Cubs announcer Pat Hughes wins Baseball Hall of Fame's Frick Award
CHICAGO (CBS/AP) -- The radio voice of the Cubs is the 2023 Ford C. Frick Award winner for Excellence in Baseball Broadcasting.
Pat Hughes is the third Cubs broadcaster to win the award. He joins Jack Brickhouse, who won the award in 1983, and Harry Caray, who won it in 1989.
Caray and Brickhouse both passed away in 1998 – making Hughes the only living Cubs broadcaster with the honor.
"This is a very special honor, and it's almost intimidating for me to be looking at the other members of the Hall of Fame – the Hall of Fame broadcasters – and to think that now I'm a part of it," Hughes said. "We're talking about the greatest baseball announcers in the history of the game."
Hughes has called Major League games for 40 years – the last 27 of them with the Cubs. He previously served as a play-by-play man for the Minnesota Twins and the Milwaukee Brewers.
He has called Kerry Wood's 20-strikeout game in 1998, eight Cubs no-hitters and nine postseason appearances. He was at the mic in 2016 when the Cubs won their first pennant since 1945 and captured their first World Series championship since 1908.
"No one is more deserving of this award than Pat. Outside of his impressive resume, Pat is a truly wonderful person who cares deeply about Cubs fans and the game of baseball," chairman Tom Ricketts said in a statement. "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 will be honored July 22 of next year as part of the Hall of Fame induction weekend. He was one of 10 finalists for the award along with Boston's Joe Castiglione, the Mets' Gary Cohen and former major leaguers Dave Campbell, Steve Stone, Duane Kuiper and Ernie Johnson Sr. Longtime Montreal Expos announcer Jacques Doucet, Cleveland's Tom Hamilton and former Toronto Blue Jays voice Jerry Howarth also were finalists.
