12:53 AM Eastern
It was a great win tonight as the Blue Jays ran roughshod over the Rays in a 10-run sixth inning, a frame that featured back-to-back-to-back RBI doubles and two home runs, for those who dig the sluggage, and a bunt single and two stolen bases for those who prefer the small ballitude.
Aaron Hill atoned for his mess-up in the bottom of the 5th with a two-run shot – he let a ball that got through Ricky Romero go right through his legs as he tumbled and fell, originally ruled an error and later changed to a hit – and Jose Bautista belted his 43rd long ball, a three-run shot that got him to 102 RBIs on the season, a level I’m guessing nobody on the planet ever thought he’d be able to reach a scant five months ago. Good for him, the magical season continues.
John McDonald closed out a phenomenal month of August by going 2-for-4 with a walk and scoring three runs. One of the hits was his career-high 5th home run of the season. For the month, McDonald hit .382/.417/.743. That’s right, true believers – an OPS of 1.160, which is better than major-league OPS leader Joey Votto has recorded in any single month this season. Of course, tiny sample size alert, Johnny Mac only had 36 plate appearances this month. Still, there has only been one season (not including this one) in McDonald’s entire 12-year career in which he’s hit more home runs than he did this month! Good for him, as well.
OK, enough about the game. The main reason for this post (and there will be a reminder in every blog post throughout the month of September) is to get you all motivated to go over to Facebook and vote for Tom Cheek in the contest to set the ballot for the Ford C. Frick Award for Broadcasting Excellence.
You have done a terrific job in voting for Tom in the past, and I hope it continues this year. We have to make our voices heard, and heard loudly, in order for the committee to seriously consider Tom for the award that he so richly deserves.
For almost 30 years, Tom Cheek was the voice of baseball – the voice of summer – all across Canada. He made a fledgling franchise real to millions of people on a nightly basis and was with them right through the ultimate success and talking to players from days gone by, they really felt as though he was part of the team.
Tom was a wonderful broadcaster, most of us can still hear that booming baritone. The famous calls are plenty, the biggest of which we can all recite by heart: “Touch ‘em all, Joe, you’ll never hit a bigger home run in your life.”
Tom said that call wasn’t planned, he never had an idea of what he might say if such a thing happened (and how could you think it would?), but that he said “Touch ‘em all” because he saw how Carter was bounding around the bases in the euphoria of the moment, and was honestly concerned that he would miss one of them.
Carter didn’t miss any bases in his World Series-winning trip around them in 1993, but we have missed Tom Cheek dearly since he left the broadcast following the 2004 season, returning for a visit on Opening Day in Tampa the next year. He sat in as Jerry Howarth and Warren Sawkiw did their first game together, and asked to do one last half-inning of play-by-play – it was the top of the 4th in a game the Rays led 1-0. Tom got behind the microphone and the Jays responded with a Frank Catalanotto double and back-to-back home runs by Orlando Hudson and Vernon Wells. It was the last inning Tom ever did – he passed away that October, losing a valiant battle with brain cancer.
One of the things I remember best about Tom was his great sense of humour, and it came out that day. With Warren being a little overwhelmed in the presence of Tom and Jerry (and I totally understand how he felt) in his first day on the job, he didn’t say anything in the third, when Jerry brought Tom on the broadcast. A few minutes into it, Tom looked over at Warren and said “do you talk?”
Cheek has the resume of a Hall of Famer – he was a national treasure – and he won the fan balloting last year with 5,930 votes. This year, with this blog running full steam, with the additions of the pre-game show and the live blog, I’m betting we can at least double that.
Voting opens Wednesday at 10:00 AM Eastern and runs until 5:00 pm Eastern on September 30th. I think you’re allowed to vote once a day, and please do. You have to have a facebook account in order to vote, and I’ll be setting one up tomorrow in order to do that. I’ll get that info out to you tomorrow so that we can be friends and I can send you a daily nudge to get your vote in.
Thank you so much. Tom Cheek is as deserving of this honour as anyone who could be brought up, and it remains a great shame that the Hall didn’t see fit to bestow it upon him while he was still around.
Here’s this evening’s edition of The JaysTalk, for your listening pleasure:
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
And here’s the transcript from tonight’s “Miked Up LIVE!”:
Click here to subscribe to Wilner's blog
Hi Mike, I am anxiously awaiting Damien Cox’s article pondering whethere or not John McDonald is using steroids. With his month of August number’s, the question must,at least, be asked. lol
- Stu MurrayMike:
- jalalzaiRight from the beginning of the season you had been saying why is Bautista in the line up.Did you ever give credit to Cito to keep him in the lineup?Would you give Cito credit for the improvement in Bucks batting?
michael,
- darrell bishopto follow up on last nights leading topics of discussion.
for one, our all power hitting mr. bautista…. the one observation i have that lends itself to the notion that he just might be what you see or at least some relative form of it is the fact that his batting average has continued to climb steadily and surely as this season has progressed. if it had in fxct declined or even flatlined somewhat as he was continuing to knock the ball out of the yard then i might not be as optimistic as i am watching all aspects of his hitting improve. i really am thinking that the things that this coaching staff has got him doing since last yr. is really been a career changer for him. could well be. or not. i guess we’ll see.
and as for the skip. you didn’t actually answer the question of whether on whether you felt that with a different manager this yr. if this team would in fact have an even better record than they do currently and in fact might be somewhat in the playoff race with the improved record. but your answer was a fair one and very well probably true in honesty. i kinda agree.
but if the your answer or the answer is actually, no they wouldn’t have a better record at this point then perhaps what the truth is you’re not questioning the mgr’s ability as a manager but just his managing style. cause’ i think an argument can be made that there is in truth a difference between those 2 things…. ability and style. and certainly questioning the man’s ability is assuredly more harsh a comment.
if it is his style of managing you don’t like as opposed to the other than perhaps all these pro cito backers can lay off a little bit in their judgement of your opinion or observation.
just sayin’ is all i’m sayin’…..
whatever…….
oh and as well michael,
- darrell bishopjust wondering your thoughts on this…
i’m all for escobar getting back in the lineup at ss as soon as he returns to proper health but can we afford to take mcdonald out of the lineup & forfeit all that hr power ?
Thanks Mike for continuing to keep the pressure on for Tom Cheek. It must be an honour to be so admired that a colleague would continue to show such deserving support. I already voted today and will continue to do so.
- CoryI clicked on the link (VOTE FOR TOM) but all that happened was, well, nothing . . I didn’t get directed to anywhere.
- Eric Leggere: Tom Cheek and Facebook
We need more instructions on voting. Alan Ashby is second on the list, as well as Jerry much later — it is odd that Jerry and Alan are on the same list as Tom Cheek and Phil Rizzuto, …
“Click Poll at the top, slide down 1/3 and click Tom, and I think you have to say Yes to sharing friends and Yes to sharing music, etc — if you say no it will just keep asking …”
Tom is currently 2 votes behind Bill King.
- Mike FraserSend him. Send Tom to Cooperstown. They have less deserving people in the hall.
- SHAWN