Former Royals broadcaster Buddy Blattner nominated for Ford C. Frick Award

NEW YORK —  Former Kansas City Royals broadcaster Buddy Blattner is a candidate for the Hall’s Ford C. Frick Award for excellence in baseball broadcasting.

Dave Campbell and Ernesto Jerez, Hall of Fame pitchers Dizzy Dean and Don Drysdale, Fox’s Joe Buck, ESPN’s Dan Shulman and NBC’s Al Michaels are also finalists, the Hall said Monday.

The winner will be announced on Dec. 9 and will be honored next July 24 ahead of the Hall of Fame inductions, along with 2020 Frick winner Ken Harrelson. The 2020 ceremonies were called off became of the coronavirus pandemic.

This year’s Frick Award is for national voices, part of a three-year rotation that includes broadcasting beginnings (autumn 2021) and major league markets (autumn 2022).

Broadcasters must have at least 10 continuous years of major league broadcast service with a team, network or combination.

Blattner worked 26 seasons, mostly in the 1950s and 1960, spending time with the “Liberty Game of the Day,” “Mutual Game of the Day,” “ABC Game of the Week,” “CBS Game of the Week” plus NBC and individual teams. He teamed with 2007 Frick Award winner Denny Matthews as the Royals’ original broadcast crew, working in Kansas City from 1969-75, before retiring.

Dean, elected to the Hall in 1953, broadcast for the St. Louis Cardinals and Browns, and he worked CBS’ “Game of the Week” from 1955-65.

Drysdale, voted into the Hall in 1984, worked ABC broadcasts from 1977-86, including its “Monday Night Baseball” package.

Buck has been Fox’s lead baseball play-by-play voice for 25 seasons, working 23 World Series, after 11 seasons broadcasting for the Cardinals. His father, Jack Buck, won the Frick Award in 1987.

Shulman worked ESPN’s “Sunday Night Baseball” package from 2011-17 after working Toronto Blue Jays games from 1995-2001 and also for ESPN Radio.

Michaels has broadcast baseball for 25 seasons with NBC (1972), ABC (1976-89) and The Baseball Network (1994-95), covering seven World Series, eight League Championship Series and six All-Star Games.

Campbell, a former big league infielder, worked broadcasts for San Francisco, San Diego and Colorado plus ESPN from 1990-2008.

Jerez has worked ESPN Deportes’ “Sunday Night Baseball” for more than 25 years along with the World Series, All-Star Game and World Baseball Classic.