Ford Frick Marquee Hall of Fame 1970

Ford Frick moved from sportswriting to the National League presidency and then the commissioner's office. Born in December 1894 and dead in April 1978, he wrote for the New York Evening Journal and ghosted columns for Babe Ruth before working for a league; the Veterans Committee elected him in 1970.

As National League president through the 1930s and 1940s he pushed for the Hall of Fame to be built at Cooperstown, and when players threatened to strike over Robinson he told them they would be suspended. He became commissioner in 1951 and held it until 1965, through expansion from sixteen clubs to twenty.

In 1961, with Roger Maris chasing Ruth's home-run record in a longer schedule, he said the record books should distinguish the two. No asterisk was ever actually printed, but the idea attached itself to his name and has stayed there. The award for broadcasters is named after him.