Baseball top broadcaster ballot adds three

COOPERSTOWN, N.Y., Dec. 4 (UPI) -- Baseball broadcasters Joe Nuxhall, Bill King and Joe Morgan were added to the ballot for the 2008 Ford C. Frick Award Tuesday, inserted by online fan voting.

The three join broadcasters Tom Cheek, Ken Coleman, Dizzy Dean, Tony Kubek, Graham McNamee, Dave Niehaus and Dave Van Horne, who were selected by a National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum committee for their excellence in broadcasting.

Nuxhall has 53 years of service with the Cincinnati Reds as both a player and broadcaster, spending 38 years in the booth. He died of cancer Nov. 15 at the age of 79.

King spent 25 years as the Oakland Athletics' radio play-by-play man. He died in 2005 at the age of 78 of complications from surgery.

Morgan, meanwhile, has been a network analyst for 23 years. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame as a player in 1990 after batting a career .271 average, having numerous appearances on the National League All-Star roster and collecting a pair of NL Most Valuable Player awards.

Morgan, Niehaus and Van Horne are the only active broadcasters on the ballot.

Denny Matthews won the award in 2007.