Blue Jays Central broadcaster Jamie Campbell as maintained his sunny delivery through a diagnosis of chronic lymphocytic leukemia.Illustration by The Globe and Mail. Source photo: Duane Cole/The Globe and Mail
Athletes aren’t the only ones who play through the hurt. In the two years since Jamie Campbell was diagnosed with chronic lymphocytic leukemia, the Blue Jays Central broadcaster has not only maintained his sunny delivery, he’s added cancer to the long list of causes for which he raises funds and attention on social media.
It turns out that Campbell, 55, has been smiling through the pain for a lot longer than that, as he revealed during a recent interview.
This is something like your 20th or 21st season broadcasting baseball. What does opening day mean to you?
It’s just full of hope and intrigue and joy for a lot of people, myself included. As soon as the World Series is over, we are exhausted and we think, ‘Oh, this is fantastic, I can now breathe a little bit and get back to my regular life.’ And it takes about a month of looking out the window and seeing the snow covering the front lawn to think, ‘Boy, you know, I wish the catchers and pitchers were reporting to Dunedin, and I wish I could walk into an open Rogers Centre in all its splendour, to see a ball game.’
When were you happiest?
Oh, goodness. Golly. (Pause.) I didn’t know you were going to hit me with questions like this. Just give me a second. You know, I’ve had some really dark times in my life. I mean, I could go through moments of time in the 70s and 80s of utter happiness, but then I could also elaborate on moments where I had a hard time getting out of bed. So, happiness sort of ebbs and flows in my life. But the great news is that I’m supremely happy right now. And I’m battle-tested, carrying this cancer around. So it’s pretty hard to make me unhappy. As long as my children are healthy and happy, I’ll always be happy.
As a father, I can absolutely relate. What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery?
I’ve had three episodes of misery. One was in and around 1991/92, when I had struggled to try and achieve a particular career goal and wasn’t getting anywhere close to it, as far as I could tell. And I sort of recoiled into this awful, lonely, isolated period for a time. It happened again the year after Sportsnet launched in 1999. I had come home from living in other parts of the country and working in local television, and I thought I was coming home to my dream job, and it certainly didn’t feel that way. And my social life was in shambles and once again, I crawled into that hole. And then I went through a very difficult period soon after my marriage ended, even though I was fully compliant in the marriage ending. So three times. They were all awful and I never expect to go through it again. Quite frankly, it does run in my family.
Sorry, when you say “it,” we’re talking about …
Depression. Yeah.
Oh, I didn’t know – have you spoken much about that?
No, the only time I sort of acknowledged it was – Brad Fay, one of my best friends, he’s on the Raptors broadcast, he posted a picture of the four original late-night anchors at Sportsnet. Back in September, I think. Me, him, Mike Toth and Daren Millard. And I saw that post and it rocked me, because I had a smile on my face in that picture and I realized, when looking at it, that I was blissfully unhappy, and in the depths of an awful, awful time, and I just reposted it basically telling people: Don’t be fooled by what you see there. And there was a lot of reaction. I knew that people would come back to me saying, Well, I’m suffering too. So what I did is, I kept a close eye on my direct messages for a week or two afterward. And if I saw anybody reach out who was struggling at the time, I would message them right away and ask them if they had anyone to speak to, and if they didn’t, would they like me to call? And I did end up calling a few people. That was sort of, to me, the responsibility of responding publicly to something like that.
What’s your favourite possession?
It’s a funny question to ask a guy who puts almost no value in possessions. But I can give you an answer: My father’s baseball glove. He died Aug. 1, 2016, and he and I always used to play catch. It was such a common occurrence for him and I to go out onto the lawn and play catch when I was growing up. So, when he died, because I’m not one who needs possessions, if I’ve invested myself enough in who you are as a person, I didn’t need to keep many of my father’s things. In fact, I don’t think I have anything else beyond his baseball glove.
Do you have a hobby?
I have a lot of former hobbies. Does conversation count? I’m an exceedingly devoted father, so when my kids came into the world, I shed a lot of things that I took personal enjoyment from, and many of them I don’t miss. I haven’t played golf since. I do not watch football any more. I would prefer to spend my time with the people I love. Now, I have all kinds of hobbies from my youth. I have an autographed sports-card collection that numbers well over 3,000. I collected upwards of 70 or 80 game-used NHL hockey sticks in the eighties at Maple Leaf Gardens. I used to handwrite letters to former baseball players, rock stars, people of notoriety – and that was a bit of a hobby. But I’ll tell you, baseball, it’s all encompassing. Once the season begins, there’s almost no time for anything but work and family.
Do you have a favourite author?
I don’t. I have a favourite book. Do you remember the book, Helter Skelter?
The one about the Manson murders?
I saw it sitting on my aunt’s coffee table maybe around 1978, and I flipped through it and only looked at the pictures and I couldn’t quite understand why kids that almost looked like me could be so evil. So, years later, after moving to Edmonton in 1993, I finally picked it up and pored over it. And for whatever reason, I was mesmerized by it. I mean, to the point where – this was pre-Internet, so obviously, I had no idea what had happened to some of these people – I pulled out pen and paper and started writing to some of them.
Wait, you mean –
Some of the Manson family members.
Oh, gosh.
And I only got one response. From Susan Atkins. It was filled with references to her Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ – you know, fully detached from Charlie Manson. But I think initially I was just hit by the fact that people so young could be so mean. What I eventually got from all of it is that it’s not that these young people, especially the girls, were just born to kill people, it’s that they were these lost, abused, forgotten souls and they needed someone to attach themselves to, and that someone just happened to be a lost, tainted soul – Charlie Manson.
Is there a historical figure you’d like to meet?
Gilles Villeneuve. He was a borderline childhood obsession. I saw him with my own eyes driving a Ferrari in 1977 at Mosport, and was completely captivated and he became my first real sports hero – and I hate the term “hero” – because these people have multiple imperfections normally, as he did apparently. But I just could not believe that a Canadian was supposed to become this dominant force on an international stage, and in something that Canadians don’t normally participate in.
What is your greatest fear?
Something awful happening to my children. That’s it. Otherwise, I don’t have any other fears, really. I’m not afraid of dying.