By Linda Wisch-Davidsohn
Temple Shalom Brotherhood to host softball league’s 39th annual award breakfast Jan. 5
Temple Shalom’s Brotherhood and the Brotherhood Softball League invite the community to attend its 39th Annual Softball League Awards Breakfast, which will be held at 8:30 a.m. Sunday, Jan. 5 in the Radnitz Social Hall at Temple Shalom located at 6930 Alpha Road in Dallas.
Softball Commissioner Wayne Casper will present all spring and fall league awards to championship teams, division winners, division MVPs, Rookies of the Year, “Mr. Shalom Softball,” Fan of the Year, as well as other awards and possible Hall of Fame inductees.
Bob Weinfeld shared that Eric Nadel, voice of the Texas Rangers, will be the guest speaker. Earlier this month, Nadel was selected as the 2014 recipient of the Ford C. Frick Award, which is presented by the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown, N.Y. annually for excellence in broadcasting.
“I’m so excited and tremendously flattered by this honor,” Nadel said. “As a kid from Brooklyn who was a radio junkie, I grew up idolizing six of the past winners of the Frick Award. It is mind-boggling for me to be a part of the list of winners. To arrive at this level of recognition, I’m very, very proud.”
Nadel will be recognized during the Hall of Fame awards presentation Saturday, July 26, as part of Hall of Fame Weekend 2014 in Cooperstown. Nadel has achieved the honor since he is the first Rangers radio broadcaster recipient of the Frick Award. He earned the highest point total in a vote conducted by the Hall of Fame’s 20-member Frick Award committee, after making it to the finalist list without winning for three straight years.
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.
Nadel, who was born May 15, 1951, grew up in Brooklyn, N.Y. as a Dodgers fan and graduated from Brown University in 1972 with a sports broadcasting career in his sights. After calling pro hockey and basketball games for most of the 1970s, Nadel was hired by the Rangers in 1979. He teamed with Mark Holtz on Rangers radio from 1982 to 1994, then took over as the team’s lead radio voice in 1995. He called Nolan Ryan’s 5,000th career strikeout on Aug. 22, 1989, and has been the narrator for the Rangers’ six playoff berths and two American League pennants since 1996.
Nadel learned Spanish upon the arrival of many Latin American stars on the Rangers in the 1980s, and has called games in Spanish in Latin American countries during the MLB offseason. Nadel’s signature home run call, “that ball is history,” has become a part of the Rangers’ lexicon.
Nadel was chosen from a list of 10 finalists selected in October, featuring three fan selections from an online vote and seven broadcasters chosen by a research committee from the museum. The final ballot featured broadcasters whose main contributions came from the mid-1980s to the present, identified as the High Tide Era following the restructuring of the Frick Award election process by the Hall of Fame’s board of directors this summer.
The 10 finalists were: Joe Castiglione, Jacques Doucet, Ken Harrelson, Bill King, Duane Kuiper, Eric Nadel, Eduardo Ortega, Mike Shannon, Dewayne Staats and Pete Van Wieren.
In September, a total of 20,968 votes were cast in the museum’s online fan poll for inclusion on the final 10-name ballot, with Doucet, King and Kuiper as the top three fan poll selections.
The 20-member electorate, comprised of the 16 living Frick Award recipients and four broadcast historians/columnists, includes Frick honorees Marty Brennaman, Jerry Coleman, Gene Elston, Joe Garagiola, Jaime Jarrin, Milo Hamilton, Tony Kubek, Denny Matthews, Tim McCarver, Jon Miller, Felo Ramirez, Vin Scully, Lon Simmons, Bob Uecker, Dave Van Horne and Bob Wolff. Historians/columnists on the committee are Bob Costas (NBC/MLB Network), Barry Horn of the Dallas Morning News, and historians Ted Patterson and Curt Smith.
Nadel and his wife, Jeannie, reside in Dallas with their dog, Nemo, a lab/husky mix.
The award breakfast is free for spring and fall softball players and for paid-up Brotherhood members. Other community members are invited to attend the breakfast for a $5 suggested donation, and children are free. Softball players from spring and fall seasons are urged to donate blood that morning as part of the ongoing blood drive.
For more information, contact Bob Weinfeld at 972-814-6214.
Olivia Harris and Josh Goldberg performance to benefit Jewish Family Service
A rare opportunity will present itself at 8 p.m., Sunday, Dec. 29 at the Piano Gallery, 4343 Sigma Road, Suite 100 in Dallas, when local budding talents Olivia Harris and Josh Goldberg will perform. Doors open at 7:30 p.m. and a reception will follow. Part of the evening’s proceeds will benefit JFS operations and services.
Admission costs $20 for adults and $12 for students. To reserve your tickets, call or text 214-693-3672. Seating is limited.