| Mike Wilner | |
| Birth Name: | Michael Samuel Wilner |
| Birth Date: | 14 March 1970 |
| Birth Place: | Toronto, Ontario, Canada |
| Team: | Toronto Blue Jays |
| Team Homepage: | Mike Wilner's Fan 590 Blogs |
| Sport: | Baseball, basketball, football, hockey |
Michael Samuel Wilner[1] (born March 14, 1970) is a Canadian former baseball broadcaster for the Toronto Blue Jays. From 2014 through 2020, he called play-by-play for the Blue Jays' radio broadcasts, and authored 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., Wilner has been a baseball columnist for the Toronto Star.
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 to 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]
Wilner continued as the Blue Jays play-by-play announcer through the 2020 season. However, on November 27, 2020, Sportsnet announced that Wilner would not return to the position in 2021.[10] For his part, Wilner did not elaborate on any reasons behind the termination, commenting only " I shouldn't have been so condescending to the fans on social media. A regret I will never live down"[11]
On February 11, 2021, Wilner announced that he had become a baseball columnist for the Toronto Star.[12] Wilner's work for the Toronto Star also includes hosting a weekly baseball-themed podcast, titled Deep Left Field, where he interviews various guests.[13]
Wilner's brother, Norman Wilner, is a former film critic for Now who joined the programming team for the Toronto International Film Festival in 2022.[14]
Wilner is divorced, and together with his ex-wife from Buenos Aires, Argentina, they have two daughters and he resides in Mississauga.