Legendary Bay Area announcer Bill King was the voice of the East Bay, spending 25 seasons with the Oakland A's, 27 with the Raiders, and 21 with the Warriors; more than solidifying his stature as one of the best in the business. Now it's time for history to return the favor as King is up for baseball Hall of Fame's Ford C. Frick Award for the fifth time, and 2010's Frick Award winner Jon Miller wants King to join him in Cooperstown; and get the respect he deserves in a variety of other halls of fame.
"He was the best basketball play-by-play man I ever heard," Miller said. "I've wondered for the last 20 years how he hadn't been honored at the basketball Hall of Fame yet. Nobody was a better football play-by-play man, either."
Miller spent 15 years in Oakland working with King, and hopes that Moneyball along with Giants announcing legend Lon Simmons (another Frick award winner) can boost his chances of getting into Cooperstown in 2012. King passed away in 2005, but his timeless words will live on forever.
The Pete Rozelle Award (NFL H.O.F.), The Curt Gowdy Award (NBA H.O.F.) the American Sportscasters Association HOF, the National Sportswriters and Sportscasters Association HOF in North Carolina and the National Radio HOF in Chicago. All places where King should be heralded for the legend that he is, but don't. Only the Bay Area Radio Hall of Fame has showed their support, inducting him in 2006.
This year King is up against the likes of Skip Caray, Rene Cardenas, Tom Cheek, Ken Coleman, Jacques Doucet, Tim McCarver, Graham McNamee, Eric Nadel, and Mike Shannon. Hopefully he will get the nod.
The winner of the Ford C. Frick Award will be announced on December 6 at MLB's winter meetings.