For baseball fans that love the Hall of Fame and were disappointed when the Hall’s “Golden Era” committee failed to elect any new players into Cooperstown, Wednesday brought an unexpected treat, the announcement that legendary sportscaster Dick Enberg was honored with the Ford C. Frick Award and will be inducted into the 
broadcasters’ wing of the Hall of next July. Just like the Golden Era committee was tasked with evaluating players and executives whose main contributions to the game occurred between 1947 and 1972, the Frick Award’s “Living Room Era” committee contained 10 nominees whose main contributions to the sport (as announcers) came from the mid-1950’s to the mid-1980’s. The Frick Award honors a different broadcaster every year; there are no shutouts like the one that happened with the Golden Era players.
If you’re a casual fan you might be puzzled that Enberg was given an award as a baseball announcer because he’s much better known as NBC’s lead football and tennis announcer for over decades, having had the honor of calling the Super Bowl 8 times and Wimbledon 19 times. What most people don’t know or remember is that Enberg broadcast California Angels games on TV and radio from 1968-1978. His other Southern California work before becoming a national figure on NBC included calling games for the Los Angeles Rams and UCLA basketball during the Wooden years. Enberg was named Sportscaster of the year in California four times.
As one of NBC’s top talents in the early 1980’s, Enberg was offered the chance to start broadcasting their Game of the Week beginning with the 1982 World Series. Unfortunately for Enberg, shortly after that the network began negotiations with Vin Scully, who was and still is the gold standard of baseball announcers, so Enberg never got the opportunity to broadcast his favorite sport on the national stage. As a La Jolla resident, Enberg’s love of the sport was never clearer than when he jumped at the chance to broadcast his local San Diego Padres games, which he’s been doing for the last five years.
For some, it may seem odd that Enberg would be honored for a relatively short time as a baseball announcer (16 years between his Angels gig and his current Padres job). The other 9 candidates were Richie Ashburn, Billy Berroa, Rene Cardenas, Dizzy Dean, Ernie Johnson Sr., Ralph Kiner, Ned Martin, Joe Nuxhall and Jack Quinlan. The soon-to-be-80-year old Enberg and Cardenas are the only two of these ten who are still alive. Kiner and Ashburn are already in the Hall as players. Certainly you could make an easy case that some of the other names on the list had a greater baseball broadcasting career than Enberg but it’s important to note that, the Frick Award recipients are selected based on multiple criteria including “longevity, honors, continuity with a club, and popularity with fans.” The simple truth is that Enberg is a popular choice, he’s still alive to enjoy the honor and a lot of fans (including me) are happy. Being popular really matters for a broadcaster.
One of the great highlights of the Cooperstown induction ceremonies every summer is listening to the speeches of the inductees, especially to see how honored the newest members are to be included in baseball’s exclusive club. His speech on the stage in Cooperstown next July will be one of the great highlights of the event. He is one of the great wordsmiths of the entire sports broadcasting industry (one of his 13 Emmys was for writing).
It practically moved me to tears to see how absolutely stunned, honored and humbled Enberg was to receive this award. He appeared on the MLB Network show “High Heat” with Christopher Russo shortly after 11:00a this morning and he was fighting back tears throughout the interview. He said that, when called by the Hall of Fame’s Jeff Idelson this morning, the news “brought him to his knees” and that today was one of the greatest days of his life. The interview with Russo concluded with this: “The passion I have for this game I can’t hide” (and he couldn’t hide it, tears were welling up). I recommend watching this interview through the link below:
http://m.mlb.com/video/topic/7417714/v37042003
I had the privilege of spending some time with Enberg one day about 15 years ago when he appeared on ESPN’s Up Close (for which I was Coordinating Producer from 1998-2000). I can tell you that, of the hundreds of sports celebrities I met in those years, there are scant who were genuinely nicer and more humble than Dick Enberg. He is a true gentleman and I couldn’t be happier for him. To steal a line that he used after Angels victories in the 1970’s, “and the halo shines tonight.” Today those words apply perfectly to the man who spoke them so many years ago. Congratulations Mr. Enberg!