SASKATOON – A Saskatoon hip hop artist is paying tribute to the former voice of the Toronto Blue Jays, through his music.
Most Major League Baseball (MLB) fans across the country remember where they were when Joe Carter hit the game winning homerun for the Toronto Blue Jays in game 6 of the 1993 World Series.
Matt Brotzel, aka RationaL, remembers he was in bed and missed the swat and call heard around the world. The hip hop artist has watched the game and heard Tom Cheek’s call thousands of times since.
The former voice of the Blue Jays, who called over 4,300 consecutive games, is the source of inspiration for the song “A Swing and a Belt.”
After four months, 200 hours in the studio and about half a dozen re-writes, RationaL’s tribute to the late Tom Cheek was born.
“To honour a guy like Tom Cheek get into the hall of fame very great and just those words that rings in everybody’s ears, “touch them all Joe”. ’93 was a very special year and here it is 20 years later people are still talking about it as if it was yesterday, so for RationaL to come through and put something together like that, props to him. He did a very good job on doing it,” said Joe Carter, former Blue Jay.
While the song was well received by friends and fans, it was the reaction from Tom Cheek’s family that choked Brotzel up.
“Mrs. Cheek, Tom’s wife has heard the song, she thought it was amazing, she sent me an email, I sent this song to my kids and she said in quotations dad is now on a rap sound track how cool is that,” said RationaL.
MLB even picked up the song before Cheek was honoured at the Baseball Hall of Fame in July.
RationaL had an opportunity to go to Rogers Centre for the first time this summer. While in Toronto, he shot a music video which is currently in the works.
He hopes this inspirational song takes a kid from Saskatoon to the big leagues.
A free download of the song is available on RationaL’s website.
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