On a professional note, too bad Texas Rangers' iconic voice Eric Nadel didn't win the Ford C. Frick Award for excellence in broadcasting this morning at baseball's winter meetings. He was edged out by Dave Van Horne, who's been calling games (for Expos and now the Marlins) for 42 years.
On a personal note, sad to see Nadel leave the CBS radio family in general and 105.3 The Fan in particular. Next season he'll be calling Rangers games over on 103.3 ESPN. In my time working with Nadel he was always polite, courteous and very tolerant of bozos like me commandeering his broadcast booth at places such as Yankee Stadium during the ALCS.
His voice and professionalism will be missed.
Nonetheless - despite some irrationally ridiculously predictions - The Fan will celebrate its 2nd birthday today, make it to Christmas, be broadcasting when the calendar turns to 2011 and ...
No doubt the Rangers' move is a loss for The Fan. Hearing Nadel on 100,000 watts of power and clarity each night in the summer was heaven. I'll miss that.
But it doesn't rmean the station will stop covering the team any less than The Ticket did when it lost the Dallas Cowboys. Being a flagship station is a nice bragging right but, far as I can tell, not always a shrewd financial endeavor.
As you might have noticed, there have been philosophical and physical changes at The Fan since late summer. Here's predicting we'll still talk to Nolan Ryan and Jon Daniels and Ron Washington and assorted players and still produce Rangers' post-game shows that sometimes roll until 5 a.m.
At this point I'm sure Fan critics will say it's a fatal blow and that major changes are looming and that the station's format will flip by sundown.
In retort, just let me say this ... meet you here in one year for our 3rd birthday.
Deal?
