Vote for Bill King for the Ford C. Frick Award

As I noted in another diary, there apparently is no current plan by the A's for a public celebration of Bill's life.  They are holding a private memorial service next Tuesday (11/1) at the Arena, but I assume this is by invitation only.  When all the stress dies down, I'd like to find the appropriate person in the A's organization to send emails to let them know we would like to have a public celebration some time before opening night, when they would only be able to devote a few minutes to remembering Bill.  Any ideas along these lines would be appreciated.

And I am lobbying all my friends to do the same..any chance we can run a banner here on AN to remind people, with the link right into the voting site?

and I think Skigurl's idea is a very good one..maybe we can enlist the aid of some of our sportswriter friends to write about "appropriate" fan memorials (yes, I think Bill would hate all this)but I also think he would understand that it comes from our hearts.

I spoke to Ricky (Ricky's Sports Theater) yesterday and he said he was willing to do anything to help. We should all vote as much as we can. It's our way of doing what we can to help.

so i remember. thanks! =)

Nico -- you head to the concourse under the RF stands and I'll bring the skewers!

I was out of the country a few days -- and away from AN a little longer -- and I entirely missed Bill King's passing.

Since I didn't have a chance to share memories in the threads that were started at the time of his passing, let me just share a few here.

I first came to know King's broadcasting when he was the voice of the Raiders and the Warriors back in the '70s.  I particularly remember him during that improbable NBA championship season of '74-'75. The Warriors weren't on TV much. I lived and died by Bill's radio calls.  He was the first announcer I really cared about.  I remember visiting my LA relatives around that time. They swore by Chick Hern.  But Chick couldn't hold a candle to Bill, in my book.  Nor could any of the other great -- and supposedly great -- announcers I came to know as I lived in different parts of the country and listened to their broadcasts.

I haven't lived in the Bay Area for over twenty years. But the advent of the internet brought Bill's voice back to me. Simply hearing him call a game was like returning to my childhood, like coming home again.

I find it very sad that I'll never again have the pleasure of hearing that voice tell me something surprising going on in a stadium far away.

If anyone belongs in the Hall of Fame, it's Bill King.

Rest in peace, Bill.

for doing all this work to keep Bill King's memory alive in a number of appropriate ways.  The T-shirt sales to benefit the ballet company seems like a particularly nice touch--I think Bill would have gotten an appreciative chuckle out of it.  

Bill King started announcing the A's the same year I started to become a fan of the team. I can't believe he won't be there any longer. But what surprises me the most is that he isn't already in the HOF. For all three sports. I have heard many announcers around the country the last 25 years and Bill was by far one of the greatest.

I'm hoping the A's honor him in a permanent way at the stadium somehow. Since I always listened to the radio broadcast, even at the game, Bill WAS the A's for me. He is already missed.

from broadcast HOFs bizarre, in that:

1. How many of the broadcasters in the HOFs have done all 3 major sports? Not many.
   
2. Bill was better in his "weakest sport" (whichever you might consider it to be) than most broadcasters are in their best sport.

Big market, small market, local, national--how the f*** did the HOF manage to overlook him all these years when he was alive?