Kevin Glew’s Canadian Baseball History Blog
July 17, 2022 By Kevin Glew Cooperstowners in Canada My weekly Canadian baseball news and notes: -The first round of the MLB draft starts tonight at 7 p.m. E.T. Eighty selections – including each team’s first- and second-round picks and Competitive Balance and compensation picks – will be announced tonight and there’s a decent chance... Continue Reading →
June 13, 2022 By Kevin Glew Cooperstowners in Canada The Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame will hold its first in-person induction ceremony since 2019 this Saturday in St. Marys, Ont. Four inductees will be honoured: Jeff Francis (2022), Justin Morneau (2020), Duane Ward (2020) and Pedro Martinez (2018). In the days leading up to the... Continue Reading →
By Kevin Glew Cooperstowners in Canada After talking to Tom Bruno over the phone for an hour, you almost forget that he’s not Canadian. The easygoing Chicago native, who now resides in Pierre, South Dakota, has fished for walleye in Gravenhurst, Ont., trained hunting dogs in Saskatchewan and, most memorably for us baseball fans, toed... Continue Reading →
By Kevin Glew Cooperstowners in Canada When left-hander Jeff Francis and slugger Justin Morneau played together on the North Delta Blue Jays in grades 11 and 12, it was Francis who was the team’s cleanup hitter. “I'm going to take that right to the Hall of Fame,” joked Francis, the former Colorado Rockies ace who... Continue Reading →
How big of a deal was it when Toronto Blue Jays slugger George Bell belted three home runs on Opening Day in 1988? Well, the feat was celebrated on the first card (above front and back) of the 792-card Topps set the following year. By Kevin Glew Cooperstowners in Canada It’s the most dominant Opening... Continue Reading →
By Kevin Glew Cooperstowners in Canada It was 40 years ago yesterday that first baseman John Mayberry was named the captain of the Toronto Blue Jays. "I felt like the club needed a leader and that's why I appointed Big John," Blue Jays manager Bobby Mattick told reporters at the time. "He was the only... Continue Reading →
By Kevin Glew Cooperstowners in Canada My weekly observations and notes about some Canadian baseball stories: – Canadian Joey Votto (Etobicoke, Ont.) appears to have found his batting stroke again. Hitting leadoff for the Cincinnati Reds, the Canuck slugger is 8-for-24 (.333 batting average) in his last seven games. Three of those hits have been... Continue Reading →
By Kevin Glew Cooperstowners in Canada Question: Who was the first Toronto Blue Jays pitcher to record 100 wins with the team? Answer: It's not who you think it is. It's not Dave Stieb. Thirty-four years ago today, right-hander Jim Clancy tossed a four-hit shutout over the Kansas City Royals at Royals Stadium to notch... Continue Reading →
By Kevin Glew Cooperstowners in Canada Even some of the most diehard Montreal Expos fans won't remember Hal McRae's 17-month tenure as the club's hitting coach from January 1990 to May 1991, but you can bet that Larry Walker does. In 1990, the Maple Ridge, B.C., native, then a prized young hitting prospect, was one... Continue Reading →
This is the third in my “Find the Canadian Connection” feature. For this feature, I close my eyes and reach into a random box of baseball cards in my basement and pull out a single card. I then try to establish a Canadian connection for the player featured on the card. The card I... Continue Reading →
