TORONTO – Props to the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame on its boffo Class of 2015 set for induction June 13 in St. Marys, Ont.
Carlos Delgado, Matt Stairs, Corey Koskie and Felipe Alou are all accomplished enough to headline a group of inductees, and to have them enshrined at the same time, along with Bob Elliott, the dean of Canadian baseball writers, should make for a pretty special weekend.
You can check out their distinguished resumes here. Below, you can find an anecdote or an experience from each of them.
First, this exchange between Stairs, who bragged about wearing a Montreal Canadiens jersey when he plays hockey, and Koskie, who objects to such attire:
“I got one on right now, by the way,” says Stairs.
“I personally would never wear a Habs jersey,” replies Koskie. “I’m wearing my Jets jersey. I don’t know about the Habs.”
Carlos Delgado on his four home run game Sept. 25, 2003 against the Tampa Bay Devil Rays:
“That was a crazy day. I was sick and I almost didn’t play that game. I went out and took batting practice and I took a couple of rounds, I took it in, I went to the trainer’s table, I laid down, took some medicine and told the trainer, ‘Wake me up at 10 to seven.’ I went out there and said, ‘Damn, I don’t feel so good, let me go back to the basics, don’t try to do too much, try to hit the ball, see the ball.’
“I hit the first home run, whatever, yeah, second home run, then I get the third home run and after that I don’t really remember much. I think the medicine really affected me because I saw every pitch down the middle of the plate and when I look at the video, it’s a curveball down and away, then it was a changeup down, and by the time I went to the plate in my fourth at-bat, I kept telling myself, ‘Don’t try to do too much to hit another one because it’s not going to work.’
“I got myself into a count (2-2 against Lance Carter) and I was pretty sure he was going to throw me a changeup and sure enough I guessed right and I was able to drive that ball. My boys gave me a hard time for flipping the bat – I didn’t do it on purpose, I was in la-la land.”
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Matt Stairs on winning the 2008 World Series with the Philadelphia Phillies, and his pivotal pinch-hit homer that won Game 4 of the NL Championship Series against the Los Angeles Dodgers:
“You look back and yeah, you hit the big home run in the NLCS Game 4 against (Jonathan) Broxton but the things that stand out are the tackle at the mound where Brad Lidge closed the game out, running around the outfield with the flag and then coming across home plate and seeing your family waiting for you. There are a lot of memories that you’ll never forget.
“There are certain individual things you don’t forget, the home run I’ll never forget, Philadelphia doesn’t forget it, but (the championship) is what you play for. It’s great hitting the home runs, it’s great making all the money, but when you win a championship and get to celebrate as one with the city, and realize that for that moment, there’s no worry in the world in what’s going on in the city, it’s a tremendous feeling. And it’s something that I wish everybody could get a feeling of.”
On playing for both the Toronto Blue Jays and Montreal Expos:
“It’s just something special for Canadians to play for a Canadian team and knowing that they support their Canadians very well. I’ve never skated away from being a Canadian – I’m a proud Canadian and I wear a Montreal Canadiens jersey when I play hockey. Playing for Team Canada was a dream come true as well, to represent your country whenever you can is a joy.”
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Corey Koskie on having his career truncated by post-concussion syndrome:
“I basically just wanted my life back, I just wanted a functional, normal life. That was my focus. Once I was able to go out and play in the World Baseball Classic (in 2009) and go out and play for the Cubs in spring training, I realized that I was back and I’m normal, and it was time to turn the page. I just realized I wouldn’t be able to spend that time with my family and baseball was at the point that I wasn’t really willing to sacrifice any longer. That’s why I decided to move on. The biggest frustration to me that probably brings the biggest anxiety is when I grab a bat and do some athletic stuff, it gets frustrating because I can’t do what I used to do. That goes with age. I coach hockey and I coach baseball and I just don’t have the athleticism that I once had. That’s the most frustrating part of this whole deal.”
On coping with the 2½ years when he couldn’t read or focus, struggling with light and noise, because of his concussions:
“When I was in Milwaukee I had a place on the lake and I would sit on the end of the dock on a lawn chair in the shade and for some reason the movement of the boats helped me with my nausea. But I was nauseous, head pressure, headaches, any sort of activity would send me for a loop. It’s one thing I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemy.”
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Felipe Alou on his accomplishments as manager of the Montreal Expos and his lasting memories of that time:
“I did my very best to help develop players and to keep the team in Montreal. For that I’m very proud of it and I feel like I’m a Canadian. … It’s really a very sad memory, we put together a ball club in 1993 and then when we showed up in 1994 nobody know what kind of monster team we had. Then we all know what happened.”
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Bob Elliott after discussing the origins of the Canadian Baseball Network website he founded:
“You should be talking to the players, but thank you for the interest.”