10:35 AM Eastern
The disappointing news of yesterday that Tom Cheek has again been passed over for the Ford C. Frick Award for Broadcasting Excellence was, unfortunately, not a surprise.
Tom should have won the thing by now - he’s a more than deserving candidate and, frankly, he should have won it in 2005 when he would have been alive to enjoy it, and when we pretty much knew it was the last chance for that to happen.
Dave Perkins has a great column in today’s Toronto Star that sums it up perfectly. I really liked how he described this year’s winner, Jon Miller, as a “popular and polished” broadcaster. Perkins gives the criteria for the Frick Award, which have been listed in this space before, and there isn’t even a bit of a question that Tom Cheek easily fulfills them all.
We will re-engage the battle next December, trying to get Tom to win the fan balloting for yet another season in the hopes that at some point, the voting group will wake the hell up and realize that this honour is well past due. Maybe, as Perkins said as well, the facts that Roberto Alomar will be voted in as a player in 2011 and Bob Elliott will likely be a finalist for the J.G. Taylor Spink Award will also help Tom’s cause.
For my part, if I happen to come across any Frick voters during the upcoming season (chances are I’ll see Milo Hamilton in spring training and Miller himself when the Giants come to town in June) , I will engage them in full-throttle debate as to Tom’s candidacy and their responsibility to see that justice is served sooner and not later.
Oh, and happy birthday Travis Snider.
Rational, reasonable comments are always welcome!
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Very disappointing.
I voted on the fan balloting, (more than once),but it seems the powers that be won’t let it happen just yet.
Credit to Jon Miller, but Tom Cheek’s due.
Keep up the crusade Mike! One day we might be doing the same for you!
- Pittmichael,
yes indeed, perhaps not totally surprising but very vexing nonetheless.
not to mention disappointing.
and i suppose in our typical cdn. way of thinking, some of us if not most of us take it yet again as a slight from our friends south of the border.
i don’t know…..
and aside from his incredible ability to call a game as good as anyone, please correct me if i’m
at all wrong on this michael, but is tom not the cal ripken of baseball radio broadcasting?
is there any others with the iron man record cheek put up during his career. i ask you?
it’s just nuts i tell you…..
MW: I don’t know if there ARE any others who have an ironman streak like Tom did. I wouldn’t bet on it, though.
- darrell bishopmichael,
- darrell bishopbtw, very nice to see your blog again at the top of the heap recently on the 590 website.
they certainly know where their bread’s buttered don’t they?
hockey. basketball. football. take a seat please……
Hey Mike.
I was wondering what your thought about the Jays making a run for Chen Ming Wang? I’m not sure if anyones asked this in recent posts but I was thinking he would be a fairly low risk that could definitely payoff.
MW: Anyone would do well to take a good, hard look at bringing in Wang.
- Randymichael,
1 more. just saw at lunch on rotoworld site the jays leading the way on the news item list with cito saying that downs & frasor being the prime candidates to battle it out for the team’s closing role.
very odd that they post it now alsmost a week after cito said it. extremely slow news day obviously.
but they also mention the jays interest in p. kevin gregg.
this hasn’t been making the rounds at all as far as i can tell. news to you too?
MW: Yesterday, it was, yes.
- darrell bishopMike…Please take a bow for your vigil for Tom Cheek. Him not winning surely wasn’t from your tireless effort. And if it’s any consolation, it’s no shame to lose out to Jon Miller.
P.S…The Moody Blues’ tune was Gemini Dream and even though the album it came from “Long Distance Voyager” was excellent and yielded 3-4 good songs, you’re 100% bang on that their killer songs were from the psychedelic/progressive rock era, 1967-74.
- chris m.Mike,
Is there anyway we can email/spam/call-during-dinner the Frick people to tell them how we feel.
If we bug them enough maybe they’ll vote him in just to get rid of us?
Thanks.
KK
MW: The voters’ list is on the hall of fame’s website. Get to it!
- karim kanjiWas Kevin Gregg brought in to close. If not, I have no clue who will. I like Frasor and Downs better as set up guys? I don’t closer by committee situations.
MW: Gregg will more than likely be the closer.
- DomenickKudos to you Mike for continuing to champion such a worthy cause
- willI think the Kevin Gregg signing is interesting as it breaks the pattern in terms of the type of players that Anthoupolos has been bringing in. What I mean by this is that he has been signing several reclamation project type guys who were once regarded highly but did not enjoy any success yet. In Kevin Gregg he has brought into the organization a guy who has had success for the past couple of years as a closer. While he hasn’t been one of the better closers, he has been competent and I applaud this move as it puts Downs and Frasor where they belong which is in 8th inning roles. I understand that this year is not about winning, but I still believe that Anthoupolos can still put out a half decent product and I hope this particular transaction is a sign that some more proven players can be on the way like Delgado or Damon.
MW: More like it sets up Downs or Frasor to be traded. I don’t think this leads to signings of guys like Delgado and Damon, unless they, too, can be had for less than $3 million up front with club options for the future.
- DomenickGood morning Mike.
Like you, while I’m very disappointed I also wasn’t surprised. I like Jon Miller, very entertaining and very popular but no where near the announcer that Tom Cheek was.
I am somewhat skeptical of Tom’s chances going forward but will continue to support the push for his rightful inclusion. I believe his anonimity in being ‘north of the border’ is against him, but his accolades should stand by themselves.
Take care and good luck.
- dave brownDave
Hey Mike,
Do you know why Tom Cheek hasn’t automatically been on the ballot each year? Why is it that he needs to rely on fan voting to even be considered for the award? Do you think that he’d have a better chance of winning the award if he was on the ballot from the start?
MW: The ballot starts with the results of the fan voting. It’s not that he’s been added by the fan vote. He would likely have made the ballot regardless each year.
- Wayne in Scarboroughmichael,
so… looks like the gregg signing is on its way.
what are you thinking about this one by a.a.?
another power arm indeed. fastball clocked in the mid to high 90’s. true i think yes?
MW: I’ll put up a post about it soon.
- darrell bishopI’m really in the majority here, but I think Jon Miller and Joe Morgan are among the worst baseball broadcasters in the biz. Miller particularly, has a penchant for mispronunciation of player’s names.
MW: I wouldn’t say you’re really in the majority.
- Roy GreenWilner: I admire your tenacity in this crusade.I even agree with it. I think our neighbours to the south are simply not aware of Tom’s competence as a play-by-play guy; they may not even know he’s an American.All you can do is remind fans in this area yearly that he is worthy of consideration and maybe some day he (and you) will be rearded.
- CarlosI have to disagree with the above Roy Green. Maybe it’s because by the time I hear Miller and Morgan , it’s post season, but I get excited hearing those two.
- BarbIt’s not one or the other, its the combination.
They balance each other. Morgan has such a good eye.
Miller is just a wee bit too polished for me, but it’s the back and forth on those 2 that kills me. Miller seems to know how to handle Morgan, and Morgan for his part will flat out disagree if he does.
Mike,
About the ballots for the Frick award - I still don’t understand. When you were pushing for all of us to vote for Tom, it was to top off the already chosen 7 candidates with three more - and it was Cheek, Doucet and Nuxhall that garnered the most votes. My question really was how are the first 7 candidates determined? Is it fan voting as well? If not, why is Tom not part of those 7?
MW: The remaining seven are determined AFTER the fan balloting is done, and they’re determined by a committee.
- Wayne in ScarboroughI get goosebumps whenever I hear a replay of a Tom Cheek broadcast. The award would be nice but I think he would rest easy knowing that he touched a nation of ball fans and will live on for decades to come.
MW: I think so, too, but the award is more than deserved.
- KevinMike,
Do you think if Tom was an American broadcaster in say, New York or Chicago, he would’ve been inducted already? Nevertheless, Jon Miller is amazing too, so kudos to him on the induction announcement!
MW: Yes, I do.
- Benjamin Hutton