980s to the present. Living Room Era candidates, which include broadcasters from the mid-1950s to the mid-1980s, will next be considered in the fall of 2017.

Thirty-nine broadcasters have been presented with the Frick Award with Mel Allen and Red Barber selected as the first recipients in 1978. A single winner has been selected in each year following, with San Diego Padres voice Dick Enberg receiving the honor in 2015.

Voters are asked to base their selections on longevity; continuity with a club; honors, including national assignments such as the World Series and All-Star Games; and popularity with fans. 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.

The Ford C. Frick Award was named in memory of the sportswriter, radio broadcaster, National League president and Baseball commissioner.