Holy Toledo: Bill King Again Snubbed Of Frick Award

In the words of Bill King, “Crazy… just plain crazy!”

That’s my first thought when I heard the news that, once again, King had missed out on the Frick Award.

Credit: Troy Taormina-USA TODAY Sports

It seems all too familiar. Another year, picked as a Hall of Fame Ford C. Frick finalist, and another snub. Once again, the late Bill King has been overlooked and his family, friends, as well as his fans, will have to continue to wait.

It was the seventh time that King has missed out on the Hall and it doesn’t seem like his induction will get any easier. As Susan Slusser stated in her San Francisco Chronicle article on King’s rejection, the Frick committee will now vote candidates in on a rotating basis, and King’s group, “High Tide” which is the modern-era, will not be voted on again until 2016.

Known for his affluent vocabulary as well as his fondness of food and art, King was, as stated in Ken Korach’s book  “Holy Toledo” which was hoped to create a buzz and ultimately push King into the Hall, a “Renaissance Man”.

King, though, was not only a Major League Baseball sports broadcaster, but also called Oakland Raiders and Golden State Warriors games.

The sports world lost a great voice and a great character in 2005 when King passed, and sadly, the Frick voters have all but forgotten about him, it seems. But many others haven’t forgotten about the man who had the privilege of calling some of the Oakland A’s most historic events, including Rickey Henderson‘s 939th stolen base, the A’s 1989 World Series sweep of the San Francisco Giants, as well as Scott Hatteberg‘s walk-off in 2002 that marked the A’s 20th consecutive victory, an American League record.

But truly, it was the fans, who were able to listen to King’s eloquent calls, that were the most fortunate. 2016 can’t come soon enough.