For 20 years, Chicagoland native and former KMOX-Radio broadcaster Ron Barber has been on a long journey to get the late Cubs’ play-by-play broadcaster Jack Quinlan enshrined in Cooperstown.
Barber, shown in photo, left, has worked tirelessly trying to get his message across to the right people in hopes they will agree with him and that Quinlan will be selected posthumously to be in the broadcasters wing of the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown. The Broadcasters award is the Ford C. Frick Award.
“It’s one of the most egregious omissions in the history of the Hall of Fame,” says Barber. “Every HOF announcer I ever spoke to says, unquestionably, Jack Quinlan deserves the honor. Why, Bob Costas says ‘it’s almost a crime Jack Quinlan hasn’t been elected to the Hall.’ To that end, I’ve produced a Quinlan tribute video he’s calling ‘The Day the Cubbie Bear Cried and the Music Died.”Barber contributed the photo, right of Quinlan with Ernie Banks, and the one at the top of this article of Quinlan with Don Drysdale and Sandy Koufax.
“The pressure needs to be put on both Cooperstown and the Cub’s Hall of Fame to right this longstanding wrong,” said Berber. “And I’m hoping the video can finally get us to the Promised Land. It’s long overdue. I am trying to get as much national publicity among baseball writers, podcasters, historians, etc. as possible regarding my long journey with Jack Quinlan and his long overdue enshrinement in Cooperstown.”
Here is the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9tgARnTRvUg
