Latest news with #TomCheek
Edmonton Journal
a day ago
- Sport
- Edmonton Journal
SIMMONS: Blue Jays fans getting throwback summer love-in with baseball
We moved back to Toronto in 1987 and noticed how much the city had changed. Article content Everywhere we went there was a radio. You got invited to dinner, there was a radio playing alongside your conversation and food. You went to a summer BBQ, it wasn't music playing by the pool, it was Tom Cheek and Jerry Howarth bringing you baseball. And on the dock at someone's cottage, the sound was of motorboats roaring but also of Tom and Jerry and Blue Jays baseball. Article content Article content The truth was: This was a summer of love in Toronto, a summer you couldn't help but fall in love with baseball and your Blue Jays team for the very first time. Everybody talked a good game and everywhere you went it was paramount to talk about what went on. Last night's game. Tomorrow's game. What's up this weekend? Who's up, who's pitching? And do you think George Bell actually has a chance to win the MVP? Article content Article content We didn't listen a lot to Whitney Houston wanting to dance with somebody. We were too busy listening to Fergie Olver saying 'How bout those Blue Jays?' At its absolute best, baseball can do that to a town – consume it daily like no other sport. It can make you part of today yesterday and tomorrow. It can provide you with your daily small talk, or in the case of this summer, something to gush about. When you get a season that is this surprising, this delightful — like this one right now in Toronto — with every day mattering, and the bevy of stories coming from so many unsuspecting places that this has been the introduction to an ensemble cast of magnificent performances, so random and unexpected. If this is your first great baseball summer — like we first experienced in 1987 — that carries you and brings you along for the ride, a ride of mostly joy, and its what baseball can do maybe more than any other sport. Article content Article content There haven't been a lot of magical summers in Toronto over the years from a baseball perspective. There was 1977, and that was magic because it was brand new and it was ours for the the very first time. It was like opening a gift at the holiday season each day not knowing what would be in the package. Article content It wasn't until 1985, or maybe the seasons just before that, that the Blue Jays grabbed our hearts and broke them for the very first time. In 1987, my first year in Toronto after spending eight years in Calgary and three years in London, the Blue Jays had everything but a final week. Article content They had a 3.5 game lead and seven games to play and on the final weekend of the season in Detroit, they couldn't find a win. The Tigers won the pennant. The Blue Jays won 96 games, led baseball in all the important statistics, didn't make the playoffs. The Minnesota Twins won the World Series. They won 85 games that year.
National Post
a day ago
- Sport
- National Post
SIMMONS: Blue Jays fans getting throwback summer love-in with baseball
Article content Everywhere we went there was a radio. You got invited to dinner, there was a radio playing alongside your conversation and food. You went to a summer BBQ, it wasn't music playing by the pool, it was Tom Cheek and Jerry Howarth bringing you baseball. And on the dock at someone's cottage, the sound was of motorboats roaring but also of Tom and Jerry and Blue Jays baseball. Article content Article content Article content The truth was: This was a summer of love in Toronto, a summer you couldn't help but fall in love with baseball and your Blue Jays team for the very first time. Everybody talked a good game and everywhere you went it was paramount to talk about what went on. Last night's game. Tomorrow's game. What's up this weekend? Who's up, who's pitching? And do you think George Bell actually has a chance to win the MVP? Article content We didn't listen a lot to Whitney Houston wanting to dance with somebody. We were too busy listening to Fergie Olver saying 'How bout those Blue Jays?' At its absolute best, baseball can do that to a town – consume it daily like no other sport. It can make you part of today yesterday and tomorrow. It can provide you with your daily small talk, or in the case of this summer, something to gush about. Article content When you get a season that is this surprising, this delightful — like this one right now in Toronto — with every day mattering, and the bevy of stories coming from so many unsuspecting places that this has been the introduction to an ensemble cast of magnificent performances, so random and unexpected. If this is your first great baseball summer — like we first experienced in 1987 — that carries you and brings you along for the ride, a ride of mostly joy, and its what baseball can do maybe more than any other sport. Article content Article content There haven't been a lot of magical summers in Toronto over the years from a baseball perspective. There was 1977, and that was magic because it was brand new and it was ours for the the very first time. It was like opening a gift at the holiday season each day not knowing what would be in the package. Article content It wasn't until 1985, or maybe the seasons just before that, that the Blue Jays grabbed our hearts and broke them for the very first time. In 1987, my first year in Toronto after spending eight years in Calgary and three years in London, the Blue Jays had everything but a final week. Article content They had a 3.5 game lead and seven games to play and on the final weekend of the season in Detroit, they couldn't find a win. The Tigers won the pennant. The Blue Jays won 96 games, led baseball in all the important statistics, didn't make the playoffs. The Minnesota Twins won the World Series. They won 85 games that year.
