Twins’ Broadcaster To Join Select Company In Hall

Herb Carneal never talks much about himself. Not even now when he’s going into the Baseball Hall of Fame.

Today, the veteran Twins announcer - a voice synonymous with Major League Baseball in the Upper Midwest for the past 32 years, and the dean of current American League broadcasters - becomes only the 20th recipient of the Ford C. Frick Award, an acknowledgment of distinguished service voted on by his peers.

Previous winners/inductees include Mel Allen, Red Barber, Vin Scully, Russ Hodges, Harry Caray, Curt Gowdy and Ernie Harwell.

Carneal, 72, will be present for the ceremony in Cooperstown, N.Y., but no one’s expecting a long speech.

“Have I written it?,” Carneal asked the other day, sounding slightly incredulous, as though a speech were one of the last things he would be expected to give.

“No, I don’t plan to write one. Maybe I should. But it’s not going to be too long, just whatever I have to say. I prefer not to just read it off a piece of paper. I don’t know how you feel about things like that.”

Anybody else getting enshrined at Cooperstown would spend a month writing a half-hour script thanking everyone they ever worked with, their dog, the guys at Jiffy Lube and generally reducing their family to tears. It’s that big a deal.

But part of Carneal’s considerable charm, and his durability in a job that can be very tough on certain types of personalties, is his self-effacement. Privately, say people who know him, and professionally, Carneal is the consummate class act.

Carneal arrived in 1962, the Twins’ second season in Minnesota, and has worked with a changing cast of broadcast partners, among them, Halsey Hall, Ray Scott and Frank Quilici. But none longer than John Gordon, his present partner.

But even Gordon hesitates to say he knows Carneal well.

“Herb is really a very private person,” Gordon said. ”He’s the consummate professional. He’s always prepared. He has never asked me to change anything I do, and I can honestly say that over the course of the 10 years we’ve worked together we’ve never had a single cross word or argument. But we’re different ages, obviously, and have different interests.”