Baseball is AWESOME! - Maligned Canadian pitcher closes out Series win

I haven't written a BASEBALL IS AWESOME post in a few weeks, and today's post was a bit of a stretch as I tried to keep some Canadian content in it. It's more of a "Baseball isn't as awful as it could be" type of post.  Read on....

Baseball is Awesome - It's December 25th

Dear Baseball and Red Sox fans: Today, being the 25th of December, I know most of my readers are thinking of other things.  There is so much going on today.  The NBA season is finally kicking off, there's an NFL game with playoff implications tonight, the sci-fi movie, The Darkest Hour is being released at theatres nationwide, people are concerned about Prince Philip's recovery and there's a myriad of other things for people to be thinking about.

But I'm thinking of something that happened hundreds of years ago.

Baseball is AWESOME! - Canadian hurler wins Red Sox debut

This is the first in my series of Baseball is Awesome off-season posts.  Something to read and keep you looking forward to those first days of spring when baseball season starts and anything can happen.  Most of these stories will not show up on The Greatest Baseball Stories Ever Told.  But they will be interesting to any baseball fan, and as this series focuses on Red Sox related moments with some Canadian content, I hope in particular Red Sox and/or Canadian fans enjoy them.

On September 8th, 1990 Mike Gardiner made his MLB debut, at Fenway.   He had languished in the Mariners farm system for a while, never getting above AA, but was rewarded with a September call up.  In a blowout game he came in to pitch with 2 outs in the bottom of the 8th with his team losing 9-2. He gave up a hit allowing an inherited runner to score, but then struck out Randy Kutcher to end the inning.  It was a fairly unremarkable appearance, not noted by many, except me.  You see, Mike Gardiner was not only one of the handful of Canadians in the MLB, he was from my hometown of Sarnia.  I did everything I could to follow his career path (which was difficult in those pre-internet days).  Once he made that first appearance in the show, I told everyone how great he was going to be, and how proud I was that someone from my little hometown was going to make it big.   It mainly fell on deaf ears.   And this post is not about this first appearance anyways....

Red Sox draft Alberta player

The Boston Red Sox had a very successful draft including getting several players who were expected to be taken before the Sox had a chance to pick.  And fans are rightfully excited about getting Matt Barnes, Blake Swihart, Henry Owens, and Jackie Bradley with their first 4 picks.  But lost in the shuffle of the 53 players taken by the Red Sox was Sean Dartnell taken in the 34th round.  He is a 6'2" 200 pound left-handed pitcher from St. Paul Manitoba who is a High School senior right here at the Vauxhall Baseball Academy.  He had already committed to attend Eastern Michigan University who play in NCAA Div I, and now will have to decide between signing with our Sox and attending school.  Either way, we wish him the best of luck.  If he does choose to sign with the Red Sox we are excited to have another Canadian in the organization to continue a long tradition of stars from the North playing at Fenway.

Canadian 1st round draft pick

Hey local Red Sox fans... did you know that the Red Sox once selected a Canadian with their first round draft pick?  And that now that he is retired, he is living right here in Alberta?    Of course I'm talking about the first Canadian ever drafted in the first round, Chris Reitsma, who was picked by our very own Red Sox.

I wrote the following article on Calgarian Chris Reitsma,  and it's been published on the Canadian Baseball Network.  My interest in Reitsma, is not only that he's a major league ballplayer from the city I live in, but without his knowing it, he was a big part of my decision to move here.  My employer had asked me to transfer from Toronto and I was reluctant to do so.  Even though it would be a good step for my career, I'd have to leave all my family and friends behind.  I was deeply conflicted.  I used my analytical skills and made a detailed spreadsheet complete with weightings of different criteria.  I added up all the pros and cons and it was as dead even as could be.   My wife felt similarly.   Lots of new opportunities if we moved, but it was a risk.  She said it was up to me, and she'd support whichever decision I went with.   The night before the decision was due, I didn't sleep well.   I had a tough choice to make and still didn't know which was I was leaning.   Then, on the train ride while commuting nto work, I was reading in the USA Today the results of the MLB draft, and noticed that  the Red Sox had drafted a Calgarian with their first round pick.   That was the sign I was looking for to help me make a decision.   That day I committed to transferring out west, and have been here ever since.  

Enjoy the article.

Canadian Red Sox

Today I received a bunch of baseball cards that I won in a contest.   As I was flipping through them I saw a George Kottaras card and started thinking about what Canadians are currently on the roster, or even at Spring Training as non-roster invitees.  After all, in the recent past, we have had players such as Jason Bay, Matt Stairs, Eric Gagne, Adam Stern and Rheal Cormier as Canadian fulltime members of the Red Sox.