I somehow missed this yesterday, but Giants/ESPN announcer Jon Miller was selected as the winner of the Ford C. Frick Award, which is given annually to recognize excellence in baseball broadcasting.
First, a digression: There is no “broadcaster’s wing” in the Hall of Fame. Indeed, broadcasters -- even Frick Award winners -- are not considered members of the Hall of Fame, even though it is the Hall of Fame which gives out the award. True, the winners are honored in an exhibit near the Hall’s library, but that no more makes them members of the Hall of Fame than my name on a plaque at the Beckley, West Virginia Rotary Club makes me a Rotarian. They gave me an award once when I was a kid. Miller has one now too. That doesn’t make him a “Hall of Famer” or put him in the “broadcaster’s wing,” and anyone who writes differently -- which appears to be everyone -- is full of beans on this point.
That aside, congratulations to Miller on what -- no matter what you call it -- is a major and prestigious award. It’s totally deserving in my view, as I find Miller to be a wonderful play-by- play man, even more so on the radio than on TV. While I appreciate that there are some people who don’t care for him, I can’t help but think their view is clouded by the fact that he has to interact with Joe Morgan every Sunday, which takes him off his game a bit. That’s on Joe, though, not Miller.
Indeed, if Miller wasn’t there, we would be subjected to a much more concentrated dose of Joe Morgan on a weekly basis, and I don’t think any of us could handle that.