Renowned sports broadcaster Bob Costas was named the 2018 recipient of the Ford C. Frick Award, the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum announced Wednesday morning. The award is given annually to a candidate who displays "excellence in broadcasting."
Costas, the 42nd winner of the award, received the highest point total in a vote conducted by the Hall of Fame's 15-member selection committee. He will be recognized for his achievements during the Hall of Fame Awards Presentation on July 28 as part of Hall of Fame Weekend 2018.

"I love baseball. As most of you know, it's always been my favorite sport to broadcast, and I think that I'm something of an historian on the history of the craft," Costas said. "As a little kid, when I was 9 or 10 years old, I would fiddle with a radio dial and try to pick up Ernie Harwell from WJR in Detroit, or Bob Prince on KDKA in Pittsburgh or Chuck Thompson on WBAL in Baltimore, or Harry Caray and Jack Buck on a very clear night all the way from Long Island, beaming in from St. Louis on KMOX.
"And in the early '60s, we lived for a short while in Los Angeles, and I listened then to Vin Scully on a transistor radio like millions of others."
Video: Bob Costas to receive Ford C. Frick Award
Costas was selected over finalists Buddy Blattner, Joe Buck, Dizzy Dean, Don Drysdale, Al Michaels, Joe Morgan and Pee Wee Reese.
"For almost 40 years, Bob Costas has presented an incredibly thoughtful and informed voice on every game he calls for NBC, The Baseball Network and MLB Network," president of the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum Jeff Idelson said. "But it's Bob's pure affection for baseball that has made him a national treasure. From the first day he entered our living rooms, Bob became one of the national pastime's greatest friends."
A graduate of the Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University, Costas began his broadcasting career as the play-by-play caller for the St. Louis Spirits of the American Basketball Association. He called regional National Basketball Association and National Football League games for CBS in the late 1970s before moving to NBC in 1980.

Costas was paired up with Sal Bando to form the backup broadcast team for NBC's MLB Game of the Week in 1982, and he served that same role alongside fellow Ford Frick Award winner Tony Kubek from 1983-89.
"But I would think that the 15 people who voted, all of whom know the history of baseball broadcasting, I would think that the work that I did on a baseball game of the week on NBC in the '80s and then in the '90s with Bob Uecker and Joe Morgan on NBC, that it was that history as much as anything else that led to me being lucky enough to being selected," Costas said.

Costas has handled play-by-play duties for the American League Championship Series in 1983, '85, '87 and '89 in addition to doing pregame duties for the All-Star Game during those seasons. He also helped perform pregame assignments for the World Series in 1982, '84, '86 and '88.
Costa is a 28-time Emmy Award winner, and he joined MLB Network in 2009. He has served as the network's documentary host for the past nine years.