Tom Cheek, voice of the Blue Jays

[Kyyle23]

I never heard him broadcast a game, but he obviously garnered alot of respect. I thought the Tony Fernandez excerpt was touching.

 

 

Baseball broadcaster Tom Cheek was described by Toronto Blue Jays president and chief executive officer Paul Godfrey as the person "who has provided the soundtrack for the most important moments in this team's history, with his choice of words and intonation always perfectly suited for the occasion."

 

"It's difficult to put into words the overwhelming sense of grief and loss shared today by the Blue Jays family, the city of Toronto, the extended community of Major League Baseball and its many fans," Godfrey said in a statement yesterday. "He was far more than just an outstanding announcer, though. He was a great goodwill ambassador for baseball in Canada.

 

"His love for the game, which radiated through his words on the radio, captivated fans across this country and helped to grow the sport from one coast to the other."

 

Cheek, 66, died yesterday in Oldsmar, Fla., where he had been convalescing after surgery for a brain tumour last June.

 

"Tom Cheek went into the Blue Jays' broadcast booth over 4,500 times with the same enthusiasm and passion as if he were broadcasting his first game," said Nelson Millman, the vice-president, general manager and program director of the Toronto all-sport radio station The Fan 590, which carries the Blue Jays games.

 

"He was the voice of the Jays to all of us. Those of us that worked with him and, of course, the listeners and fans of Blue Jays baseball desperately miss hearing him. Our thoughts and prayers are with his wife, Shirley, and his family."

 

Jerry Howarth, who had been Cheek's full-time broadcast partner since 1982, remembered Cheek's only half-inning as a broadcaster this season. It was in the Blue Jays' season opener on April 4 against the Tampa Bay Devil Rays at Tropicana Field.

 

Cheek was visiting the broadcast booth and, with the Blue Jays losing 1-0 after three innings, he announced the top of the fourth. The Blue Jays got a double from Frank Catalanotto and home runs from Orlando Hudson and Vernon Wells, the first three batters of the inning, en route to a 5-2 win.

 

"It was a magic moment," Howarth said. "Tom was a good man. He was a good family man. He had two families. He had his wife, Shirley, their three children and seven grandchildren and the other family was the Blue Jays."

 

Bruce Brenner, who has been the engineer and producer of the Blue Jays' broadcasts since 1986, said the best way to explain working with Cheek was "We were really good friends."

 

"He personified the organization both inside and outside of Toronto," said Paul Beeston, the former chief executive officer and president of the Blue Jays. "You think of him, you think of the Blue Jays. You think of that voice. The consistency. He was a constant and there's not much more you can say about someone in that position."

 

Beeston recalled the first time he met Cheek.

 

"He was like a lot of us in that it was his first full-time big-league job," he said. "I remember how tall he was [6 foot 4], how much presence he had when he first walked into the room. And the voice . . . it was a great voice. I remember that first spring training, he was such a hit with the fans because of his size and voice.

 

"What I find interesting is that you can talk to any of the Blue Jays' former managers and none of them would say anything bad about him behind his back, let alone to his face. I mean, you couldn't get any of them to. You don't always find that, after 28 years. That's because everyone could see how much Tom's heart was in it."

 

"For more than 25 years, Tom was not only my radio link to the Blue Jays, he was a loyal friend and colleague," said former Blue Jays general manager Gord Ash, now the assistant GM with the Milkwaukee Brewers. "Tom provided encouragement when times were tough and was one of the first to offer praise for team and individual successes. Tom had a way of making you feel comfortable even with the bases loaded and nobody out."

 

"Tom was just a really loyal, dedicated employee," agreed another former Blue Jays GM, Pat Gillick. "Tom wanted to get information about people to use on his broadcasts, but he never wanted to embarrass anyone. To be honest, I don't remember any player, manager or coach ever complaining about anything he said. He was professional in appearance and presentation.

 

"The voice was something. Sometimes you see somebody and you say, 'That's where that radio voice comes from?' That wasn't the case with Tom. He was a big person with a big voice."

 

A website, http://www.tributetotom.com, has been created in Cheek's memory.

 

 

It was in the final few weeks of Tom Cheek's life that his wife picked up the telephone at their Florida home and heard the voice of long-time Blue Jays shortstop Tony Fernandez. A deeply religious man who organizes regular Sunday worship services at a compound in his native Dominican Republic, Fernandez had called for an update on a gravely ill Cheek, the team's legendary radio play-by-play man. Told by Cheek's wife, Shirley, that the man whose name appears alongside his on the Level of Excellence rim at the Rogers Centre, was too sick to talk, Fernandez offered the best comfort he knew how. They remained on the phone for 10 more minutes as Fernandez recited a prayer he had written for Cheek. Countless others had prayed for, visited and written to Cheek over the last 16 months before his death yesterday at age 66 from brain cancer. Whether it was former players, media executives or the millions who listened to Cheek for the better part of three decades on the radio, his was a pioneering voice that both immersed and educated them on America's pastime and Canada's only remaining major league team.