BALLE AUTOGRAPHIÉE PAR KEN FIDLIN

2019 Jack Graney award winner.

Comes with a letter of authenticity.

Born in Norwich, Ont., Fidlin attended the University of Western Ontario for three years. He started his first job in sports journalism at the Woodstock Sentinel-Review in September 1971, and unbeknownst to the editor that hired him, he couldn’t type. His mother tried to teach him the weekend before he started but it was of little use and Fidlin settled on the two-finger approach that he would employ for the next 45 years.

After his initial tenure at the Woodstock paper, Fidlin enjoyed sportswriting tenures with the Kingston Whig-Standard, Ottawa Journal and Ottawa Today before being hired by the Toronto Sun in 1980.

Working in a newsroom where he learned from legends like Ted Reeve, Trent Frayne and George Gross, Fidlin had the opportunity to cover 20 World Series, two Stanley Cup championships, two Olympic Games, five Super Bowls and nine Grey Cups over the next 36 years.

But Canadian baseball fans will remember him most for his superlative work on the Blue Jays beat for the Toronto Sun. He served as the Sun’s Blue Jays’ reporter from 1983 to 1991, also doubling as the paper’s baseball columnist for a stretch. He also found time to co-author (with Fred Thornhill) the book, The Official Blue Jays Album: A Dozen Years of Baseball Memories, in 1989.

From 1991 to 1997, he served as a general sports columnist with the Sun, a gig that also included penning regular columns about the Blue Jays. He was also the paper’s go-to golf reporter, covering four Ryder Cups, three Presidents Cups and 40 major tournaments.

Fidlin returned to work the Blue Jays beat for the Sun from 2007 to 2016 and was there to cover the club’s two most recent playoff runs.

After more than 45 years in the sportswriting field, he retired in December 2016.

In his farewell column for the Toronto Sun, Fidlin, who has covered multiple championships from most of the major sports, wrote that the most memorable moment of his sportswriting career came when John McDonald hit a home run on Father’s Day on June 20, 2010. The Blue Jays’ beloved utility man, who belted just 28 home runs in his 16-season major league career, homered in his first at bat back with the club, just two days after delivering the eulogy at his father’s funeral.