On The Radio Ep. 4

SERIES FOUR: PADRES VS. TEXAS RANGERS

I seriously cannot remember the last time the Padres played in Texas. Our visits to Globe Life Park, that is technically in Arlington, Texas, have been few and between. It looks like it is a beautiful ballpark and the Rangers have a Hall of Fame broadcaster on radio!

Meet Eric Nadel, the 2014 recipient of the Ford C. Frick broadcasting award.

The 2014 recipient of the Ford C. Frick Award, Eric Nadel is in his 23rd year as the lead voice on the Texas Rangers radio broadcasts. It marks his 39th year broadcasting Rangers baseball, the longest tenure of any announcer in the history of the franchise and the second longest continuous current stint with one team in the American League to Kansas City's Denny Matthews (49th year in 2017).

The Ford C. Frick Award is presented annually for excellence in broadcasting by the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum. Nadel was the first primary voice of the Texas Rangers to be honored with the Frick Award, which was first presented in 1978. He was a finalist for the 2011, 2012, and 2013 Frick Awards.

Nadel was honored at the Hall of Fame's Awards Presentation on July 26, 2014 in Cooperstown, New York, along with 2014 J.G. Taylor Spink Award winner Roger Angell and Buck O'Neil. Lifetime Achievement Award recipient Joe Garagiola.

Nadel is an eight-time selection of the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association Texas Sportscaster of the Year Award (1999, 2001, 2002, 2006, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2015) and was twice honored by the Associated Press for best play-by-play in Texas. He was inducted as the 15th member of the Texas Rangers Baseball Hall of Fame on August 11, 2012.

Nadel joined the Rangers in 1979 and called games on television and radio in his first three seasons. Beginning in 1982, he began a 13-year run with Mark Holtz as the radio team on WBAP while returning to the television booth for one year in 1984. Nadel became the team's lead radio voice on KRLD Radio when Holtz moved to television in 1995.

Nadel is a graduate of Brown University, where he called football and hockey on the college radio station. He had minor league hockey play-by-play stints in Muskegon, MI, Oklahoma City, Dallas and Fort Worth, and was also the radio voice of the Dallas Diamonds of the Women's Professional Basketball League.

Nadel has spent several offseasons learning Spanish and has taken part in Spanish game broadcasts in numerous Latin American countries. He is also the author of three books, including Texas Rangers: The Authorized History, published in 1997.

Eric is very active in the local music scene, annually presenting a Birthday Benefit Concert for Focus on Teens, for which he is a member of the Board of Directors, at Dallas' Kessler Theater. This year's concert on May 18 stars Marc Broussard. He is also very involved in numerous mental health causes, serving as a spokesman for the national Campaign to Change Direction and for Texas State of Mind. Nadel is the 2017 chairman of the Nami Walk on May 13. He is a long-time animal activist and raised the funds for the construction of the first leash-free dog park in North Texas at Mockingbird Point in Dallas."

A 1991 inductee in the Texas Baseball Hall of Fame, Nadel and his wife, Jeannie, reside in Dallas and Durango, CO with their dog, Kirby, a terrier mix.

MATT HICKS

Matt Hicks is in his fifth full season in the Texas Rangers radio booth after joining the broadcasts in June 2012.

Hicks came to the Rangers from the Corpus Christi Hooks, the Houston Astros Texas League affiliate, where he had served as Director of Broadcasting and Media Relations since 2005. In that role, he was the primary play-by-play voice on all radio broadcasts and called Hooks television games on Fox Sports Southwest's Astros Minor League Game of the Week from 2007-09.

Hicks has 28 years of professional baseball play-by-play experience, making stops with Frederick of the Carolina League from 1989-94 and El Paso of the Texas League from 1995-2004 before becoming an inaugural employee at Corpus Christi. He is a former winner of the Radio Broadcaster of the Year Award in El Paso.

In addition, Hicks has extensive experience broadcasting college basketball with Mount St. Mary's College (Emmitsburg, MD), James Madison University (Harrisonburg, VA), the University of Texas-El Paso, New Mexico State University, and Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi. He was also the first play-by-play voice of the El Paso Buzzards of the Western Professional Hockey League. During his time in Corpus Christi, Hicks also broadcast high school football on the Texas Sports Radio Network's CCISD Game of the Week.

Hicks is a graduate of the University of Maryland in College Park, where he called baseball, football, basketball, and lacrosse on WMUC Radio. The native of Washington, D.C. also was an extra in the movie Major League II, appearing in scenes featuring Bob Uecker, A.K.A. Harry Doyle.

Next Away Series: Oakland A's on July 3rd and 4th