White Sox broadcasters eligible for 2013 Frick Award ballot
Fan votes through facebook to determine top 40 broadcasters to advance to fan final with three broadcasters on the final 10-name ballot
CHICAGO – Chicago White Sox television play-by-play announcer Ken “Hawk” Harrelson, radio play-by-play announcer Ed Farmer, television color analyst Steve Stone and radio color analyst Darrin Jackson are eligible for the National Baseball Hall of Fame’s 2013 Ford C. Frick Award for excellence in baseball broadcasting.
Fan votes through the Hall of Fame’s Facebook site (facebook.com/baseballhall) will determine the top 40 broadcasters who will advance to the Fan Finals, where a second round of voting will determine three of the 10 names on the final ballot.
New this year, all 222 active and retired broadcasters with 10 consecutive years of major league broadcast service with a team, network or a combination of the two are eligible for consideration during a three-week voting period, which will conclude at 5:00 p.m. ET on Friday, September 7. Fans are limited to one vote per day.
Hawk Harrelson, who was one of the three broadcasters elected to the final ballot of the 2007 Frick Award by fan votes, is currently in his 21st consecutive season in the television booth as a Sox broadcaster. Since the start of his broadcasting career in 1975, Harrelson has won a number of major awards including five Emmys, Illinois Sportscaster of the year, twice, the 2010 Ring Lardner Award for Excellence in Sports Journalism in the broadcast category at the Union League Club in Chicago and a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Comcast SportsNet Awards Dinner in 2007. Well-loved by his White Sox fans, the team celebrated “Hawk Harrelson Night” in June 2010 and renamed the broadcast level at U.S. Cellular Field the "Hawk Harrelson Broadcast Level" in 2011.
Ed Farmer, who with former play-by-play broadcaster John Rooney was named best radio team in the American League by USA Today in 2004, is in his 21st full season on the White Sox Radio Network and seventh as the play-by-play announcer.
Steve Stone, a nominee for the 2008 Frick Award and television color analyst in his fifth season with the White Sox, spent 20 seasons in the Chicago Cubs broadcast booth prior to joining the White Sox.
White Sox radio color analyst Darrin Jackson is in his fourth season in the radio booth after having spent nine seasons with Harrelson in the television booth.
The top 40 broadcasters to garner votes during the first voting period will advance to the Fan Finals, where a second round of online voting will determine three of the 10 names that will comprise the final ballot. The second voting period runs Monday, September 10 through Friday, September 28, and the final 10-name ballot will be announced on Tuesday, October 9.
The 2013 Frick Award winner will be selected by a 21-member electorate, comprised of the 16 living Frick Award winners and five historians and veteran media members, and announced at baseball’s Winter Meetings in Nashville, Tenn., in early December.