TORONTO – The voice of the Blue Jays throughout the team’s back-to-back World Series wins, Tom Cheek has been awarded the 2013 Ford C. Frick Award for broadcasting excellence.
Cheek called 4,306 regular season and 41 postseason games with the Toronto Blue Jays including Joe Carter’s World Series winning home run in 1993.
Cheek few words, “Touch ‘em all Joe, you’ll never hit a bigger home run in your life” as Carter ran the bases has became one of the enduring moments in Blue Jays history.
“Tom Cheek was the voice of summer for generations of baseball fans in Canada and beyond,” said Hall of Fame President Jeff Idelson in a press release Wednesday.
“He helped a nation understand the elements of the game and swoon for the summer excitement that the expansion franchise brought a hockey-crazed nation starting in the late 1970s.”
Cheek was born on June 13, 1939.
His first foray into baseball announcing came as a back up announcer for the Montreal Expos in 1974.
He was the Blue Jays’ first announcer and called every game from 1977 to 2004.
Cheek passed away on October 9, 2005.
He’s scheduled to be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2013.
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