Bill King's voice is amongst my earliest childhood memories as a baseball and Oakland A's fan.  I will miss him dearly.

I would like to suggest to my fellow A's fans here at Athletics Nation that we develop and drive a grassroots effort to nominate Bill King for the Ford C. Frick Award in the broadcaster wing of the National Baseball Hall of Fame.

This link is to the November 1, 2004 press release by the National Baseball Hall of Fame announcing and detailing last year's voting:

http://www.baseballhalloffame.org/whats%5Fnew/press%5Freleases/2004/pr2004%5F11%5F01.htm

I think we can infer a few things:

1. They will announce the opening for nominations for the 2006 Ford C. Frick Award sometime in early November 2005, about 2-3 weeks away.
2. There is an internet voting component, where fans can vote once per day.
3. The top 3 recipients of fan voting will make the ballot
4. Lon Simmons received 105,000 fan votes in 2003 WITHOUT the help of an internet community like Athletics Nation.
5. Once Bill King is nominated, it is out of our hands and in the hands of Hall of Fame voters.

   6. Bill King should already have been honored in this way.

I hope I'm not off-base here in suggesting this.  I will keep an eye on the National Baseball Hall of Fame website and will post an update when voting opens.