Late announcer Cheek up for MLB's broadcaster award

Former Toronto Blue Jays radio voice Tom Cheek plus longtime Montreal Expos broadcasters Jacques Doucet and Dave Van Horne are among the 10 finalists for the Ford C. Frick Award, it was announced on Monday.

Cheek, who died in 2005, received 5,930 votes through fan online balloting, Doucet 5,183 and late Cincinnati Reds broadcaster Joe Nuxhall 1,363, the National Baseball Hall of Fame said.

They join seven candidates selected by a Hall of Fame research committee: Billy Berroa, Skip Caray, Lanny Frattare, Graham McNamee, Jon Miller, Herb Score and Dave Van Horne.

The winner will be announced Feb. 1 and inducted at Cooperstown, N.Y., in July.

Cheek broadcast 4,306 consecutive regular season Blue Jays games from their inception in 1977 until June 3, 2004, when his father died. He returned to the booth that season before undergoing surgery to remove a brain tumour. It was thought he would broadcast the 2005 season but the cancer returned and he died shortly after the season ended.

Van Horne was a broadcaster for the Expos from 1968 to 2000, and has worked games of the Florida Marlins since 2001.

Doucet spent his entire 34-year career broadcasting for the Expos as the French play-by-play radio voice.

The honour has been given since 1978, and is open to active or retired broadcasters with a minimum of 10 years of continuous major league broadcast service with a ball club and/or network. Tony Kubek won last year's award.

Modern player inductions for the hall will be announced on Wednesday. Last month, former manager Whitey Herzog and longtime umpire Doug Harvey were elected to the hall by the veterans committee.