SABR member Joe Castiglione honored with 2024 Ford C. Frick Award
DECEMBER 6, 2023 — Boston Red Sox announcer Joe Castiglione, a SABR member since 1984 and the longest-tenured broadcaster in franchise history, was selected as the 2024 recipient of the Ford C. Frick Award, presented annually for excellence in broadcasting by the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum.
Castiglione is the fourth SABR member to receive the Frick Award, following Detroit Tigers icon Ernie Harwell (1981), Joe Garagiola (1991), and Kansas City Royals voice Denny Matthews (2007).
Castiglione has called Red Sox games on radio or TV for more than four decades since 1983, including four World Series championships with the franchise. Click here to read his SABR biography, written by Curt Smith.
“Mel Allen was my hero growing up, the greatest broadcaster along with Vin Scully and Ernie Harwell,” Castiglione said during a broadcasters panel at the 2022 SABR convention in Baltimore. “You take whatever route you can to get there, and I had to do it all. I was a (radio station) disc jockey, playing the hits and reading the news. I had to sell (ads) at one job, which I absolutely hated, so I could do sports. You try to move up the ladder, make contacts … and eventually, sometimes it happens. For many, it doesn’t. You have to be in the right place at the right time and, fortunately, I had a lot of people that helped me along the way.”
Castiglione will be honored in Cooperstown during the Hall of Fame Awards Presentation on July 19-22, 2024. Jacques Doucet, a SABR member since 2005 and the original voice of the Montreal Expos, was one of 10 finalists for the 2024 Frick Award, along with Joe Buck, Gary Cohen, Tom Hamilton, Ernie Johnson Sr., Ken Korach, Mike Krukow, Duane Kuiper, and Dan Shulman.
Originally published: December 6, 2023. Last Updated: December 6, 2023.