Mariners broadcaster Dave Sims is finalist for Hall of Fame award

Oct 1, 2024, 2:41 PM | Updated: 3:05 pm

Seattle Mariners broadcaster Dave Sims speaks in 2023 during The Players Alliance Game Changers Celebration. (Mat Hayward/Getty Images for The Players Alliance)

(Mat Hayward/Getty Images for The Players Alliance)

BY SHANNON DRAYER

Mariners Insider, Seattle Sports

Add the name Dave Sims to your Seattle Mariners awards season watchlist.

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The popular Mariners play-by-play broadcaster’s name is one of 10 finalists on the ballot released Tuesday by the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum for the 2025 Ford C. Frick Award, which is presented annually for excellence in baseball broadcasting.

It is the first nomination for Sims, who just completed his 20th year calling Mariners games on television and radio, earning three consecutive Washington Sportscaster of the Year Awards (2018-20) from the National Sports Media Association.

Sims learned he was a finalist while at the gym Tuesday morning from a text he received from the 2024 winner, Boston Red Sox broadcaster Joe Castiglione, to congratulate him.

“I was blown away,” Sims said.

Good things happen when you are on the elliptical.

Upon receiving the news, Sims’ thoughts went to his youth, calling play-by-play on board games and annoying his friends by announcing his own plays in neighborhood stickball games as a kid growing up in Philly.

“I’m humbled, to say the least, to be along with this group of nominees. All marvelous, outstanding broadcasters, giants in the industry for a long time. Wow. Just to be in the same sentence, the same photo, just to be on that list is just unbelievable.”

In addition to Sims, the finalists as listed in the press release include:

• Skip Caray called Braves games on TV for 33 seasons for TBS from 1976-2008 and was a six-time winner of the Georgia Sportscaster of the Year Award.

• Rene Cardenas helped create the first Spanish-language MLB broadcast in 1958 with the Dodgers, working a total of 38 years for the Dodgers, Astros and Rangers.

• Gary Cohen has spent the last 36 years with the Mets, and currently serves as the team’s TV play-by-play voice on SNY.

• Jacques Doucet spent 33 years broadcasting for the Expos as the play-by-play radio voice on their French network (1969-2004), and he returned to the booth in 2012 as the Blue Jays’ French-speaking TV voice.

• Tom Hamilton has called Guardians games on radio for 35 seasons, including the team’s three World Series appearances in that span.

• Ernie Johnson called Braves games for 35 seasons from 1962-91 and from 1995-99 following nine seasons as a big league pitcher that included a World Series ring with the 1957 Braves.

• Mike Krukow has called games on television for the Giants for the last 34 seasons, including the last 29 on the radio following a 14-year pitching career with the Cubs, Phillies and Giants.

• Duane Kuiper has called games for 39 seasons, including 38 with the Giants on both radio and TV following 12 seasons with Cleveland and San Francisco as a second baseman.

• John Sterling called Yankees games on the radio for 36 years before retiring in 2024 following stints with Atlanta’s TBS and WSB Radio, where he called Hawks basketball (1981-89) and Braves games (1982-87).

The voting for the 2025 Frick Award will be done by the 13 living Frick Award recipients as well as three broadcast historians/columnists. The winner will be announced on Dec. 11 during baseball’s winter meetings, which will be held in Dallas, and will be honored as part of the 2025 Hall of Fame Weekend next July in Cooperstown, N.Y.

Criteria for selection is as follows: “Commitment to excellence, quality of broadcasting abilities, reverence within the game, popularity with fans, and recognition by peers.”

One Mariners broadcaster has previously won the award: Dave Niehaus, who took the honors in 2008.