Kevin Glew’s Canadian Baseball History Blog
By Kevin Glew Cooperstowners in Canada Thirty-eight years before David Price was dominating batters for the Toronto Blue Jays, another left-hander from Vanderbilt University was mowing down hitters out of the bullpen in the club’s inaugural season. Mike Willis, a 1972 Vanderbilt graduate, tossed 2-2/3 scoreless innings and recorded a save in his first major... Continue Reading →
By Kevin Glew Cooperstowners in Canada He was the first rifle-armed Toronto Blue Jays right fielder. Before Jesse Barfield, Shawn Green, Raul Mondesi and Jose Bautista, there was Steve Bowling. The former University of Tulsa running back was the starting right fielder for the Blue Jays in the franchise’s first game on April 7, 1977.... Continue Reading →
He’s the answer to one of the more challenging Canadian baseball trivia questions. Who is the only person to be in a big league uniform for the first game at Exhibition Stadium and the first game at the SkyDome? The answer is Chuck Hartenstein, who was a member of the Toronto Blue Jays bullpen for... Continue Reading →
Gary Woods, who played centre field and batted fifth in the first game in Toronto Blue Jays history, died unexpectedly at his home in Solvang, Calif., on Thursday. He was 60 years old. The Santa Barbara Foresters, the California Collegiate League team that Woods had been coaching with, shared on their website that the cause... 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 →
The headline in the Toronto Star the next day read, “When the rain came, Earl went home.” And as the baseball community mourns the passing of Earl Weaver, who died Saturday of a heart attack at the age of 82, many of those in attendance at Exhibition Stadium on September 15, 1977 still reminisce about... Continue Reading →
Tom McKee, a member of the Toronto Blue Jays inaugural TV broadcast team, died on Monday at age 76. He passed away at the Southlake Regional Hospital in Newmarket, Ont., after a lengthy illness. Best known to baseball fans for his work on Jays’ telecasts – first on camera and later as a producer –... Continue Reading →
My weekly opinions, observations and rants about some Canadian baseball stories (Please follow me on Twitter: @kevinglewsports): A belated congratulations to New Westminster, B.C., native Justin Morneau who belted his 200th career homer off of Cleveland Indians right-hander Josh Tomlin on August 6. The Twins slugger becomes the fourth Canadian to belt 200 big... Continue Reading →
By Kevin Glew Cooperstowners in Canada He’s the answer to a famous Blue Jays trivia question. Who was the first player to be selected by the team in the June amateur draft? The answer is Tom Goffena, a promising, high school shortstop out of Sidney, Ohio, whom the Jays nabbed 25th overall in the 1977... Continue Reading →
