ON THE MARK.

TOM CHEEK, PART DEUX.

After posting yesterday's column (I prefer that over "blog") I realized that there were many more Tom Cheek stories to tell from the "good old days" that needed to be told.  Since I have unlimited space and no particular time constraints, I must tell you about the time that Tom mentioned on the air the various groups that were attending that particular game.  The Kiwanis Club of Waterloo.  The Talbot Park Little League Padres, the Tuesday Night Kingpins from Bowlerama, and the 40 employees from the Hooker Chemical Company in Niagara Falls New York.   Early Wynn was doing the play by play, and on the next pitch he said "There's a line drive down the right field line and headed right towards those "hookers."  Well, Tom just lost it.  He could not stop laughing and here was Early, giggling away, trying to keep the broadcast going.   The tape of the broadcast was immediately seized for entertainment purposes and replayed a few times for private audiences.    Hilarious.

Then there was the time when I was hosting the pre-game show, "Baseball Today" in 1984.  I had finished my little spiel and was upset that some of the tapes had screwed up (a recurring problem with me).  Naturally, I was pissed at our engineer, Doug Cawker, believing it to be his fault.  After I threw to commercial and turned my microphone off, I was about to say "Cawker, what the f*#k happened?"  But, before I could, Tom grabbed me by the arm hard and pointed to a headset mic sitting on the desk.  The mic was live.  He put his finger up to his lips and squeezed my arm even tighter.  Tom had a very strong grip, thank goodness.  He saved me....again.

Later in 1984, I had done some work for Johnny Esaw at CTV Sports.  I had never done TV before, but Johnny liked my radio work and offered me a gig hosting a segment for Wide World of Sports.  It was about Motocross racing and ended up airing on a Saturday afternoon.   The next day, at the ballpark, Tom sidled over to me and said "You know what, you're in the wrong business".  I was shocked.  I thought he liked my radio work.  "You should be in Television."  He had seen the segment the day before and complimented my work.  I think he mentioned it to a few other people because a few days later I got a call from Ray Heard at Global, who wanted to know if I was interested in joining Jim Tatti to co-host "Sportsline".  Tom never admitted to it, but I'm pretty sure he put in a good word for me with somebody high up.  His approval of my work meant the world to me.

When you work with somebody as talented as Tom Cheek, you can't help but improve.  I did, both as a broadcaster and as a man.  Tom's work ethic, enthusiasm, attention to detail and his ability to NOT take himself too seriously made for a wonderfully genuine man.  His contributions to the game of baseball in Canada cannot be overstated.  His contributions to the lives of so many young people, be they up and coming broadcasters or just regular folks who met him, cannot be measured.    All I know is, had Tom not been there to keep me on the straight and narrow, I likely wouldn't have turned out the way I did.