In these parts, there likely wasn’t a more fitting or deserved honour, than the announcement last week that former Toronto Blue Jays Broadcaster Tom Cheek was the 2012 Ford C. Frick award winner
The Ford C. Frick Award is presented every year by the Baseball Hall of Fame to a broadcaster for major contributions to the sport.
No question, Tom Cheek was very good behind the mic.
While he was proficient in a number of sports, there was no doubt that he oozed baseball.
But beyond that, and of greater significance, for a generation of baseball fans in Ontario and across Canada, Cheek was the conductor who led the masses on a long,long climb to respectability and then held their attention through the glory years.
To me, Tom Cheek was at his best when the Blue Jays weren’t, that is from their inception through the mid 80’s.
Night after night, 100 loss season after 100 loss season, Cheek made you believe that any second, the Blue Jays were about to turn the corner.
Doug Ault, Jerry Garvin, Alfredo Griffin, converted outfielder Dave Steib, Roy Howell, Lloyd Moseby, Jesse Barfield & George Bell, all stumbled along until they came of age in 1985, and with them, every step of the way, for more than 4,300 consecutive games, there on the radio was Tom Cheek.
Tom Cheek gets the Ford C. Frick Award for contribution to baseball, yet, somehow it feels like his contribution to Toronto, the province and by extension, the country was far greater
I’m Fred Wallace