Jordan Romano wins Tip O’Neill Award as top Canadian baseball player for 2022 | CBC Sports

Toronto Blue Jays aid pitcher Jordan Romano was named winner of the Tip O’Neill Award on Tuesday as Canadian baseball participant of the yr.

The award, offered by the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, is handed to the Canadian participant judged to have excelled in particular person achievement and crew contribution whereas adhering to baseball’s highest beliefs.

Romano, a Markham, Ont. native, saved 36 video games for the Blue Jays and was chosen to his first all-star recreation.

In 63 video games, the hard-throwing right-hander recorded a 2.11 earned-run common and held opponents to a .190 batting common.

The 29-year-old Romano beat out Toronto teammate Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Cleveland pitcher Cal Quantrill for the honour.

The Montreal-born Guerrero received the award in 2021.

“This is really special to win this award,” Romano mentioned in an announcement. “I’ve followed the award over the years, and I have a lot of respect for the previous winners. It will be great to have my name on the trophy alongside their names.”

Romano was chosen by Toronto within the tenth spherical of the 2014 MLB draft and made his main league debut in 2019.

The Tip O’Neill Award is called after James (Tip) O’Neill, a Woodstock, Ont., native who was one in all baseball’s first authentic stars.

Howarth first-time nominee for Frick honour

Former Blue Jays radio broadcaster Jerry Howarth was not too long ago rewarded for his broadcasting excellence with a nomination for the 2023 Ford Frick Award. The winner of the annual honour from the baseball Hall of Fame will likely be introduced Wednesday.

“Winning is not important to me,” mentioned Howarth, an avid duplicate bridge participant who additionally coached highschool basketball in Toronto for over 20 years. “Just to be nominated is the honour in and of itself and [something] I’m so appreciative of.”

Before he grew to become a full-time voice with the Blue Jays alongside Tom Cheek in 1982, Howarth known as minor-league video games for the Tacoma Twins and Salt Lake City Gulls. He additionally served as a radio broadcaster for the Utah Pros of the Western Basketball Association.

Howarth and Cheek, a duo affectionately generally known as ‘Tom and Jerry,’ had been on the mic as Toronto rose to prominence within the American League East.

They known as the Blue Jays’ back-to-back World Series titles in 1992 and 1993.

“I think I’m most proud of the fact that I broadcast every game individually as if it were a white, blank canvas,” Howarth mentioned from Toronto of his 36-year run.

“I artistically painted it to the best of my ability and then I initialled it in my mind in the lower right-hand corner.”

‘I loved each second’

Cheek, who died in 2005 from mind most cancers, received the Frick award in 2013. Howarth, now 76, retired in early 2018.

“I enjoyed every moment of my 36 years,” Howarth mentioned. “I wish Tom was still here to be a part of this.”

A local of York, Pa., Howarth was honoured by the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame with the Jack Graney Award in 2012 for lifetime contributions to baseball in Canada.

He was a recipient of the Sports Media Canada award for Achievement in Broadcasting in 2003 with Cheek and once more individually in 2016.

Longtime Montreal Expos broadcaster Jacques Doucet, who spent 33 years (1969-2004) because the crew’s play-by-play radio voice on its French community, is one in all 9 different finalists for the Frick Award. He was additionally nominated for the honour in 2019.

Doucet returned to the sales space in 2012 because the Blue Jays’ French-speaking TV voice.