THE CANADIAN PRESS
COOPERSTOWN, N.Y. — Veteran baseball analyst Tim McCarver has been named the winner of the Ford C. Frick Award, beating out the late Tom Cheek and eight other finalists for the honour.
The award is presented annually by the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum for excellence in baseball broadcasting. McCarver will be honoured as part of the Hall of Fame Weekend in July at Cooperstown.
"Tim McCarver has been the face and voice of baseball’s biggest moments on national television," Hall of Fame president Jeff Idelson said Wednesday.
"His wit and intuition, combined with his passion for the game and his down-home style, delivers a trusted insight for viewers. Tim’s journey in reaching baseball broadcasting’s highest honour has connected generations of New York Mets fans as well as audiences across the country for more than 30 years."
McCarver has served as a national analyst on a variety of television networks over three decades, in addition to broadcast duties with four big-league clubs.
Cheek, who died in 2005, was a finalist for the seventh consecutive year. He was the voice of the Toronto Blue Jays for 27 years until his retirement in 2004.
He was one of three fan selections produced from online balloting. Mike Shannon and Eric Nadel were the other two.
The other finalists were chosen by a Hall of Fame research committee. They included Skip Caray, Ken Coleman, Jacques Doucet, Rene Cardenas, Bill King and Graham McNamee.
McCarver is the second primary television analyst to win the Frick Award, joining Tony Kubek, who received the honour in 2009.
