Joe Nuxhall Finalist for Ford Frick Award, Announced Dec. 9

Joe Nuxhall is one of the finalists to be named as the Ford Frick Award winner for 2009, which will be announced today. Again, not to say anything to the past several winners of this award, but it would have been nice if Nuxy won the danged thang before he died. Just like it would have been nice if the veterans on the veterans committee would give Ron Santo his due. Nuxy richly deserves the Ford Frick Award according to the criteria. Let's just hope that they give the thing to him.

Joe Nuxhall Born 80 Years Ago Today

Joe Nuxhall would have been 80 years old today. And all of Reds Nation misses him, I would think. The Reds have done a very nice job honoring Nuxy, one in a spate of folks that the Reds are honoring. That, friends, is an entry for another day (Joey Jay had a few monster years for the early-1960s Reds, but are the Cincinnati nine honoring too many former players?). I have nothing at all against Dave Niehaus, but I still am a little saddened that the HOF didn't honor Nuxy when he so richly deserved it (especially after huge support from his fans). According to this story, Nuxy dominated everyone -- "Of the 122,505 fans who participated in the online election, 82,304 (67.2 percent) voted for Nuxhall, who died Nov. 15 from pneumonia at the age of 79. His passing was mourned throughout baseball, especially in Cincinnati. -- In the online balloting, King received 7,659 votes and Morgan got 6,065." The image is from the Cincinnati Enquirer and their great cartoonist, Jim Borgman.