The Mikemen: A Look Back, A Look Ahead

[The Professor]

THE MIKEMEN
A LOOK BACK AND A LOOK AHEAD AT THE 2004 FORD C. FRICK AWARD CANDIDATES

“It’s not just the play-by-play that matters. It’s what you say between the pitches that counts.”

- Pirates announcer Rosey Rowswell


On Sunday fans at Cooperstown were treated to the comedic styling of Bob Uecker, the radio voice of the Milwaukee Brewers. Uecker was welcomed into the “Scribes and Mikemen” wing of the Hall of Fame, this year’s recipient of the Ford C. Frick Award. The award – don’t confuse it with induction into the Hall of Fame – is bestowed on a broadcaster who has “made major contributions to baseball” and is named after former National League President, Commissioner and broadcaster, Ford Frick.

The Award is voted on annually by a committee that currently includes Vin Scully, Ernie Harwell, Joe Morgan, Bob Costas, Joe Garagiola and Chuck Thompson.

Uecker is a more than worthy recipient.

From his birth ‘on an exit ramp’ through his playing days, Uecker perfected his self-parody. His stories – being ordered by manager Gene Mauch to get a bat and stop a rally, or broadcasting into his beer cup on the bullpen bench – are etched into popular baseball lore.

He wandered onto the national stage from the floor of Johnny Carson’s ‘Tonight Show’, starred in a series of popular Miller Lite commercials (“Great seats!”), amused audiences on ABC’s Monday Night Baseball and had a starring role in the sitcom “Mr. Belvidere.” As the boozy Harry Doyle, Uecker narrated the surprising triumph of the long-suffering Cleveland Indians in the motion picture ‘Major League’ (“Just a bit outside.”) Most importantly, Uecker has filled the booth overlooking County Stadium, new Miller Park and always the Brewers of Milwaukee for more than 30 years.

During that time Uecker has been one of the few attractions for an oft-struggling franchise. His popularity is a testament to his storytelling, his broadcasting skill and his ‘wry’ sense of humor. His abiding love for the game was apparent in his Cooperstown speech.

“"I couldn't wait to get back here," he said. "I couldn't wait to get back to the world of baseball, back to spring training and to the guys."

With Uecker’s place on the roll call of broadcasting luminaries secure, attention now turns to 2004.

With each passing year, or so it seems, the voices worthy of the Ford C. Frick award seem to be disappearing, retiring from the game or passing on to that great broadcast booth in the sky. Just this past week the all-time Voice of the Mets, Bob Murphy, the 1994 Frick Award winner, announced his retirement at season’s end. Another voice silenced.

In fact, a quick scan of the league’s flagship stations doesn’t turn up as many 'golden' voices as it once might have. Gone are Caray, Buck and Harwell. There will never be another Mel Allen or Red Barber. The profession has changed too much, ex-players permeate the broadcasting profession, and their skills are meager in comparison to their predecessors.

Thankfully, a few bright stars remain.

Harry Kalas still intones “Outta here!” for the Fightin’ Phils, but he has already received the Frick Award, entering Cooperstown in 2002. Second and third generation Carays preside over Atlanta and Chicago baseball respectively, but – in all honesty – both are pale shadows of their larger-than-life sire. Another Frick recipient, Marty Brenneman (“This one belongs to the Reds” but not to Great America Ballpark) and long-time partner Joe Nuxhall (“Rounding third and heading home”) remain ensconced in Cincinnati, one of the longest running and effulgent pairings in the game. One of the most visible signs of the Expos certain exodus from Montreal is hearing Dave Van Horne – their Voice from inception - now in Florida. Milo Hamilton – well traveled to say the least – calls the game in Houston. He, too, already resides in the broadcaster’s wing of the Hall of Fame.

Several other notable broadcasters are in the Hall of Fame, though not in the broadcasting wing, but instead as players. That list includes Ralph Kiner, Phil Rizzuto and the late Whitey Ashburn.

Other prominent voices dot the baseball map: already in Cooperstown are Murphy, Minnesota’s Herb Carneal, Jaime Jarrin of the Dodgers Spanish broadcasts and the most popular Dodger of them all, the incomparable Vin Scully. Elsewhere, Denny Matthews, Lanny Frattare, Bob Chandler, Jerry Coleman, Dave Niehaus, and Tom Cheek hold court and narrate the game with a skill that – sadly – is disappearing from both the radio and television booth.

Among these last remaining ‘Golden Voices’, a few stand out when considering next year’s ceremony.

It had been reported that Uecker’s primary competition for the 2003 award was Coleman of the Padres and Dave Niehaus of the Mariners. It stands to reason that Coleman, an All-Star second baseman and World Series hero with the New York Yankees, as well as a decorated World War II veteran, becomes an instant favorite for 2004.

Coleman has broadcast Padres games for more than 30 years. He was a Yankees broadcaster before that. Like Uecker, Coleman is a comedic figure. However, while Uecker’s self-depreciating routine is calculated and rehearsed, Coleman’s humor is of the unintentional variety. A master of malapropisms, the list of ‘Colemanisms’ is profound. A few examples of his art:

- “Rich Folkers is throwing up in the bull pen.”
- “They throw Winfield out at second, and he’s safe!”
- “He slides into second with a stand-up double.”
- “He’s under the warning track, and he makes the play.”
- “There’s a shot up the alley! Oh, it’s just foul.”
- “Hendrick simply lost that sun-blown pop-up.”
- “Hi, folks, I’m Jerry Gross.”

Throughout much of his career in San Diego Coleman has teamed with Bob Chandler, one of the longer-running pairings still broadcasting today.

Niehaus started his broadcasting career with the Angels in the 1960s. He has been the voice of Northwestern baseball since the inception of the Mariners in 1977, and his “My, oh, my!” and “It will fly away” are synonymous with Mariners baseball. In fact, both of the American League expansion franchises that year unearthed broadcasting gold. Tom Cheek has been the radio voice of the Blue Jays during the same span, developing a familiarity with the fans that few team voices can now claim.

While both Coleman, who has garnered several columns of support in the local North County Times, and Niehaus are worthy candidates one long-time announcer remains mysteriously beyond the pale. What, some might ask, of Gene Elston?

Elston was the first - and longest lasting – voice of the Houston Astros [nee: Colt ‘45s] narrating from Colt Stadium and, later, the Astrodome until he was unceremoniously fired after the 1986 season. Elston, who came of age during the hey-day of baseball broadcasting, was a rather low-key individual whose style (from what I’ve been fortunate enough to hear) is low-key, mellow and professional.

While Elston seems on the fringes of consideration by the committee, his fans have begun a grass-roots campaign – replete with an online petition – to garner Elston’s consideration by the committee. Their web site, including a fantastic selection of Elston audio, can be found at www.gene-elston.org


Among those who are not in, but certainly deserve consideration:

Rosey Rowswell.

Rosey was a poet and a baseball fan. As a fan, he best represents that distinct style one might call ‘homerism.’ He broadcast Pittsburgh Pirates games from 1936 through 1954, employing bells, whistles and the most provocative home run call ever heard. No fan who ever heard Rowswell can forget “Aunt Minnie.” That he set the stage for everyone who ever rooted for the home team from the booth – from his own protégé, Prince, down to today’s ‘homers’ like Ken Harrelson – is credential enough to earn Rosey, who passed away in 1955, a ticket into Cooperstown.

Ken Coleman, Ned Martin and Jim Woods, three voices of Boston baseball.

Coleman spent time with both the Reds and Indians, but is best known for his time with the Boston Red Sox from 1966-1974 and again from 1979-1989. It was, he, Coleman who narrated the 'Impossible Dream’ season of 1967.

Ned Martin, he of “Mercy!” and classical quotation, orated the Red Sox yearly tragedy (and occasional triumph) from 1961-1992, switching between radio and television. If you’ve heard the famous call of Carlton Fisk’s 1975 World Series home run, chances are you have heard Martin.

From 1972 through 1978, the Red Sox radio team was considered one of baseball’s best when Martin teamed with the prodigal sidekick, Jim Woods, ‘The Possum.’ Woods bounced from team to team during his career – from New York with Barber and Allen, to Pittsburgh and Prince, and on. Without a doubt the very best #2 broadcaster who ever worked the booth.

Ernie Johnson.

Johnson, quiet and insightful, followed the Braves from Boston to Milwaukee as a player, stepped into their broadcast booth in 1962, and from there followed the team to Atlanta where he remained the team’s Voice – though he humbly refused to acknowledge it – until 1999.

Monte Moore.

That he survived for as long as he did – working for a man as unpredictable as Charley O. Finley – is the sugary Moore’s legacy. Moving from Kansas City, Finley’s Oakland radio network remained shabby, even during the Athletics’s glory years of the 1970s. Often, Moore could often only be heard near Oakland, over a local college radio station, where he cheered and rooted for the A’s, the biggest ‘homer’ of all.

A few more for consideration:

Lon Simmons, who partnered with Russ Hodges as the San Francisco connection in the 1958 Giants broadcast booth, and who broadcast the team through the late 1970s when he moved across the bay to Oakland.

Earl Gillespie and Merle Harmon, voices of the Milwaukee Braves at polar ends of the team’s Wisconsin run. Gillespie voiced the team through the good years, highlighted by the Braves 1957 World Championship, Harmon voiced them through the heartbreak and abandonment, returning later as the first Voice of the Milwaukee Brewers.


The complete list of Ford C. Frick Award Winners:


1978 — Mel Allen ,Red Barber (Allen was Voice of the Yankees, host of “This Week in Baseball” while
Barber was the Voice of the Reds, Dodgers and Yankees)

1979 — Bob Elson (Chicago White Sox)
1980 — Russ Hodges (New York/San Francisco Giants)
1981 — Ernie Harwell (Dodgers, Giants, Orioles, Tigers)
1982 — Vin Scully (Brooklyn/Los Angeles Dodgers)
1983 — Jack Brickhouse (Chicago White Sox, Chicago Cubs)
1984 — Curt Gowdy (Boston Red Sox, “Game of the Week” 1960s, 1970s)
1985 — Buck Canel *Spanish Radio broadcasts for the NBC Cavalcade of Sports
1986 — Bob Prince (Pittsburgh Pirates) *awarded posthumously
1987 — Jack Buck (St. Louis Cardinals)
1988 — Lindsey Nelson (New York Mets, San Francisco Giants)
1989 — Harry Caray (Cardinals, White Sox and Cubs)
1990 — By Saam (Philadelphia Athletics and Phillies)
1991 — Joe Garagiola (Cardinals, Yankees, Diamondbacks, network “Game of the Week”)
1992 — Milo Hamilton (Cardinals, White Sox, Pirates, Cubs, Braves, Astros)
1993 — Chuck Thompson (Baltimore Orioles)
1994 — Bob Murphy (New York Mets)
1995 — Bob Wolff (Washington Senators)
1996 — Herb Carneal (Baltimore Orioles, Minnesota Twins)
1997 — Jimmy Dudley (Cleveland Indians, Seattle Pilots)
1998 — Jaime Jarrin * Spanish Radio broadcasts for the Los Angeles Dodgers
1999 — Arch McDonald (New York Yankees and Washington Senators)
2000 — Marty Brennaman (Cincinnati Reds)
2001 — Rafael "Felo" Ramírez (Cuban voice of the Florida Marlins, NBC Cavalcade of Sports)
2002 — Harry Kalas (Houston Astros, Philadelphia Phillies)
2003 — Bob Uecker (Milwaukee Brewers)

[Gastric ReFlux]

Shouldn't all Ford Frick winners come with asterisks?

[The Professor]

Shouldn't all Ford Frick winners come with asterisks?

...of course!

[TC Dale]

Excellent post Professor. This one was a great read, and one of the highlights of my day.


I can't get enough of your prose.

[jaxmagicman]

I second TC

[CDL Commish]

As a Brewer fan, it's great to see Uecker getting the recognition he deserves. I've listened to him for 20 years and he has always been entertaining despite having an awful team most of the time to comment on. He is as entertaining as an announcer can be and is always a reason to tune into a game. There are not many times that a baseball team boasts an announcer as their biggest celebrity but that is most certainly the case in Milwaukee with the Brewers. Unfortunately with this awful team it's almost by default however. I just hope he is still around when the Brewers' young prospects develop and he is around a championship caliber team again. That is obviously a big IF, though!

Thanks for the great read Professor!

[Old Mr. Boston]

Shouldn't all Ford Frick winners come with asterisks?

Zinger, eh! LMAO