Jamie Campbell (sportscaster)

Jamie Campbell alongside Gregg Zaun

Jamie Campbell (born May 20, 1967 in Oakville, Ontario) is a Canadian sportscaster with Sportsnet. He is currently the host of Toronto Blue Jays telecasts and previously provided the play-by-play from 2005 to 2009.

Youth and education

Born and raised in Oakville, Ontario, Campbell was a fan of hockey, baseball, and auto racing. He attended many Oakville Blades hockey games where his father was the public address announcer.^[1] As a youth he attended Toronto Maple Leafs games at Maple Leaf Gardens and Blue Jays games at Exhibition Stadium.^[1]

Campbell estimates that he attended between thirty and thirty-five Blue Jays games per year and liked to sit in right field behind the visiting team's bull-pen in order to try to catch fly balls during batting practice, to talk to the relievers, and to get the best possible vantage point to watch Jesse Barfield.^[2] His favourite baseball players were Jesse Barfield, Bob Bailor, George Brett and Lyman Bostock.^[3]

He also idolized Canadian Formula One driver Gilles Villeneuve and later named one of his sons after him.

Campbell played Little League baseball at Wallace Park in Oakville.^[3] He attended Oakville Trafalgar High School^[1] where he was a teammate and friend of future National Football League placekicker Steve Christie^[1] on the football team. In 1986 he went to Ryerson Polytechnic Institute (now Ryerson University) from which he graduated with a Bachelor in Applied Arts in Radio and Television in 1989.^[1]

Early career

At age 20 Campbell got a job as librarian and runner for the Hockey Night in Canada archives where he worked with Chris Cuthbert and Brian Williams.^[1] In 1993 Campbell moved to Edmonton, Alberta to work as a sportscaster for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. He covered the Edmonton Oilers, Edmonton Trappers, and Edmonton Eskimos.

From 1997–1998 he worked with CJOH-TV in Ottawa, Ontario covering the Ottawa Senators and Ottawa Lynx.

In 1998 Campbell was offered a job as an anchor with new cable network CTV Sportsnet (now Rogers Sportsnet) with whom he has remained ever since. He and Daren Millard hosted the station's first show, Sportscentral (later called Sportsnet Connected, now known as Sportsnet Central). As well as anchoring Sportsnet's news shows Campbell reported from a variety of events such as the Super Bowl and the Olympics. He gained play-by-play experience covering Canadian Football League and Arena Football League games. He also served as the station's in-studio host for Blue Jays broadcasts and Major League Baseball play-offs.

Toronto Blue Jays

Campbell's first game providing play-by-play coverage for the Blue Jays was on April 8, 2002, covering for Rob Faulds after the death of his father forced him to miss a game. In 2005, he took over as the play-by-play voice of the Blue Jays for Sportsnet, replacing Faulds after the death of color commentator John Cerutti. In December 2009, Campbell was replaced by former Blue Jays commentator Buck Martinez and now hosts the pre-game show Blue Jays Central alongside former Blue Jay catcher Gregg Zaun.

His signature home run call was "You can kiss that one goodbye!", which was previously used by former broadcaster Fergie Olver while he was calling Blue Jay games during the 1980s.

2010 Vancouver Olympics

As part of the Canadian Olympic Broadcast Media Consortium, Campbell was selected to be play-by-play announcer for the events held at Cypress Mountain during the 2010 Vancouver Olympics, with former Canadian stars such as snowboarder Tara Teigen and mogulist Veronica Brenner.^[4]

Campbell called Canada's first gold medal on home soil which was won by Alexandre Bilodeau in the men's moguls, to which he called "And Alex Bilodeau... has done it! He has done it! He has done it! Gold medal for Alex Bilodeau! Oh relax Canada, you can breathe easy now, this great country finally has Olympic gold right here at home!"^[5][6]

Miscellaneous

At the 2004 Major League Baseball All-Star Game, Campbell caught the home run hit by David Ortiz, to whom he returned the ball.

As a fan, Campbell has attended many memorable Blue Jays moments including the triple play on September 5, 1978; Otto Vélez's four home runs in the Jays' double header on May 4, 1980; Devon White's catch in game 3 of the 1992 World Series; Dave Winfield's throw that killed a seagull on August 4, 1983; and Carlos Delgado's four-home run game on September 25, 2003.^[2]

In 2008, Campbell was the emcee for the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony,^[3] during which Tony Fernández, Billy Harris, Gladwyn Scott and Peter Widdrington were inducted.

Personal

Campbell is married to Alison Redmond, who is executive producer of Rogers Hometown Hockey. They have two boys Kaden and Jack.^[7][8][9]

References