Mike Wilner

Michael Samuel Wilner[1] (born March 14, 1970) is a Canadian baseball broadcaster for the Toronto Blue Jays. He calls play-by-play for all the Blue Jays' radio broadcasts along with Ben Wagner, and authors a blog on Sportsnet.ca/590. He formerly hosted a postgame radio call-in show called BlueJaysTalk on the Fan 590. He graduated from the University of Toronto in 1994.

Mike Wilner
Born
Michael Samuel Wilner

(1970-03-14) March 14, 1970
Toronto, Ontario
Sports commentary career
Team(s)Toronto Blue Jays
SportsBaseball, basketball, football, hockey

Broadcasting career

Wilner began his broadcasting career at the University of Toronto in 1988, and was named sports director there a year later. During his tenure at the University of Toronto, Wilner did play-by-play for various sports including hockey, basketball, and football. Wilner began his professional broadcasting career at the age of 19 with the Class-A Welland Pirates. He later did play-by-play for various baseball teams including the Class-A Watertown Indians, and the Double-A Hardware City Rock Cats. During the 2010 Winter Olympics, Wilner hosted 2010 Winter Games Today in Vancouver with David Alter from Whistler, British Columbia.[2]

On June 1, 2010, Mike Wilner got into an argument during a media scrum with the Toronto Blue Jays manager Cito Gaston about Gaston's field level decision making. Wilner detailed the confrontation on his blog.[3] A day later his employer, the Fan 590 announced Wilner would not be covering the team for several days, presumably a suspension though the Fan 590 refused to state the reason.[4] Because Rogers Communications, owners of the Toronto Blue Jays, also owns the Fan 590, the suspension had at least the appearance of a case of media censorship. The Toronto Chapter of the Baseball Writers’ Association of America issued a letter of protest suggesting the suspension was an attempt by the Blue Jays to muzzle media criticism.[5] The controversy received coverage in all three of Toronto's daily newspapers, largely in sympathy with Wilner.[4][5][6]

From 2014-2017, Wilner performed play-by-play duties for select innings of all Toronto Blue Jays home games. In 2018, following the retirement of longtime Blue Jays play-by-play commentator Jerry Howarth, Wilner called most Blue Jays games with Ben Wagner.[7] He officially became the full-time radio play-by-play announcer with Wagner prior to the 2019 season.[8] That same year, he was replaced by Scott MacArthur as host of the BlueJaysTalk radio show.[9]

Personal life

Wilner is divorced or separated, and together with his ex-wife from Buenos Aires, Argentina, they have two daughters and he resides in Mississauga. Wilner is said to be an avid player of sim-league baseball, having played in the T.H.R.O.W simulation baseball league since its inception 25 years ago.[10]

References
  1. Rogers Sportsnet (March 15, 2014). "Blue Jays This Week - March 15 - Saturday". Sportsnet 590 The Fan (Podcast). Rogers Sportsnet. Event occurs at 0:55. Retrieved June 3, 2014.
  2. "Radio plans announced for Olympic Coverage". The Canadian Press. ctvolympics.ca. January 28, 2010. Retrieved February 24, 2010.
  3. "FAN590 - Blogs - Miked Up » Blog Archive » Again?". Blog.rogersbroadcasting.com. 2010-06-02. Archived from the original on 2010-08-09. Retrieved 2010-07-29.
  4. Canada (2010-06-06). "Confronting Gaston not a wise career move". The Globe and Mail. Retrieved 2010-07-29.
  5. "Commentary: Wilner's weekend off does disservice to audience | Posted Sports | National Post". Sports.nationalpost.com. 2010-06-05. Retrieved 2010-07-29.
  6. Steve Buffery. "The curious case of Wilner". Toronto Sun. Retrieved 2010-07-29.
  7. Mike Harrington (2018-08-13). "Broadcaster Ben Wagner on a whirlwind after getting big-league call". buffalonews.com. Retrieved 2020-02-09.
  8. Paul Lungen (2019-03-28). "MIKE WILNER: BLUE JAYS BROADCASTER ENJOYING 'DREAM JOB'". cjnews.com. Retrieved 2020-02-09.
  9. @SportsnetPR (2019-03-14). "As announced by @SNJeffBlair moments ago on @FAN590, Scott MacArthur (@ScottyMacThinks) is your new host of Blue Jays Talk on the @Sportsnet Radio Network. Welcome to the SN team Scott! ⚾️🧢" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  10. Keith Law (August 23, 2007). "Questioning Nate Corddry". ESPN. sports.espn.go.com. Retrieved February 24, 2010.
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