Cherry - Don Cherrys Sports Heroes

Bobby winning another $100 off me by beating me in the CHL Top Prospects Game in Ottawa.

I AM OFTEN ASKED WHAT I do in my spare time, away from TV and radio. Not too much, to tell you the truth. I dont golf or play sports, I dont fish anymore, and I never go away on vacation.

I watch a lot of TVmostly sports and the History Channel. What I do most is putter around at home or the cottage. I know it sounds like a humdrum and kind of shallow life. I have travelled so much in my hockey and TV career that home is my refuge.

But there is one thing I look forward to every winter. Going to minor midget games with my son, Tim. Its a joy of my life. Tim rates players in the Greater Toronto Hockey League for the Ontario Hockey Leagues Central Scouting department. Not too many dads spend so much quality time with their sons.

As Im writing this, earlier today the Toronto Marlies defeated the Don Mills Flyers 10 in overtime in Game Five of an eight-point series to win the GTHL championship. I handed out the medals to the young players. In four or five years, one or two of those players will be NHL-bound and the experts will be telling me about them.

I get a kick out of going to the games and seeing the bantams and minor midgets carrying their bags while wearing their shirts and ties. Its the Canadian way. They have respect for the game and themselves. Ive heard some dummies say, Oh, they make the kids wear a shirt and tie. Ive talked to moms and dads, and they tell me its a big deal for their kids to go buy their shirts and ties for the season. They want to get dressed up. Some minor midget teams come dressed in full suits. One dad told me his son asked him to carry his bag because the kid didnt want to wrinkle his suit. No other sport does this, and maybe thats why you rarely see a Canadian in the NHL on drugs or in court.

Tim usually picks me up at 8:30 P.M. in our 1997 flareside Ford F-150 truck. Its sort of a community truckmy daughter Cindy, Tim and I all use it for various things as we all live within 100 feet of one another.

Tim and I usually stand down by the glass; let me tell you, some of those rinks are cold. At the end of the second period (they flood between the second and third periods), we go into the boiler room where the Zamboni dumps the snow from the rinks. They usually have a heater to melt the ice, and we try to warm up there.

We often talk about the show where I was the interviewer (for a change) and Tim was the producer. The show was called Don Cherrys Grapevine, and it was first shown on CHCH-TV in Hamilton and then on TSN in the 1980s. We had hockey players, baseball players, runners, curlers, boxers, umpires, refs and more. We had everybody. We were never refused an invite; it was the show to be on, as they say.