Lon Simmons wins Ford Frick Award, inducted into HoF

"Nomo with the shexy windup..."

Nuxhall has been calling Reds games with Hall of Famer Marty Brennaman since 1974, which as a pair has to be one of the longest running announcer partnerships.

Simmons leaves crowd laughing

By Jeff Vella
Staff Writer

COOPERSTOWN — Bob Uecker might have started a trend.

For the second straight year, the Ford C. Frick Award winner gave the most entertaining speech of the Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony.

Longtime Bay Area announcer Lon Simmons, 81, delivered quip after quip Sunday at the Clark Sports Center, poking fun of himself, 2004 inductees Dennis Eckersley and Paul Molitor and several other baseball legends.

Uecker, the 2003 Frick winner (awarded for excellence in broadcasting), stole the show last year with his barrage of one-liners.

Uecker returned for Sunday’s ceremony, and he, too, appeared amused by Simmons’ speech.

Hall of Famer Joe Morgan, who said he grew up a San Francisco Giants fan, introduced Simmons on a serious note.

"I listened to him every night," said Morgan, the lead analyst on ESPN. "My heroes were (Willie) Mays, (Willie) McCovey, (Orlando) Cepeda and (Juan) Marichal. Through Lon Simmons’ broadcasts, they all magically came alive for me each and every day.

"He did such a great job that when I went to the major leagues and starting playing against these guys, I felt like I knew them all individually," Morgan continued. "That’s what Lon Simmons brought to all of us who listened to him every day."

Simmons, who called Giants and Oakland Athletics games for 41 years before his 2002 retirement, immediately set the tone for his speech.

"As you can imagine, I’m happy and surprised to be here, but no more surprised than when I walked into the hotel and saw all these fellas there," he said, looking back at the record 50 returning Hall of Famers sitting behind him. "I thought I made a mistake. I thought I missed the hotel and had gone into the wax museum."

Morgan was his next target.

"One thing you don’t know about Joe is that he’s a competitor and he wants the edge," Simmons said. "A little story: We were golfing and came down to the 18th hole and we were all even. I hit my drive into the center of the fairway and Joe hit his well out into the rough.

"We looked and looked and looked and finally I said, ’Joe you only have five minutes (to look for your ball),’" Simmons continued. "He said, ’You go ahead and hit your ball and I’ll keep looking.’ I knew I had the hole won so I kind of scraped it up on the front of the green. As I walked to the green, I heard him yell, ’I found it.’ I look back, he hits it out of the rough, through the bunker, rolls it right up to the flag. Now if you’re me and you’ve got his golf ball in your pocket, what do you say?"

Simmons proceeded to playfully mock Molitor, Eckersley and some of the Giants Hall of Famers whose games he called — Cepeda, Marichal, Mays and McCovey.

Simmons’ sense of humor was one of the characteristics that made him so likable to Bay Area fans for so long. Simmons, a former minor league baseball player, became an original voice of the Giants when they moved from New York to San Francisco in 1958. He teamed with Russ Hodges — the 1980 Frick winner — for the team’s initial broadcasts.

"Russ and I were laid back," Simmons said. "In fact, we got letters addressed to Rigor and Mortis.

"I got one of the great letters of all-time where the guy said I was like the cotton in aspirin bottles," he continued. "You didn’t know what it was there for, you just knew it aggravated the hell out of you."

From 1981-95, Simmons called Athletics games before returning to San Francisco from 1996 until his 2002 retirement. Simmons was also the voice of the NFL’s San Francisco 49ers from 1957-80.

Among the biggest moments Simmons called were Mays’ 600th career home run and McCovey’s first home run after returning to the Giants in 1977. Simmons’ trademark home run call was "Tell it goodbye!"

Simmons didn’t let the entire speech pass without getting serious. He closed by talking about the small-town feel of his work.

"I did not before and do not now consider myself the quality of a Hall of Fame announcer," he said. "I do say this, the people of San Francisco convinced me you don’t have to be a national announcer to make a difference. You can be local. The thing about baseball is it’s a national game that’s played locally. It’s the Pacific Coast League, it’s Little League or it’s Babe Ruth League. People get ties to that."

Anyone wanna take my Sporcle quiz on Ford Frick winners? Oh, look at the thread title, you get a freebie.

The Frick winners are NOT inducted into the Hall (look up any list of members), but that never stops the media from saying they are. It's an award.
― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Monday, June 7, 2004 10:52 AM (5 years ago