In spite of Padres fans' many criticisms, Dick Enberg has been awarded Major League Baseball's highest honor for broadcasters: The Ford C. Frick Award. Enberg is an interesting choice for the award, as he has spent less than half of is nearly 60-year career reporting baseball. After cutting his teeth calling football and basketball games for the Indiana Hoosiers, Enberg went on to call virtually every other sport, contributing to several Olympic telecasts, every one of tennis's Grand Slam tournaments (most notably Wimbledon), the NFL, and the NBA.
His first stint calling baseball was in Anaheim, where he was the voice of the much less ridiculously named California Angels from 1969 to 1978. He spent most of the 80s working for the nationally broadcast MLB on NBC before leaving baseball entirely for over 20 years. Enberg returned to the sport in 2010, joining Channel 4 San Diego after the Padres broadcaster muddled through the 2009 season without an adequate replacement for Matt Vasgersian.
Congratulations to Dick Enberg, and our condolences to Ted Leitner, who can't even get into the Padres Hall of Fame.