Tom Cheek, Jacques Doucet up for baseball's Hall of Fame broadcasting award

Late Toronto Blue Jays broadcaster Tom Cheek and Jacques Doucet, the longtime French radio voice for the Montreal Expos, are among 10 finalists for the Ford C. Frick Award.

The honour is presented by the Hall of Fame for excellence in baseball broadcasting. The finalists were announced Tuesday and the award will be presented at the baseball winter meetings on Dec. 4.

Cheek worked 31 major league seasons, starting with the Montreal Expos from 1974-76 before covering the Blue Jays.

He worked 28 seasons as Toronto's radio play-by-play man, and his voice could be heard for 4,306 straight games from the teams' inception in 1977 to his retirement in 2004. Cheek died in 2005.

Cheek is best known for saying, "Touch 'em all, Joe! You'll never hit a bigger home run in your life!" when Joe Carter's home run won the Jays a second straight World Series in 1993.

Doucet worked as the Expos' play-by-play voice from their inaugural season in 1969 to 2004 when the team moved to become the Washington Nationals. He returned to broadcasting as the Blue Jays' French-speaking television announcer this season.

The other finalists this year are Mike Shannon, Graham McNamee, Ken Coleman, John Gordon, Bill King, Eric Nadel, Eduardo Ortega and Dewayne Staats.

Cheek, King and Doucet were the top three in online voting by fans. The other seven were picked by a Hall research committee.

Tim McCarver won the award last year.