Late Blue Jays announcer Tom Cheek up for Ford C. Frick Award
By BOB ELLIOTT, QMI Agency
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  Former Blue Jays play-by-play man Tom Cheek. (JOE WARMINGTON/QMI Agency file photo)
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CINCINNATI - Is this the year?
Once again the late Tom Cheek, a former Toronto Blue Jays play-by-play man, was chosen as one of 10 finalists for the Ford C. Frick Award for excellence in broadcasting.
The panel of 21 -- 17 former winners and four historians/TV columnists -- will announce their decision in December at the winter meetings in Nashville.
Cheek worked 31 seasons as an announcer -- including a streak of 4,306 consecutive games -- with the Montreal Expos (1974-76) and Blue Jays (1977-2004). He has been selected regularly to the list of finalists since he died in 2005.
Former Montreal Expos announcer Jacques Doucet also was named to the ballot. Doucet was the team's French broadcaster (1969-2004), returning to the TVA booth in 2012 for Blue Jays games.
The other finalists are Ken Coleman, who for 35 years covered the Cleveland Indians, Cincinnati Reds and Boston Red Sox; John Gordon, a Minnesota Twins broadcaster for 34 years; Bill King, for 25 years the voice of the Oakland A's; Graham McNamee, a pioneer in broadcasting, calling games for 13 seasons for Westinghouse and NBC, plus 12 World Series; Eric Nadel, Texas Rangers broadcaster for the past 34 seasons; Eduardo Ortega, Spanish-language broadcaster for 26 years; Mike Shannon, who has been in the St. Louis Cardinals booth for 41 years; and Dewayne Staats, a broadcaster for 35 years, including the past 15 as the voice of the Tampa Bay Rays.
