SAN FRANCISCO -- The final day of a disappointing season brought great news for an important member of the Giants organization.
Broadcaster Duane Kuiper has been named a finalist for the Ford C. Frick Award, which honors excellence in baseball broadcasting. Kuiper is one of 10 broadcasters on the ballot, with one winner being honored during the Hall of Fame induction ceremony next July.
The other finalists this year are Dave Campbell, Joe Castiglione, Gary Cohen, Jacques Doucet, Tom Hamilton, Jerry Howarth, Pat Hughes, Ernie Johnson Sr. and Steve Stone, who was the pitch Kuiper hit his lone big league homer off of. On Thursday's Giants Talk podcast, Kuiper, who just wrapped up his 36th season as a broadcaster with the Giants, discussed the award.
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"Once you look at a group and you see who they are, you realize that every one of them could go in and nobody would have a problem with it," Kuiper said. "A lot of those guys are my friends and then there's one nominee that I rooted for as a kid when he was a player and that's Ernie Johnson, because he was a Milwaukee Brave.
"So yeah, it is an honor. It was an honor when I got nominated (previously) and I enjoyed the whole process when Mike got nominated. Hey, if you go, you go, it's great. But to be on that list is pretty special."
Kuiper and partner Mike Krukow both have been nominated before, but Kuiper could have a slight edge this time around.
The vote will be conducted by 12 living Frick Award recipients and three historians, a group that includes Hall of Famer and fellow Giants broadcaster Jon Miller.
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Giants fans and even many within the organization have long clamored for Kruk and Kuip to go into the Hall of Fame together, but they have to be nominated separately.
"In a perfect world I wish Mike was nominated with me," Kuiper said. "But I don't think the Hall of Fame and the people that run it and are in charge of these things, I don't think they're too quick to change the rules for two people. (If you) change the rules for two and then take it back, I just don't think they want to do that. It would be a great thought, it would be fun for us, but I wish that he was nominated with me. Absolutely.
"We've had a good run and we don't want it to end anytime soon."