This is a misconception that always occurs when a sportswriter is given the Spink Award or a broadcaster is given the Frick Award by the Baseball Hall of Fame. These are "honors" that are bestowed by the Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown upon worthy writers and broadcasters for distinguished service to their professions, but let's be clear about a couple of things:
- Spink and Frick honorees are not "in" the Baseball Hall of Fame. There are no plaques for them like there are for Babe Ruth, Walter Johnson, Roberto Clemente, et al.
- Nor is there a "writers wing" or "broadcasters wing" of the Hall of Fame. If you visit the HOF and Museum, you will find a not-all-that prominent display that lists all Spink and Frick honorees.
Now I realize that this falls in the category of "It Doesn't Matter All That Much, but It Still Bugs Me", but it is wrong to introduce a guy like Vin Scully or Bob Prince or Charley Feeney or Roger Angell or Peter Gammons, great as they are/were, as "Hall of Famers". If the concept of Halls of Fame mean anything to you at all, then it does a disservice to those guys who are actually IN the Hall of Fame by calling, say, Bob Uecker, who was a very deserving Frick honoree, a Hall of Famer.
Sadly, this misconception is often perpetrated by the Spink and Frick winners themselves. I have read of one such honoree, and I can't remember which one, who always include the notation "HOF" whenever he signs an autograph.
OK, I got that off my chest.
