Kevin Glew’s Canadian Baseball History Blog
Former big leaguer Matt Stairs (Fredericton, N.B.) shares his hitting wisdom with the Western Canadian Baseball League All-Stars prior to Saturday night’s WCBL All-Star Game. Photo: Kevin Glew July 26, 2022 By Kevin Glew Cooperstowners in Canada Matt Stairs must feel at home in Alberta. The former big league slugger, who was at Seaman Stadium... Continue Reading →
Photo: Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame By Kevin Glew Cooperstowners in Canada When the Detroit Tigers won the World Series in 1984, Sparky Anderson became the first manager to win a championship with both an American League and National League (Cincinnati 1975, 1976) club. But while most associate the fiery, white-haired skipper, who would've turned... Continue Reading →
By Kevin Glew Cooperstowners in Canada One of the benefits of spending a lot of time reading old stories about the Toronto Blue Jays and Montreal Expos is that I've stumbled across a number of fascinating long-forgotten photos. Here are two highlights from this week's research: Tony Kubek in a Toronto Blue Jays' uniform? Most... Continue Reading →
Canadian baseball fans are most likely to remember Jim Gosger for his tenure with the Montreal Expos, but it was his performance in Toronto 50 years ago that earned him his first major league starting assignment. Now a spirited, kind-hearted, 72-year-old living in Port Huron, Mich., Gosger has fond memories of his 1965 season with... Continue Reading →
Jim King, who was named the International League's MVP while with the Toronto Maple Leafs in 1960, died on February 23 in Fayetteville, Ark., at the age of 82. On top of his heroics in Hogtown, King also clubbed 117 home runs in parts of 11 major league seasons between 1955 and 1967 with the... Continue Reading →
Don Johnson, who pitched parts of five minor league seasons with the International League's Toronto Maple Leafs in the 1950s, died of kidney failure in Portland, Ore., on February 10 at the age of 88. Though his wild and hard-drinking ways sometimes overshadowed his on-the-field performance, Johnson managed to pitch in parts of seven big... Continue Reading →
Most longtime Toronto Blue Jays fans can recall that their beloved Blue Birds defeated the Chicago White Sox 9-5 in snowy conditions at Exhibition Stadium on April 7, 1977 in their first regular season game, but how did the team fare in its first spring training contest? Yesterday, I decided to do some digging to... Continue Reading →