This past week at the Winter meetings it was announced that the late Tom Cheek will be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. Mr. Cheek if you don't know was the long time voice of the Blue Jays from 1977 - 2004, calling an incredible 4306 straight Blue Jays games.
The mark of a great announcer is someone who can paint a picture in the listeners mind that let's them imagine they are sitting in the front row of the ball game. Too often these days when listening to games you have the broadcast filled up by needless, made up, over analyzed verbal diarrhea that takes away from the beauty that is baseball. I realize fantasy baseball is a huge business, but I don't need to know every single possible stat about every single player!
Too often these days we are worried about getting as much information as possible, when sometimes saying nothing at all speaks volumes.
Check out the link below to hear a few different calls from Tom over his time with the Jays. My fav moment like many people is the Home Run call from the 93 World series. The moment after the famous "Touch em all Joe" statement there is about 15 seconds of dead air unlike anything else. Do yourself a favor and close your eyes at that time and tell me you can't see yourself among 50,000 other screaming Jays Fans at the Dome that day.
https://soundcloud.com/bluejays-voices
Congrats Tom! You are now in your rightful place in the Baseball Hall of Fame.
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