In recent years, British Columbia has become a hotbed for baseball talent.
Current major leaguers Justin Morneau (New Westminster, BC), Jason Bay (Trail, BC), Ryan Dempster (Gibsons, BC), Rich Harden (Victoria, BC), Jeff Francis (North Delta, BC) and Blake Hawksworth (North Vancouver, BC) all hail from Canada’s western-most province.
But 55 years ago, Bob Alexander (Vancouver, BC) was the only B.C. native in the big leagues. After 13 arduous seasons in the minors, the 6-foot-2 right-hander made his major league debut with the Baltimore Orioles on April 11, 1955. And though his performance was shaky – he allowed four runs in 1 2/3 innings to the Washington Senators – he could finally call himself a big leaguer.
Read my story about Bob Alexander here on the Canadian Baseball Network site: http://www.canadianbaseballnetwork.com/node/38939
Wow, he covered a lot of territory in his career — all over the US, and Canada, and then to Japan. Great article, Kevin. Thorough, detailed, and very readable, as always.