TORONTO -- Nearly 40 years ago, Jerry Howarth was being introduced as Tom Cheek’s new on-air partner for Blue Jays radio broadcasts at an event in the lobby of Hotel Toronto. Through the crowd, he noticed two men wearing costume masks.

No, Howarth’s introduction was not being upstaged by a cartoon robbery.

“It was Tom and Jerry. You know, the cat and the mouse?” Howarth said. “I started to laugh and so did everybody else. When I looked at Tom, sure enough, he was the big cat with the big, deep voice. Then here’s little Jerry, the runaround mouse with the thinner voice, a little more inflection and nasal tone. But I’ve always told people that the best broadcast teams on radio are the most opposite. Tom and I were completely opposite.”

Cheek had been the voice of the Blue Jays since Day 1, first partnered with Hall of Famer Early Wynn. Howarth, who was coming from the Pacific Coast League, was about to launch a 36-year career in the Blue Jays’ booth, the first 23 of which would come alongside Cheek.

The two grew close, and the sound of “Tom and Jerry” quickly became an integral part of the Blue Jays experience. The two sat side by side until 2004, when Cheek retired. In '05, he died following a battle with brain cancer.

Looking back now, Howarth always returns to the same call when he’s asked for the favorite of his career. It’s one he never made.

The Blue Jays were one win away from their first World Series title in 1992, with Game 6 against the Braves set for Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium on Oct. 24, 1992. The game was tied 2-2 going into the top of the 11th, which was Howarth’s inning as the play-by-play man after Cheek was on the mic for the ninth and 10th.

Here’s Howarth on the call for Dave Winfield’s go-ahead double, which sets the stage.

With the Blue Jays then up 4-2, Candy Maldonado popped out to end the inning, and the game moved to the bottom half of the 11th. It was still Howarth’s inning, and his call to take home, but that’s not how it happened.

“I said to myself, ‘Jerry, Tom’s been here since Day 1.’ When I glanced to my right, he was sitting back in his chair. We came back and this is what I said…”

Howarth handed off to Cheek, and the rest is history. Jimmy Key recorded the first two outs of the inning before Mike Timlin came in for the final out, a bunt off the bat of Otis Nixon that he turned and fired to Joe Carter at first.

Cheek, a full 5,679 days after calling the first moments of Blue Jays baseball on a snowy afternoon in 1977 at Exhibition Stadium -- where the applause from the bleachers was muffled by mittens -- was on the mic.

“Timlin to Carter, and the Blue Jays win it! The Blue Jays win it! The Blue Jays are World Series champions!” Cheek called. “They come pouring out of the dugout and they are mobbing Carter. And they go down in one big, collective heap.”

There it was.

Howarth has his other favorites, of course, from the more recent playoff runs.

“Fly ball, deep left field. Yes sir, there she goes!” Howarth called after José Bautista’s bat-flip home run in the 2015 American League Division Series, before leaving 46 seconds of silence to let the crowd soak it in.

“Fly ball, deep left field. Yes sir, there she goes! The Blue Jays are going to Texas!” he called when Edwin Encarnación ended the 2016 AL Wild Card Game with a walk-off home run.

But for Howarth, nothing matched hearing the other half of Tom and Jerry -- his friend -- make that final call in 1992.

“I was so happy to do it, to do the right thing and to have Tom enjoy that moment,” Howarth said, reflecting on a memory that’s still emotional for him. “That’s my favourite call, because it includes Tom.”