In 2009, Enberg took a step back from the national spotlight to return to baseball, calling games for the San Diego Padres. Enberg did just fine for himself in other sports. When he moved to NBC in the '70s, he continued to call Major League Baseball games and had plans to become the Peacock's lead baseball voice in the '80s before the network hired Vin Scully to anchor its coverage. He was ranked as one of the top college football and NFL announcers on each of our respective lists for those sports, and he would surely crack the list of other sports like tennis or the Olympic Games.Įnberg worked California Angels games in the late 1960s before reaching national acclaim. Frick Award and was inducted into the National Radio Hall of Fame in 2007.Įnberg is one of our country's great general sports announcers. Coleman got into broadcasting in 1960, working both radio and television for more than 50 years. None of that, however, explains why he's on this list. Oh, and he is the only major leaguer to see combat in two wars. Each unique in their own way, it is Castiglione's 30 years calling games for the Sox that sets him apart.Ĭoleman was a player for the New York Yankees in the 1940s and '50s, earning Rookie of the Year honors in 1949 and helping New York to reach six World Series, including four championships in the '50s. Place him on your list where you feel he best deserves to be.Ĭastiglione is part of the fantastic Boston Red Sox set of announcers, which includes Don Orsillo, Dave O'Brien and, until recently, Jerry Remy. The son of Cubs broadcaster Harry Caray and the father of Braves announcer Chip Caray, Skip is part of one of the great families in broadcasting.Ĭaray worked for the Atlanta Braves for more than 30 years, sharing his wit, humor and homerism with fans across America as part of the Braves' national television deal. Someone is already going to look at a list of 25 names and see that Skip Caray isn't one of them and probably decide to stop reading right now. Now a mainstay in the Turner stables, Anderson's professional, stoic style allows his analysts, and the game itself, to be the star. Anderson has worked with the Brewers since 2007, and just one year after he got his start in the major leagues, he found himself as part of the TBS national crew. The Frick Award is given each year to a broadcaster for "major contributions to baseball." Here is the list, in full.Īnderson, at 42, is one of the youngest announcers on this list, but certainly deserves consideration after developing a national voice in the game over the last six years. Frick Award by the Baseball Hall of Fame. Several members of this group have been awarded the Ford C. This list is presented in alphabetical order, not in any semblance of a ranking. Please remember that when you tell me how much of an idiot I am for not putting Duane Kuiper and Mike Krukow in the Top 25.īefore we get to the list, here is a group of announcers who certainly deserved consideration. But it's the best I could do, while trying to focus as much (or more) on national announcers as the legendary locals-factoring in careers in television and radio and making sure people from two or three generations are represented.Īgain, this is the hardest assignment I've ever had to do. This list is inexact, biased and completely impossible to justify. Frick Award winner Dave Niehaus was called "the soundtrack of my childhood" by a Seattle Mariners fan who shared an opinion, then called "a pretty pedestrian announcer" by someone in our business whose opinion on this project I valued more than my own. Harry Kalas will be way too high on this list for some of you, but for anyone in the Philadelphia area who grew up listening to Harry and Richie Ashburn, he's right where he belongs.Īnd usually in a situation like this I'd ask for help, but even the help wasn't much help. They mean something to our lives they become, over the years, a part of the family. But in this case, unlike other sports like football, the baseball announcers of our time mean so much to us personally. There is no right answer in ranking any announcer for any sport-everything in some way is relative to the person doing the list. I've written about scandal, death, social change, politics…hell, I've written about Tim Tebow more times than I can count…but ranking baseball announcers? It's the hardest assignment ever, mostly because there's no way I won't be wrong. This is the hardest assignment I have ever had.
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