Although Tom Hamilton was named a finalist for the prestigious Ford C. Frick Award given by the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, he did not expect to be enshrined in this heralded home of baseball immortality. Upon discovering that he had made the 10-person cut, he received a message to be available on the morning of December 11 to potentially field a phone call, a dispatch that, upon receipt, would mark earning one of the highest honors in the sports media business.
Hamilton had been through this cycle in three previous occurrences to no avail, and he was not genuinely thinking about winning the award that December morning. On the contrary, he and his wife were preparing their home for the holidays while the MLB Winter Meetings were underway in Dallas. Hamilton’s wife had lunch planned with a friend that afternoon and asked if she should go, to which he replied that they would have obtained a phone call by that point if anything was to transpire. From there, Hamilton boarded an elliptical machine to begin a workout, and suddenly, what he perceived to be an unlikely outcome rendered itself true learning that he had garnered the distinction.
“They called right around 11:40, and so, again, it’s just kind of one of those [instances where] the phone rings, you look at it,” Hamilton explained. “Normally I wouldn’t pick up because I didn’t know the number, but ‘Cooperstown’ came across the front of my phone. I was like, ‘Oh my God.’”
Dashing upstairs to share the phone call with his wife, Hamilton was utterly shocked to be selected as the award recipient. Twenty minutes later when the news became public knowledge, he was able to call his children and celebrate the victory with his family. Having been the radio voice of Guardians baseball for the last 36 years, Hamilton has built a reputation as someone who is able to make sense of a surreal moment. In this case though, he struggles to find the words to properly encapsulate what it means to receive the accolade.
“I’ve worked for incredible people, which is why you never want to leave, and we’ve been lucky enough that they haven’t forced us out [and] that they’ve kept us,” Hamilton said. “It’s still stunning to me to even think about it and it’s hard to wrap your arms around it, and it’s becoming more and more realistic as you get closer and closer to it.”
Hamilton is in the process of compiling his speech for the ceremony, which is slated to take place in July, and he hopes not to get another phone call informing him that his selection was an accident. On top of that, he is preparing for the Guardians season as the team looks to leverage its consistent postseason appearances to snap a 76-season World Series championship drought. Broadcasting from the corner of Carnegie and Ontario, Hamilton is gracious to work in an industry that aligns with his passions and strives to accurately depict the action.
“You’re live for however many hours, so the old adage, ‘You’re walking on a tightrope with no safety net,’ that’s live play-by-play, and you make mistakes and it just happens,” Hamilton said, “but I think hopefully as you gain more experience, you’re able to kind of take a deep breath when you can kind of feel a moment coming, not that it’s necessarily going to happen.”
A Spontaneous Moment Serves the Audience Best
As Cleveland was trying to win a World Series championship in 2016 against the Chicago Cubs, outfielder Rajai Davis hit a game-tying home run with two outs in the eighth inning. While the team fell short of capturing baseball’s ultimate glory, Hamilton narrated the moment with conviction and vivacity as the team mounted its comeback effort. In fact, he affirms that it represents an instance where he could evince the apex because of the surrounding drama, but he nonetheless did not presage the sequence. Moreover, he does not listen back to these big moments out of fear of being his own worst critic and an impossibility of being entirely content.
“I may have certain calls that I do the same on certain home run calls, but I don’t wait to do a home run call because that’s how you set yourself up for failure because you’re in your home run call and the shortstop makes a leaping catch and you look like an idiot,” Hamilton said. “So spontaneity is still the best tool that you have, and that’s why it either comes across natural or chances are you’re going to be in line for a different job.”
As Hamilton broadcasts throughout the season, he aims to accurately portray his outgoing and ebullient personality without embellishing or deceiving the listening public. Conveying passion, persistence and an unwavering will to perform at his best, he views himself as lucky to call Progressive Field his workplace. While his inaugural season with the team was delayed by a lockout, he eventually had the chance to pair with Herb Score, who forewarned him against demonstrating conceit or apathy about the sport.
“One of the things he always used to say is, ‘Be careful. The longer you’re up in the booth, the more you feel like you can become God, judge and jury,’ and he goes, ‘You want to always be careful of that,’” Hamilton recalled. “Yes, we have to tell fans what’s going on. You have to point out as the bad as well as the good, but you’re not up there being judgmental, and you try to always make sure it’s not personal.”
Working Relationships Behind the Mic
Hamilton has worked with several broadcast colleagues over the years, the last 15 of which have been alongside Jim Rosenhaus. Throughout their partnership, Hamilton has emphasized that the arrangement is not a soliloquy and encourages him to speak when he wants to jump into the broadcast. The broadcasters have become more accustomed to one another over the years and effectuate a stellar radio call of Guardians baseball throughout the season on Newsradio WTAM 1100.
“I’ve never had to deal with, ‘Okay, you’re not going to be on a radio station anymore’ or anything like that,” Hamilton said. “We’ve always been, for the most part, on the top station in Cleveland and the clear channel and all of that, so that really hasn’t impacted me or how I do the job or anything else like that.”
Hamilton remembers discussions surrounding the conjectural death of the radio medium from the moment he started working in the profession. He refutes such a claim and feels optimistic about innovation in the digital age. For example, he and Rosenhaus frequently receive messages from listeners in Europe consuming the radio broadcasts digitally and can discern the augmented reach. Technological breakthroughs and innovations render it possible for consumers to access local radio broadcasts from virtually any location and stay attuned to games.
“Modern technology has really helped the radio play-by-play end of it, and really I think in a lot of ways you could say the same thing about TV,” Hamilton said. “The younger generation is – they’re not consuming television like us old people are – they’re streaming on their phones.”
Local Matters to Baseball Fans
Hamilton contends that the presence of the local broadcast is vitally important, and he believes the ratings are high because of the gelid winter temperatures and fluctuation into the summers. Cities in the Midwest region of the United States endure a similar phenomenon, he explained, which leads to patrons usually being on the move spending time outdoors during the baseball season. From listening on a golf course to a boat in the middle of Lake Erie, Hamilton is a trusted voice for fans and has successfully adapted to a shifting paradigm with the introduction of the pitch clock and other alterations.
“I’m still bringing the same amount of research and notes to a broadcast, but a lot fewer of them are getting into the broadcast because of the pace of play, and that’s good,” Hamilton said. “That’s good because people want to hear baseball – they don’t need to hear me droning on and on.”
Although he admits that some aspiring broadcasters may not want to hear it, gaining repetitions behind the microphone is how announcers traditionally hone their craft and develop distinctive approaches conducive to success. Hamilton grew up on a dairy farm and later moved to Waterloo when his father began work at the Perry Printing Company, which is when he started listening to sports broadcasts on the radio. With a penchant for the profession, he attended Brown College and practiced calling games into a tape recorder, after which he would elicit feedback and seek to improve.
“I don’t think any different from a player,” Hamilton explained. “They always talk about, ‘How many reps does it take to become a good hitter?,’ or the amount of hours guys put in the batting cage or whatnot, and it was really no different than that for me, and then it’s just kind of trial and error.”
Upon joining a station in Columbus, Hamilton offered to work for free on Columbus Clippers baseball games with play-by-play announcer Terry Smith while also contributing to morning drive sports and studio coverage of Ohio State Football. The circumstance gave him consistent repetitions and positioned him to apply for the Cleveland job when it opened, although his wife is the person who ultimately pushed him to take the leap after having their newborn son.
“That was such a great time in our life to have our first child, but I think sometimes you do need encouragement from somebody to tell you that, ‘Well, how do you know you can’t this job?,’” Hamilton recalled, “and I think I felt like, ‘Well, they’re not going to hire a guy that isn’t even the lead broadcaster for Columbus,’ but at that point, it was kind of like, ‘Well, why not?’”
Honoring the Craft of Play-By-Play
Hamilton remembers discovering that he landed the job and values his radio broadcasting position, but he was also offered opportunities to move to television during his career. While he called games for The Baseball Network, ESPN+ and the Big Ten Network, he has remained loyal to radio and proven to be among the longstanding masters in the craft. Since some of the regional baseball jobs spanned both mediums, Hamilton wanted to ensure that he would be versatile enough should he ever decide to make the move.
“As much as I enjoyed doing television basketball, the camera does the play-by-play, and so that’s what I loved about getting back into radio because there is no camera,” Hamilton said. “You’re the camera for your listener, and that’s where you do your craft of painting the picture so to speak, so as much as I enjoy doing television, I much more enjoy radio. You feel like you’re your own boss more than anything.”
While the Guardians commence the race to capture a third division title in five years, Hamilton will keep fans informed and entertained as he demonstrates his proficiency and proclivity for the game. As he retains his credibility as a broadcast professional, he looks to keep things in perspective while being in a state of disbelief about his summer trip to Cooperstown. In the end, he is going to continue doing the job and working hard, taking stock in the process and extemporizing the monumental benchmarks that engender jubilance, despondency and the spectra of emotions interspersed therein.
“Once the game unfolds, to me, the work is done, and that’s the most enjoyable part of the game,” Hamilton said. “I get the best seat in the house and we’re not paying a nickel to watch these guys perform every day, so again, I know maybe it’s redundant, but you sit around there every night, whatever ballpark you’re in, and again, you just kind of go, ‘How did this all happen?’”
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Derek Futterman is an associate editor and sports media reporter for Barrett Media. Additionally, he has worked in a broad array of roles in multimedia production – including on live game broadcasts and audiovisual platforms – and in digital content development and management. He previously interned for Paramount within Showtime Networks, wrote for the Long Island Herald and served as lead sports producer at NY2C. To get in touch, email Derek@BarrettMedia.com or find him on X @derekfutterman.
