Reading ” Road To Glory ” by Tom Cheek and Howard Berger I was reminded of what perhaps was my greatest moment in broadcasting.
In September of 1987, the Blue Jays and Detroit Tigers had an amazing sequence of games late in the season to determine the American League East.
On the Friday of the second last weekend of the season, the teams hooked up at Exhibition Stadium in a pivotal game, the talk of the baseball world at the time.
At the time, TSN was finding its way, and to be politically nice, they elected to show the Expos-Phillies game, so the only media with the Jays and Tigers in our region was our AM service, CFOS.
So that night, I went home, turned on my TV, watched the Expos game, but had the radio on and listened to the Jays game.
I’d never done it before, I’ve never done it since.
The Expos-Phillies game concluded, so TSN flipped to Jays & Tigers, but in my house I elected to keep the radio on and listen to Tom Cheek and Jerry Howarth.
All at once, for whatever reason, there was a snap, a crackle, and a pop, and Jerry Howarth was gone.
I felt bad for CFOS after we’d trumpeted the game all week, only to lose it in the 7th inning.
All-at-once, I got brainwave.
I had the video right in front of me, all I had to do was pick up the phone, call Steve Peyton in the Control Room, and do the play by play from my living room.
The power outage in Toronto lasted for close to 30 minutes, and while I’m certain I’ll never do a Major League Baseball game again, for 2 glorious innings, I was the voice of Blue Jays Baseball- at least in Owen Sound
I’m Fred Wallace