As the Jays return home to open up another season in the majors, I’m compelled to reminisce about my 32-year love affair with the club.
How do we know that spring is finally going to make its return to the Toronto area?
Two ways: The Blue Jays have returned to open their 32nd season major league season, and the Leafs have begun to clean out their lockers after yet another disappointing season. But it's not my job to kick the hockey team while they remain down. I'll leave that up to the 217 people that Sportsnet employs to cover Canada's national sport and, more specifically, the Leafs.
This also means that, 31 years ago, as a precocious 14-year-old, I ran home from Joseph Brant Senior Public school in West Hill, Ontario after my Grade 8 classes ended to witness a life-alerting event. The Toronto Blue Jays were hatched that day, defeating the Chicago White Sox 9-5 on a snowy afternoon, in their inaugural game in front of 44,649 delirious fans. I mention the attendance because over the years I swear I've met twice that many people who claim they were at that game. My memories remain how green the astro-turf looked after the snow had melted and how blue the outfield wall appeared. And who can forget that great low camera angle behind home plate in the enclosed bunker that made it look like the pitcher was going to throw the ball right through your screen and hit the cushion next to you on the couch.
That was clearly a life-altering event for me. My relationship with this team began as a fan and continued four years later when I took a job as an usher at the old Exhibition Stadium. What a perfect job for a Jays fan. Direct people to their seats and get paid to watch the Jays. Not quite what I make now, and if memory serves, the stipend was a mere $50 a game. But it was never about the money. I got to hang out all summer at the ballpark. Pretty sweet, if you ask me.
Later on, after completing my studies in the Radio/TV Broadcasting program at Centennial College in Scarborough, I started my career at the bottom of the ladder with a brand new TSN, just nine months into their infancy. My job? Watching sporting events, cutting them down into highlight packs and writing the voice-over scripts for the commentators. But, all the while, keeping my eye on TSN's relationship with the Blue Jays, which was very similar to Sportsnet's current link to the team.
You see, back in the day, the Blue Jays and TSN were owned by Labatt Breweries of Canada, much like Rogers Communications owns the team and Sportsnet today. So in 1987, under the tutelage of producer and on-air host Steve Cooney, I left the newsroom and started work as an associate producer on TSN's Blue Jays magazine show, Jimy Williams & the Blue Jays. That allowed me to make my first trip to Yankee Stadium on a day when Jays slugger George Bell took a young rookie named Al Leiter deep over the bullpen in left field. Pretty cool perk, getting to travel to New York. My next TV job with the Jays and TSN was over the 1991 and '92 seasons working behind the scenes in the control room at Dome Productions as a still store operator, but with an eye on a more prominent role.
Now, in this year of 2008, as I attend my 16th home opener as the TV statistician, the job I coveted all along, I look back at all with amazement. I've worked with some of the giants in Canadian sports TV industry. Rick Briggs-Jude, who was the truck producer for TSN when I first came aboard, is currently the Vice-President of Production at Sportsnet. Jim Marshall, the director at TSN at that time, is now the Executive Producer Events & Mobile Productions with TSN. Sportsnet baseball director Michael Lansbury and I have been working together for all 16 years. Sportsnet producer Jeff Mather was a former stats man, like myself, with the Expos and whose marriage allowed me the chance to first work in the booth on a Montreal game back in the early ‘90s.
My partners in the booth read like a who's who of Canadian TV talent and ex-major leaguers: Jim Hughson, Buck Martinez, the late Don Chevrier, Tommy Hutton, Dan Shulman, the late John Cerutti, Fergie Olver, Brian Williams, Rob Faulds, Rod Black, Pat Tabler, Tom Candiotti, Joe Carter, Jamie Campbell, Rance Mulliniks, Jesse Barfield and Jerry Howarth. Just thinking of each of these men brings back a flood of great memories. In fact, just the other day after the Jays season opener was inexplicably rained out in New York, Pat, Buck, Dan and I sat around over some cold beers and reminisced, amidst much laughter, about the great times we've all had around the broadcast side of the game. I could tell you what was said, but we were all sworn to secrecy. It's the cost of being part of a brotherhood.
I do know one thing: When I finally leave this great job, by my own choice I hope, there is a book in me somewhere. I've seen a lot of great things. Drop by your nearest Chapters in 2018 and pick up a copy. You won't be disappointed. Unless, of course, you’re named in one of those memories.
