Milwaukee native Kubek gets Hall of Fame nod

Milwaukee native Tony Kubek is a Hall of Famer.

Kubek, who followed a solid career as a major-league infielder with an even more successful turn as a broadcaster, is the 2009 recipient of the Ford C. Frick Award, presented annually for major contributions to baseball broadcasting. Kubek, who resides in Appleton, will be honored with the award during Hall of Fame Induction Ceremonies July 26 in Cooperstown, N.Y.

"I don't know if you ever know what you're going to feel like once you get there," Kubek, 72, said during a conference call with reporters Tuesday. "It's a thrill now and it hasn't sunk in yet. I think it's an honor."

Kubek was born in Milwaukee on Oct. 12, 1936, grew up in a tiny house on the South Side on South 5th Place between Arthur and Harrison Avenues and graduated from Bay View High School.

He was the American League Rookie of the Year in 1957 and helped the New York Yankees to three World Series championships in a nine-year big-league career that featured four all-star appearances and six trips to the World Series.

"My heart always was and always will be with the Yankees," said Kubek, who as a high school player worked out with the Braves at County Stadium. "In the days when I broke in, you could work out with any team you wanted to. There was no free agency. When I went there as a 17-year-old in 1953, my dad said to me, 'You're signing with the Yankees. Scooter [Phil Rizzuto] is getting older, you're a shortstop and maybe someday you'll make it.'" 

After his playing years ended, Kubek worked as an analyst for the NBC "Game of the Week," the Toronto Blue Jays and New York Yankees for 30 years before walking away from the sport in 1994, when he still had two years left on his contract with the Yankees.

He is the first exclusive television analyst to win the Frick Award, which has been presented annually since 1978. Kubek also becomes the first primarily television broadcaster to be honored since Bob Wolff in 1995 and the first Frick Award winner to have called games for a Canadian team.

"For an entire generation of baseball fans, Tony Kubek was the face and the voice of the game," Hall of Fame president Jeff Idelson said. "In the days before all-sports TV networks, Tony brought baseball into your living room every Saturday afternoon for almost three decades. His straightforward style, quick and detailed analysis and no-nonsense commentary on the game's nuances gave viewers an insider's look at what the players were experiencing on the field."

Kubek joined the NBC broadcast booth in 1965 after retiring as a player that year. He served as an analyst on backup games from 1966-'68, then was elevated to the primary broadcast in 1969. He worked with play-by-play partners Jim Simpson, Curt Gowdy (1984 Frick Award winner), Joe Garagiola (1991 Frick Award winner) and Bob Costas through 1989, then concluded his career with the Yankees and the MSG Network from 1990-'94. He also worked on local television broadcasts for The Sports Network and CTV for the Blue Jays from 1977-'89, introducing one of North America's largest cities to the game of baseball.

"I was especially always grateful to the cameramen," Kubek said. "If you need something or wanted to see a shot, the NBC cameramen knew the game so well. They knew where to point those cameras. The case in point would have been the [Carlton] Fisk home run up in Game 6 [of the 1975 World Series] at Fenway. An award like this can't really be given to any one person." Kubek broadcast 11 World Series and 14 American League Championship Series for NBC as well as 10 All-Star Games. Kubek also called the final NBC Game of the Week on Sept. 30, 1989, and that fall's American League Championship Series, which ended a 43-relationship between the network and Major League Baseball.

"I always just tried to focus on the game," Kubek said. "That was more important to me than anything else. A lot of it has to do with relating to your partner. When you're the analyst and the second banana, you let them lead the way and try to follow them." 

The Ford C. Frick Award is voted upon annually and is named in memory of the sportswriter, radio broadcaster, National League president and Baseball commissioner. To be considered, an active or retired broadcaster must have a minimum of 10 years of continuous major league broadcast service with a ball club, network, or a combination of the two. More than 200 broadcasters were eligible for consideration for this year's award.

Past winners include Brewers announcer Bob Uecker (2003) and Kubek's longtime partners Curt Gowdy (1984) and Joe Garagiola (2002) as well as Jack Buck (1987), Vin Scully (1993) Harry Caray (1989) and inaugural winner Mel Allen (1989).