Longtime Chicago Cubs radio voice Pat Hughes was named the winner of the Ford C. Frick Award on Wednesday, becoming a member of Jack Brickhouse and Harry Caray among the many all-time broadcasting greats.
Hughes, 67, earned the dignity for broadcasting excellence by the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum on his third 12 months on the poll after being named a finalist in 2016 and 2020.
Baseball Hall of Fame president Josh Rawitch known as Hughes shortly earlier than Wednesday morning’s announcement to disclose the information.
“It’s one of the great days of my life,” Hughes stated on a convention name. “When I used to be fortunate sufficient to be inducted into the Cubs Hall of Fame in September, I made some extent of claiming ‘Who wouldn’t wish to be within the Cubs Hall of Fame?’ And I really feel that very same manner at present. Who wouldn’t wish to be in Cooperstown acknowledged for his or her broadcasting profession? I’m elated, to say the least.
“It’s a great place to be and now to think that my own plaque is going to be there, it’s just ridiculous. I can’t even believe it.”
Hughes thanked his predominant accomplice, Ron Coomer, together with Cubs Chairman Tom Ricketts, president of enterprise operations Crane Kenney, Zach Zaidman and WSCR-AM 670 program director Mitch Rosen, amongst others.
“The Ford C. Frick Award is a highly prestigious award that recognizes the ‘best of the best’ in broadcasting and no one is more deserving of this award than Pat,” Ricketts stated in a press release. “Outside of his impressive resume, Pat is a truly wonderful person who cares deeply about Cubs fans and the game of baseball. We’re so incredibly lucky to have had him as a member of the Cubs family for the past 27 seasons and look forward to celebrating this accomplishment, and many more, in the years to come.”
Hughes started his baseball broadcasting profession with the minor-league San Jose Mission in 1978, and after 5 seasons within the minors grew to become the Minnesota Twins TV voice in 1983 and moved to the Milwaukee Brewers in 1984. He started his profession with the Cubs in 1996 and lately accomplished his twenty seventh season on the North Side. Hughes was inducted into the staff’s Hall of Fame in September.
Hughes, the forty seventh winner of the Frick Award, was voted in by a committee that included former winners Ken “Hawk” Harrelson and Bob Uecker, his former accomplice in Milwaukee. Among the others on the poll was White Sox TV analyst Steve Stone, in his first 12 months as a finalist.
While many felt Hughes was a shoo-in for the Frick Award in 2020, he stated he was by no means that upset about dropping out and by no means gave up hope.
“Just to be a finalist for an award this lofty is a great accomplishment,” he stated. “You don’t really feel any disgrace or any bitterness. You simply suppose, ‘Well, maybe next time.’ That’s the best way I attempted to consider it and stored working laborious. I’m actually only a fairly glad man doing my job day in and day trip.
“You don’t think about the Hall of Fame … because it’s something so big, you think ‘You know what? There is a strong likelihood you’re never going to get into those things, so why spend a lot of time thinking about it.’ You just work hard, and sometimes good things happen.”
Hughes’ voice has served because the soundtrack to Cubs baseball for generations of followers. The Cubs successful the 2016 World Series was the end result of his profession, however broadcasting the Cubs for thus a few years means having to explain some unhealthy groups.
“I love the game,” he stated. “Even when they don’t win, you continue to have a job to do, and also you’re being paid very well-to-do that job. You owe that to your viewers and to your self and to your loved ones. So I don’t have a significant downside (in the event that they’re not successful). I would like the staff to win. Don’t me flawed. But win or lose, I’m nonetheless going to strategy it just about the identical manner day after day after day.
“You’re constantly communicating with the listener and I think that’s part of the charm. I also tell people, and it sounds a little corny, but I feel like baseball is a form of escapism. It is for me, it always has been to this day. It’s really a rather wholesome form of escapism for a lot of us just to get away from your troubles.”
Since retiring as a participant, supervisor David Ross has gone again to take heed to Hughes’ calls of his greatest moments from his two memorable seasons in a Cubs uniform.
“That’s how I identify those moments, that’s the voice I hear now rather than of the thoughts that I used to have in the box,” Ross stated Wednesday. “I hear his voice and his call and his excitement. He’s been here for so long and seen so many ups and downs. That’s the longevity of all that, going through the good and the bad. That’s why he’s just such a special person. His attitude daily is unique.”
Hughes was final in Cooperstown in 2012 for former accomplice Ron Santo’s posthumous induction into the Hall of Fame. Santo was certainly one of his extra memorable companions on WGN-AM 720 and made the notorious “Oh, no!” name when Cubs outfielder Brant Brown dropped a fly ball in Milwaukee to lose an important recreation within the wild-card race of 1998.
Hughes stated their rapport was a “natural evolution,” and their friendship got here throughout loud and clear throughout broadcasts, with Hughes continuously teasing Santo for amusing in the course of motion.
Ditto with Coomer, his present accomplice. When a recreation will get uninteresting, the 2 typically go off on a humorous tangent, like a day in June when the presence of Atlanta Braves pitcher Ian Anderson led to a dialog on Jethro Tull’s “Aqualung.”
“That Ian Anderson, he could play a mean flute,” Hughes informed his viewers.
Not every thing in baseball is life and dying, and Hughes entertains listeners whereas additionally protecting them knowledgeable.
“I feel like my job is to get Ron Coomer’s knowledge on the air every day,” he stated. “That’s one of the aspects involved in doing play-by-play. And there’s also the element of fun — sometimes silly fun. A play on words or stories about a play that just happened that remind you of a play that happened 10 years ago at Yankee Stadium or a Ron Santo story that evokes a laugh or a moment that will make you giggle. I believe in having fun. I love going to the ballpark, and that has been the case for me since I was 7 years old.”
Brickhouse was named winner of the Frick Award in 1983, whereas Caray adopted in 1989. Hughes follows of their huge footsteps and joins a lot of his buddies and mentors within the business, together with Uecker.
“It’s almost hard to put into words, and I speak with words,” he stated. “I live by being able to express myself and put things into words. This is a challenge because it’s so much beyond what you could ever realistically expect in a career when you start out.”
Hughes, who has two extra years left on his contract, has no intention of leaving the Cubs sales space anytime quickly.
“I don’t know when I’m going to retire,” he stated. “It may not even be my decision. I just know that I’m happy right now. I try to take care of myself. It’s a great situation…. I’m 67. I won’t last forever. But as long as I feel like I’m reasonably effective and relevant as a broadcaster, I’ll keep on going. If I start making too many mistakes, I’ll know, and then I’ll have to step away.”
Hughes will obtain the award on Hall of Fame induction weekend July 21-24 in Cooperstown, N.Y.
Tribune reporter Meghan Montemurro contributed from San Diego.
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Source: www.bostonherald.com