Tom Cheek

Thomas F. "Tom" Cheek (born June 13, 1939 in Pensacola , Florida , † October 9, 2005 in Oldsmar , Florida) was an American radio announcer for the Toronto Blue Jays baseball games between 1977 and 2004.

Life

Tom Cheek attended the Cambridge School of Broadcasting in Boston, Massachusetts and then took up a first position at the University of Vermont as a reporter for live broadcasts of baseball, basketball , American football and ice hockey ; he also reported on college basketball for the Mutual Radio Network . He began his career as a baseball reporter from 1974 to 1976 with the Montreal Expos as a radio reporter parallel to television broadcasts as a so-called swingman . In 1977 he was appointed official radio announcer by the Toronto Blue Jays and thus became the "voice of the Blue Jays". His first partner as an expert was the former pitcher Early Wynn until the end of 1980 . From then until his retirement in 2005, Jerry Howarth was his co-commentator, Howarth also became his immediate successor. As a player expert, the major leaguer Gary Matthews was at their side for a while .

Merits

As a reporter, Cheek is only surpassed in popularity in Canada by Foster Hewitt , the star reporter of Canadian ice hockey. The contract radio station of Cheek and thus the Blue Jays was CKFH 1430 (founded by Hewitt and later renamed CJCL and FAN 590); all other stations took over the transmissions from there. Tom Cheek reported between April 7, 1977 and June 3, 2004 of all 4303 games of the Blue Jays. Only the death of his father and a short time later his own cancer kept him away from the microphone. The Blue Jays honored him with a banner in the Skydome during the entire 2004 MLB season, which, in addition to the "Level of Excellence" award , showed the number 4306 as the jersey number - three games that were canceled due to rain were included. After a brain tumor had been removed, he only returned to the microphone sporadically at home games, and commented on his last inning at the opening game of the 2005 season.

In addition to baseball, Cheek was also active as a commentator for ABC Sports at the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid and 1984 in Sarajevo .

Cheek's best-known announcement was his description of Joe Carter's World Championship home run in the sixth game of the 1993 World Series :

Touch 'em all, Joe! You'll never hit a bigger home run in your life!

“Touch them all, Joe! You will never hit a more important home run in your life! "

- Tom Cheek, 1993

He died of a brain tumor in Florida on October 9, 2005.

Honors

After his death, the Blue Jays honored him with a badge on the sleeve of their 2006 player uniform that showed a microphone next to his initials. Cheek was in the years 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2008 for the Ford C. Frick Award of the Baseball Hall of Fame proposed. This award is presented annually during the New Player Admission Ceremonies to a Rapporteur with "Special Merit for Baseball".

Web links

• Tom Cheek 1939–2005 (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Tom Cheek: Original announcement by Tom Cheek. (mp3) October 23, 1992, archived from the original on March 25, 2009 ; accessed on October 2, 2008 . 
2. ↑ Jordan Bastian: Cheek falls short of Frick Award. (No longer available online.) MLB Advanced Media, LP, February 19, 2008, formerly in the original ; accessed on October 2, 2008 .  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.    
3. ↑ Jordan Bastian: Beloved broadcaster Cheek recognized. (No longer available online.) MLB Advanced Media, LP, September 1, 2008, archived from the original on September 9, 2008 ; accessed on October 2, 2008 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.