By Bob Elliott

Canadian Baseball Network

There were smiles in newsrooms from Toronto to Ottawa and to Montreal.

The late Randy Tieman had his name added to the Sports Media Canada Honour Roll award at a recent 24th annual luncheon at the Royal York. So his former friends, co-workers and friends were happy with the news.

And there was also a wide smile in the Deep South in Marietta, Ga.

Major leaguers, NHLers and others will often say of the critical press: “What would he/sje know? He/she never played the game.”

Well, Tieman was different on a couple of counts: firstly he played baseball, hockey, floor hockey and he played ... well he played anything that was fun. And secondly, Tieman was an old school pro who didn’t rip players or coaches. People were happy for him.

Lefty Mike Arundel was brought in to protect a 5-3 lead for the Nepean Knights, who were facing he first-place Ottawa-Nepean Canadians in the first game of the best-of-three 1979 Ottawa Senior Interprovincial final. The winner of the series would travel to Waterbury, Conn.

Feeling wistful about his pal Tieman, Arundel thought back to his days as a long, lean teenage lefty when Tieman was his catcher.

After a strikeout to end the game, Tieman rushed the mound.

“He jumped into my arms,” Arundel said. “Randy was four or five years older than I and much heavier. He was so excited and came at me with such force, I almost fell over.

“It was a big deal for us to win that one game.”

* * *

The other honoured as the smoothly run luncheon orchestrated by John Iaboni and Steve McAllister were:

_ Terry Leibel, the first woman to host a national sports program and co-host CBC-TV’s Olympics coverage, was introduced by Canadian icon Brian Williams.

Leibel began broadcasting in 1980 as an analyst for CBC at Spruce Meadows. The Canadian national equestrian team member, then joined The Sports Network in 1984 to become the host of Sportsdesk, the first woman in Canadian sports broadcasting.

Then Leibel returned to CBC in 1986 and was the first woman to co-host the network’s Olympic coverage at the 1996 Atlanta Summer Games. There were more Olympics down the road in 1998, 2000, 2002, 2004 and 2006 Games. In 2003, she became the first woman sports broadcaster to win a Gemini Award.

_ Mark Blinch, of Getty Images won for photography. An NBA and NHL shooter, he caught the image of Kawhi Leonard’s bounce, bounce, bounce, bounce basket against the Philadelphia 76ers in Game 7 of the second round.

_ Matt Devlin, Toronto Raptors TV play-by-play announcer, won for broadcasting. Devlin is the voice of the team on TSN, Sportsnet and NBA-TV Canada.

Raptors scribe won the sports writing award from Sport Media Canada.

_ Michael Grange, Sportsnet hoops expert, won for sportswriting. He followed the Raptors on more than one platform (TV, radio and (writing for the sportsnet.ca,) Grange was a former scribe with the Globe and Mail.

_ Fay Olson won the President’s Award. A long-time public relations executive Olson won for her dedication and contributing to the Achievement Awards luncheon for more than two decades. A former executive of The Houston Group, Olson handled public relations for many sporting events during her career, and is a long-time member of the Sports Media Canada Achievement Awards committee.

_ Masai Ujiri, Toronto Raptors president, won Sports Executive of the Year. He brought in Nick Nurse as a new coach and dealt for Leonard. Vancouver Olympics czar John Furlong is the only other two-time winner.

_ Don Vickery, photographer, also won the President’s Award. Like Olson it was for his many contributions to the Achievement Awards luncheon going back more than two decades. Vickery, a Day 1 fixture at the luncheon, was a photographer shooting sports. He has been his jazz orchestra’s band leader and drummer.

* * *

Had Vegas set a line for the Canadians-Knights final a bettor taking the Knights would probably get five or six runs. The Knights, who scored three times -- one unearned --in the second off Canadians starter Clare Osborne and another in the third. Jim Donnelly hit a two-run homer for the Canadians and an unearned run made it 5-3 for the Knights heading into the final inning.

Osborne led off with a walk and Mark Gryba, who had doubled earlier, followed with a single. Osborne was forced at third. Then came a strikeout for the second out and a walk to push the tying run to second.

”I can see still see Randy squatting as my first warmup pitch went all the way to the backstop -- and the other dugout hooting at me,” recalled Arundel, executive vice president, U.S.Global Wealth Management for PIMCO Investments. “He’d say - when I’d get upset about an ump or something: ‘Now we’re going to do the right thing here, right? Right?” I’d finally say ‘Ok T … you’re right.’”

Arundel said Tieman had talked to him throughout the game fully expecting the young lefty might need some guidance and calming.

He was facing left-handed hitting pinch hitter Ed Jordan, former Leaside Maple Leaf. Arundel threw a fastball for ball one, then another which Jordan took for a strike to even the count.

“Randy called a slider, but I shook him off and threw another fastball,” said Arundel. Now it was 1-2. “Randy came out to the mound, we talked and he said he was going to put down a bunch of signals, but then I was to throw the fastball.”

Arundel said Tieman had talked to him throughout the game expecting the young lefty might be needed.

Tieman handled Arundel better than some of his other coaches and managers. Tieman would say, “Don’t think about this, don’t think about that, this is what we’re going to think about.”

Arundel threw another fastball for strike three and the win.

“Randy loved all the guys, he was a total guy’s guy,” said Arundel who joined Tieman on a trip to the Grey Cup in Montreal one year.

When Tieman arrived in Ottawa he began to work at a radio station with its studio located in the Market area. Arundel told Tieman that he too wanted to get into radio. Next thing you know Tieman took Arundel downtown and helped him cut a demo. Then, Tieman moved to CJOH-TV.

Tieman and Arundel were year-round teammates, playing for the Dead Bears on the same floor hockey team.

“Ah … the correct name is the Bayshore Gym Hockey Association,” Arundel said.

Also on that team were former lacrosse star Peter (LAX) Mutch, Jimmy (Hedge Fund) Mackenzie, Steve (Hands) Handley and Billy (Three-Time All-American) Courchaine.

* * *

Legendary Expos scribe Serge Touchette, who wrote for the Le Journal de Montreal, shared the Olympic Stadium many nights with Tieman.

“What a great guy,” Touchette said. “He was always smiling, laughing. For him, everything was worth a laugh.

“Randy loved sports, but he never took it too seriously. It was just a game.”

* * *

Toronto Maple Leafs and Sportsnet broadcaster Jason Bartlett told the luncheon crowd about Tieman, describing him as “a father figure who set the bar of what a family man is for all of us, a gentle giant, a Teddy Bear, our honorary Uncle, the Sports Stache himself.”

Tieman was born in Exeter, Ont., north of London attended Fanshawe College. Within months, he had moved on to the TV side of things on the popular CFCF. Bartlett explained after winning the battle for his life more than once Tieman took his doctor’s advice to go out and live life and do what you want.

Barlett explained the ritual of he and Tieman meeting to discuss the goings on at half-time of a Montreal Alouettes game whether it was “dinner with Lianne, how Jessie was doing in radio, or whatever else was going on with Gabi, Dennis and Harry.”

* * *

Bartlett read tributes from a number of famous Montrealers which included:

_ Hometown Montreal radio personality and radio TSN host Mitch Melnick.

“Randy’s smile lit up even the darkest corner of the night. How he handled his health issues following his miraculous recovery should remain an inspiration to all of us. Always.”

_ Sports Illustrated and TSN’s Michael Farber:

“Randy was a daily dose of sunshine, a font of positive energy who never thought a story, or a person, was too small for him.”

_ CTV Montreal news anchor Mutsumi Takahashi, who remembers her dear friend and colleague with this message:

“It’s been a year and not a day goes by in the newsroom that I don’t pass his desk and think of him. I still expect to see him there, bent over his keyboard ... writing away. He was the kind of sportscaster who never took himself or sports too seriously. Never got angry, never got too worked up. Hey”, he’d say, “it’s just a game. It’s supposed to be fun.”

Bartlett finished with these words: “The day we lost Randy, Montreal lost a little bit of its soul. I can’t think of anyone more deserving to receive this honour than the one-of-a-kind, Randy Tieman.

* * *

In 1995-96, Tieman defied death not once but three times within 18 months, surviving Stage 4 Hodgkin’s lymphoma, meningitis and a quintuple bypass.

Tieman had Hodgkin’s disease stage-4 cancer, the most advanced of the four clinical stages. He underwent 12 weeks of chemotherapy and the cancer disappeared completely.

On the first anniversary, he took his family on a vacation to update New York. The morning after they arrived, Tieman fell into a coma due to meningitis. Two days later he was almost back to normal.

Working an Expos game at Olympic Stadium he had chest pains. The doctors told him five arteries had more than 75% blockage. Again he made it back.

Due to the bypass operation, we were told he had 18-inch scar in the centre of his chest, a seven-inch scar on the right side of his neck, an S-shaped, 36-inch scar along the inside of his left leg, a 14-inch scar on the left side of his stomach from surgery to remove to spleen, and a three-inch scar on the right side of his chest from his chemo treatments.

It was early in his return to shinny hockey that the boys in the room dubbed him “Zipper Man.”

In June 2017, the network eliminated the sports department at CFCF dismissing, Brian Wilde, Sean Coleman and Tieman.

Tieman was married to Liane, for 32 years. They had children Jesse, who accepted the honor with a great speech, Dennis, Harry and Gabrielle Tieman-Lee and son-in-law Jason. Jesse is following in his father’s footsteps working in radio in Kingston ... Canada’s first capital. A funeral was held in Lancaster, Ont.

* * *

I recall seeing Tieman after a bullpen session in Ottawa in 1979 and asking “How is it going?” He had the gear on and it was hot. He was slowly trudging back to the dugout, looking like he had just warmed up Nuke LaLoosh from the movie Bull Durham.

He answered “Well, Bobby, I can still get into my squat, but I’m not certain I can back up again.”

He always got up again.

Bartlett told the crowd, “Any time you mention the name Randy Tieman in Montreal, the reaction you receive is always a smile.

The same goes for Toronto, Ottawa and Marietta, Ga.

Elliott: Sport Media honours Devlin, Grange, Leibel, Tieman, Ujiri