Sportsnet named its 2026 broadcast team this for the coming season, and one of the names on that list is Joe Siddall, taking the departed Buck Martinez's place. 

Siddall has been making a name for himself as a baseball analyst for a few years now and he's considered a very good one. But he had no interest in broadcasting or even thought about it as a post-game career. He'd been encouraged by former Blue Jays play-by-play man Jerry Howarth, but he didn't take it seriously. 

Until his young son was diagnosed with cancer. When the boy died at age 15, Siddall was bereft and received condolences from across North America. One came from Howarth.

"I got an email from Jerry Howarth with condolences,” Siddall said. “I knew who he was, but it’s not like we were friends. When the Tigers were doing batting practice, he would come over. I knew he was the voice of the Blue Jays and he knew I was Canadian. 

When I replied, I thanked him and told him it was thoughtful. I said something like, ‘I’ll see you June or maybe in the broadcast booth one day.’ I meant see him in Detroit or when he was up in the broadcast booth, it was off the cuff. His reply was, ‘How about right now.’”  

And the rest, as the old cliche goes, is history. 

Windsor's Joe Siddall officially moves into the television broadcast booth for Blue Jays