Tom Hamilton, an iconic figure in Cleveland sports for more than three decades, will be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame this weekend.
CLEVELAND — In January 1990, Tom Hamilton received the phone call that he was getting a dream job of broadcasting major league games in Cleveland.
Last December, he received the call that he was going to be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame.
Between those two phone calls were 36 years of Hall-of-Fame-level broadcasting as Hamilton became a true local treasure and one of the best in the business, a beloved figure who acted as the soundtrack for so many Northeast Ohio baseball fans through all the years, many of whom have come to see him as a friend in the booth.
This weekend Hamilton, named the recipient of the 2025 Ford C. Frick Award, will be officially inducted into the media wing at the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y. For a baseball broadcaster, it's the honor of a lifetime, one for which Hamilton is eternally grateful.
"It's very surreal," Hamilton said this week, not long before he'll head to Cooperstown and deliver a speech as part of enshrinement weekend. "It's kind of hard to grasp — overwhelming at times — and I'm not trying to fake my modesty, but you're very humbled by it."
"Hammy," known by those around him as one of the kindest human beings anyone could ever be lucky enough to meet, will tell you he doesn't feel he belongs alongside some of the game's all-time great broadcasters. Fans who have been listening to him broadcast Cleveland baseball games for anywhere from 36 minutes to 36 years would politely disagree.
"I'll never get a better phone call than January of 1990, when Tom Wilson … offered me the job, and you couldn't believe you ever would get that phone call," Hamilton said. "Professionally, this is the second-best phone call [to go into the Baseball Hall of Fame]. It's hard to comprehend, but we're very grateful."
Despite his best efforts to keep it together, Hamilton became emotional about 15 seconds into a Zoom call with reporters in December after being given the news he was being named the Frick Award winner. Meeting with local reporters again this week in Cleveland, he was momentarily brought to tears when discussing not his own accomplishments but the kind words so many of his colleagues and peers had said about him over the past few months, both professionally and personally.
"Your peers mean everything," Hamilton said. "I was more excited when I got the job in 1990 to meet Ernie Harwell, to meet Vin Scully, to meet Jon Miller … I couldn't believe I was getting to meet those people."
After getting into radio broadcasting and spending a few years doing minor league games — experiences he has called invaluable — Hamilton joined Herb Score in Cleveland in 1990. That duo worked together through the team's run to the 1997 World Series. After that season, Hamilton took over and has since partnered with Mike Hegan, Dave Nelson, Matt Underwood and Jim Rosenhaus.
Hamilton was asked this week about his broadcast partners, and all the years working with them, and them working with him. His response?
"Well, they'll go straight to heaven. There will be no purgatory for them," he said with a smile.
"In all seriousness, I haven't had a bad partner in 36 years," he continued. "Now they may disagree, but I haven't had a bad partner. … I've been friends with all of them, still friends with those that are still here."
Part of being inducted into the Hall of Fame is delivering a speech in Cooperstown. Hamilton, who would much rather ask you about how your family is doing than ever talk about himself, has some nerves about the whole thing. And he might be working on it up until the moment he walks to the podium in New York.
"I feel like every night, I'm tweaking it," Hamilton said. "You're never happy with it. … No one wants to talk about themselves. … But if the speech sucks, in two hours the bar is open and most people will probably forget it. So, we'll be good."
It's a well-deserved honor, even if "Hammy" will never believe he belongs in Cooperstown. For him, it's been about the people and the job itself, and giving your best effort on a daily basis because that's what the audience deserves.
"We've been so blessed to have this job, and I know how fortunate I am," he said. "There aren't many broadcasters who have been as lucky as I have been."
This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Cleveland broadcaster Tom Hamilton to be inducted into Hall of Fame
Category: Baseball
