My, Oh, My!

Congratulations to Dave Niehaus.

Niehaus wins Frick Award

Happy birthday, Dave Niehaus, you're headed for the National Baseball Hall of Fame.

Niehaus, a fixture in the Seattle Mariners' broadcast booth since they entered the American League as an expansion franchise in 1977, was named the 2008 winner of the Ford C. Frick Award on Tuesday and will be honored at the Hall of Fame Induction Ceremonies on July 27 at the Clark Sports Center in Cooperstown, N.Y.

The news came on Niehaus' 73rd birthday. It marked the second consecutive year that the award for major contributions to baseball broadcasting has been won by an announcer who has covered his club since its inception. Niehaus follows Denny Matthews, the broadcaster for the Kansas City Royals since their debut season of 1969.

"What a birthday present," Niehaus said on a telephone conference call. "It's the most humbling experience. My phone has not stopped since the news got out."

'His Voice is Seattle Baseball'

Get out the rye bread, Grandma, longtime buddies Dave Niehaus and Dick Williams are going into the Hall of Fame together.

Almost three months after Williams was one of five managers and baseball executive elected into the Hall of Fame, Niehaus on Tuesday -- his 73rd birthday -- gained entry into the Cooperstown, N.Y., shrine, as the 2008 Ford C. Frick Award winner. Both will be inducted on July 27.

"This is great, really terrific," said Williams from his home near Las Vegas. "We go way back, to when we were both with the Angels. We have known each other for a long, long time."

Their paths first crossed in 1974, when Williams became manager of the Angels and Niehaus was a member of the broadcast crew. They renewed their friendship a month into the 1986 season, when Williams took over as manager of the Mariners, and have been close ever since.

A boy with dreams, Niehaus now in Hall

Dave Niehaus remembers tossing and turning in his sleep, finally waking up at 6 a.m. with a new purpose in life.

"I was going to be a dentist. But I was at Indiana University and woke up and thought to myself, 'I can't look down someone's throat at 8 in the morning the rest of my life.' Can't do that.

"The hardest thing to do was to call my parents and tell them. They had looked forward to me becoming a professional person. They said, 'What are you going to do now?' "

Well, he wasn't exactly sure but he always had this special interest in sports, especially baseball. He followed up by walking into the campus radio station, WFIU, and offering an audition. He was hired to do the school's baseball broadcasts. That was more than 50 years ago.

"A lot of things have happened to me since I took that turn on campus in Bloomington, Indiana," Niehaus said.

Here is the Ford C. Frick Award page at the National Baseball Hall of Fame Site.