By Kevin Glew Cooperstowners in Canada Many longtime Canadian baseball fans can recall the Toronto Blue Jays defeating 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? Well, that contest took... Continue Reading →
Tag: Florida
But What Do I Know? . . . Fergie Jenkins, Gary Carter, Nick Pivetta, Orv Franchuk
By Kevin Glew Cooperstowners in Canada My weekly observations and notes about some Canadian baseball stories: - Self-described Baseball Reference Play Index adherent Austin J. Eich shares a seemingly endless stream of fascinating baseball stats on Twitter, including this one (below) about Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame inductee Fergie Jenkins (Chatham, Ont.). Eich notes that... Continue Reading →
But What Do I Know? . . . Joey Votto, Jordan Romano, Fergie Jenkins, Damaso Garcia
By Kevin Glew Cooperstowners in Canada My weekly observations and notes about some Canadian baseball stories: · “I’m not thinking about baseball right now, if I’m honest. I’m just trying to take it moment by moment and look after the people closest to me.” That’s what Joey Votto (Etobicoke, Ont.) told Sridhar Pappu for... Continue Reading →
But What Do I Know? . . . Willie Stargell, Troy Tulowitzki, Bartolo Colon
My weekly observations and notes about some Canadian baseball stories: • Hall of Fame slugger Willie Stargell would’ve turned 76 today. The Pittsburgh Pirates legend walloped 475 home runs in 21 major league seasons and was particularly potent with the bat against the Expos in Montreal. On July 16, 1969, he became the first player... Continue Reading →
But What Do I Know? . . . Al Rosen, Andrew Albers, Shawn Camp
My weekly observations and notes about some Canadian baseball stories: • The first spring training game I ever went to was in Dunedin, Fla., on March 20, 1987. The Cincinnati Reds were playing the Toronto Blue Jays and I was an eager 13-year-old with an autograph book. I was shy, but I stood above the... Continue Reading →
1954 Montreal Royals Team Photo . . . Jack Cassini
Jesse Owens is the only person that could beat Jack Cassini in a foot race. At least that's what the former Montreal Royal told the Arizona Republic in an interview in March 2008. "I could hit, and I could run like hell," Cassini told the paper. The ex-big leaguer was 88 when he made this... Continue Reading →
March 6, 1969: Montreal Expos’ first spring training game
On February 24, I wrote about the Toronto Blue Jays’ first spring training game that took place on March 11, 1977 in Dunedin, Fla. But what happened in the Montreal Expos’ first spring training contest eight years earlier? To find out, I trekked over to the D.B. Weldon Library at Western University to track down... Continue Reading →