Amid the clutter and noise of a sports-filled Thanksgiving weekend, there was a little more silence on Sunday. Tom Cheek passed away.
The tributes have been coming since, as they should, including this one from Pat Gillick:
"He was sort of like Cal Ripken, in that you knew he was going to show up every day, you knew he was going to be there with the same pride, the same dedication to excellence."
Cheek, the original voice of the Blue Jays -- for many of us, the only voice -- was inseparable from their fortunes. For 27 years, he never missed a game behind the microphone, a record that, as Chris Zelkovich notes, should have put him in the Baseball Hall of Fame by now.
In case you missed it, here's Geoff Baker's story, and Dave Perkins, one of Cheek's many golfing buddies, has this remembrance. If you've got any stories or memories of your own, feel free to pass them along here or here.
Touch 'em all, Tom.
And elsewhere...
Among the other many sporting moments from the weekend, there were many worth noting, some more obvious than others. You can do a lot in six hours -- drive to Montreal, fly across the Atlantic, make a paella or watch the Astros reach the National League final for the second straight season against St. Louis and catch two home run balls in the stands.
Over on the AL side of the grid, the Angels played in New York Sunday night, caught the red-eye to Anaheim for last night's deciding game -- beat 'em, beat 'em good, so break out the balloons and the bunting and check out the brilliant Soxaholix's take -- then headed back across the U.S. to Chicago, where it'll be the Rally Monkey against that annoying Na Na Na Na Hey Hey Hey Goodbye song.
In football, the Argos were dismantled by Edmonton newbie Troy Davis, turning the eastern race at the top into a dead-heat and the west into a tighter place too, thanks to Winnipeg's Stegalling of the Lions.
In the NFL, the Steelers win in San Diego and are breathing easier with good news on the health of their quarterback.
And finally, welcome back, Hockey Night in Canada, and with it, our first of many regular Poet's Corner updates, this one from Saturday the latest to go into The Collected Works of Donald Stewart Cherry:
When I really
have to laugh
is
when they say:
We don't know
why
you do it.
You know why
you don't know?
'Cause
you don't know.







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