The Baseball Hall of Fame’s Ford C. Frick award honors one broadcaster each year that has had a great impact on the sport and its fans. But this year’s class of finalists may represent the toughest decision the committee has ever had when it comes to choosing its recipient.
The 2025 Ford C. Frick finalists were revealed this week and include some of the most famed broadcasters around the sport that have spanned decades in their cities, beloved by their fanbases, and respected across the industry.
They include active broadcasters such as New York Mets and Yankees broadcasters Gary Cohen and John Sterling, longtime Giants legends Mike Krukow and Duane Kuiper, Guardians radio announcer Tom Hamilton, Blue Jays and former Expos French announcer Jacques Doucet and Mariners announcer Dave Sims.
Other nominees include Spanish-language broadcasting pioneer Rene Cardenas and the late Atlanta Braves broadcasters Skip Caray and Ernie Johnson Sr.
The winner will be announced on December 11th and celebrated at the Hall of Fame induction ceremony in Cooperstown next July.
The 10 finalists for the 2025 Frick Award are: Skip Caray, Rene Cardenas, Gary Cohen, Jacques Doucet, Tom Hamilton, Ernie Johnson Sr., Mike Krukow, Duane Kuiper, Dave Sims and John Sterling. The winner of the 2025 Frick Award will be announced on Dec. 11 at baseball’s Winter Meetings in Dallas and will be honored during the July 26 Awards Presentation as part of the July 25-28 Hall of Fame Weekend 2025 in Cooperstown. All of the 2025 Frick Award candidates are living except for Caray and Johnson.
In case you’re wondering how the award is decided, here is the criteria straight from the Baseball Hall of Fame website.
The annual Frick Award ballot is created by a subcommittee of the voting electorate. A new election cycle has been established, with a composite ballot featuring local and national voices in four consecutive years, followed by a fifth year featuring a ballot of candidates whose broadcasting careers concluded prior to the advent of the Wild Card Era in 1994. The new cycle began with the 2023 Frick Award, with composite ballots of local and national voices continuing with the Awards in 2024, 2025 and 2026 before the pre-Wild Card Era ballot is considered for the 2027 Award. The cycle then repeats every five years. Each ballot will consist of 10 candidates, with a requirement that at least one candidate be a foreign language broadcaster.
The Frick Award Committee casts ballots during November, and the results are announced during the Baseball Winter Meetings in December. The Frick Award electorate is comprised of the living Frick Award recipients and four broadcast historians/columnists.
Voters are asked to base their selections on “Commitment to excellence, quality of broadcasting abilities, reverence within the game, popularity with fans, and recognition by peers.” 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
It’s a shame that only one person can be honored each year because literally anyone in this class of nominees would make for an excellent selection.
Recently retired Red Sox announcer Joe Castiglione was last year’s Ford C. Frick award winner.