No Blue Jays game would be the same without the broadcasters and announcers. There’s been a good number of broadcasters reporting on this team’s games over the years, but several have certainly been particularly notable, and helped to make each Blue Jays game memorable.
These days, nearly all sports are televised, and rely on announcers, commentators, and presenters to provide audiences at home everything they need to know about any given game. Even sports which provide comparatively quiet games, such as poker , are now associated with particular broadcasters, providing coverage of events such as the WPT.
The same can be said for baseball, and the Toronto Blue Jays have been supported by a range of radio and television broadcasters over the years. One of the most notable play-by-play announcers is certainly sportscaster Tom Cheek, who became known as the ‘voice of the Blue Jays’, having called all of the team’s games between April 1977 and June 2004. After he died in 2005, the team wore a commemorative badge on the left sleeve of their jerseys, which featured Cheek’s initials and the image of a microphone. TSN was the first television channel to broadcast the Blue Jays’ games, with Rod Black as the play-by-play announcer.
Throughout the team’s history, CBC has also broadcast occasional games, where Jim Hughson took on the role of play-by-play announcer and former Blue Jays Rance Mulliniks was joined by Jesse Barfield for colour commentary. Jerry Howarth is the currently the lead play-by-play radio announcer, with assistance from the former Blue Jays catcher Alan Ashby. On television, Sportsnet is now the team’s primary carrier, with Buck Martinez providing play-by-play commentary, and colour analysis coming from Pat Tabler, Rance Mulliniks, and Darrin Fletcher.
