“A little bouncer slowly toward Bryant. He will glove it and throw to Rizzo. It’s in time! And the Chicago Cubs win the World Series! The Cubs come pouring out of the dugout, jumping up and down like a bunch of delirious 10-year-olds. The Cubs have done it! The longest drought in the history of American sports is over, and the celebration begins!”
With these words, Pat Hughes became the first Chicago Cubs broadcaster to proclaim the Cubs as World Champions. These words will live forever in the minds and hearts of Chicago Cubs fans.
Hughes began his baseball play-by-play career with the San Jose Missions from 1978-’81. He went on to broadcast for Marquette University, Northwestern University, the Milwaukee Brewers, the Minnesota Twins and others. In 1996, Hughes joined the Cubs radio broadcasts, following in the footsteps of legendary Cubs announcers Bob Elson, Jack Brickhouse, Milo Hamilton and Harry Caray. all recipients of the Ford C. Frick Award from the Baseball Hall of Fame. Cubs fans are hoping Hughes follows them into the Hall of Fame.
The Ford C. Frick Award is presented annually for excellence in baseball broadcasting by the National Baseball Hall of Fame. Hughes is one of eight finalists for the 2020 Frick Award. The other seven are Joe Castiglione, Jacques Doucet, Tom Hamilton, Ken Harrelson, Ned Martin, Mike Shannon and Dewayne Staats. With all due respect to these seven, some of whom have Chicago connections, Cubs Nation is waiting for Hughes to be announced as the winner of the Frick award on December 11 at the baseball winter meetings. The winner (hopefully Hughes) will receive the award during Hall of Fame weekend in Cooperstown on July 25.
The winner of the 2020 Frick Award will be announced on December 11, 2019 at the Baseball Winter Meetings in San Diego and will be honored during the July 25 Awards Presentation as part of the July 24-27 Hall of Fame Weekend 2020 in Cooperstown.
Those are dates to remember for Cubs fans. One more important date is Saturday, December 14. Next Saturday, Hughes will be appearing courtesy of Autograph1 at Warehouse Eatery, 833 Deerfield Road, Deerfield from 1:00 pm-2:30 pm.
This is a rare opportunity to meet Hughes and get some awesome signed memorabilia. Even if not a fan, it’s the perfect time to get gifts for friends. (Side note to all of my friends: any of this would be well-received by me at Christmas. LOL). Seriously though, this is an event you don’t want to miss. I hope (and expect) to see a lot of my friends there.
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