While the Baseball Hall of Fame could have (and should have) bestowed such an honour to him while he was still alive, they were better late than never in recognizing one of the sport’s greatest broadcasters. The late Tom Cheek, the long-time voice of the Toronto Blue Jays, was awarded 2013 Ford C. Frick award for broadcasting excellence by the Hall of Fame.
Since his death in 2005, Tom Cheek has been among the ten finalists for the award each year since then and this time, finally won the honour he’s so long deserved after calling 4,306 of the Jays’ regular-season and 41 post-season games. Most of Cheek’s tenure behind the microphone came without missing a single game. From the Blue Jay’s very first game on April 7, 1977 to June 2, 2004, Cheek never missed a day of work.
Just eleven days after his ironman streak in the booth ended, Cheek underwent surgery to remove a brain tumor. Sadly, some of the tumor was unreachable. Cheek passed away just over a year later.
However, since his death, Cheek’s widow Shirley had made it her mission to get her late husband enshrined in the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York. While it took a few tries, Cheek’s accomplishments never went unrecognized and today, Mrs. Cheek knows that her tireless work has successfully paid off.
For a man who left his mark as the distinguished and respected voice of the summers in Toronto, Tom Cheek might be best known for his call that ended the 1993 World Series. On Joe Carter’s home run that won a second-straight championship for the Blue Jays over the Philadelphia Phillies, Cheek announced, “Touch ‘em all Joe! You’ll never hit a bigger home run in your life.”
With the honour of winning the Ford C. Frick award, Tom Cheek becomes the second broadcaster to be inducted into Cooperstown for a career that was spent primarily covering a Canadian team. Dave Van Horne of the Montreal Expos was inducted in 2011.
But overall, Tom Cheek joins illustrious company which includes broadcasting legends such as Mel Allen, Red Barber, Russ Hodges and Vin Scully. It may be overdue but Tom Cheek has been recognized as one of the greatest broadcasters in baseball history and he will be officially honoured during Hall of Fame weekend, July 26-29.
Touch ‘em all, Tom!
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Ryan Cowley is a writer at Toronto Standard. Follow him on Twitter @RyanACowley.
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