The Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum announced its 2012 inductees on Tuesday morning. Included is former St. Louis Cardinals left-handed pitcher Rheal Cormier.
Other members of the Class of 2012 are former Montreal Expos star Rusty Staub, known as “Le Grande Orange” due to his red (orange) hair, former MLB pitcher and current Milwaukee Brewers general manager Doug Melvin, and the entire 2011 Canadian National Team, which won the nation’s first gold medal in international competition at the Pan-American Games.
Cormier, known as “Frenchy,” is a native of Moncton, New Brunswick. He was drafted in the sixth round in 1988 by the Cardinals and made his MLB debut in August 1991. He pitched for St. Louis through 1994 and was traded to Boston for the 1995 season. With the Cardinals, Cormier had primarily been a starter, logging a 24-23 record with a 4.12 ERA in 85 games, including 68 starts.
He went on to pitch 16 years and 683 games in the major leagues for St. Louis, Boston, Montreal, Philadelphia and Cincinnati. Cormier finished in 2007 with a career 71-64 record and 4.03 ERA. He also pitched for Team Canada on numerous occasions, including the 2006 World Baseball Classic as well as in the Olympics in 1988 and in 2008. In the latter case, Cormier came back from retirement to participate.
Other individuals with Cardinals ties already in the Canadian Baseball Hall include Larry Walker, Dave McKay, Tom Henke and Reggie Cleveland as well as earlier players Tip O’Neill, Larry McLean, Rocky Nelson, Tom Burgess, Oscar Judd, Ron Taylor and Ron Piche.
The 2012 inductees will be honored on June 23 during ceremonies at the Hall, which is located in St. Marys, Ontario.
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Actually, it’s Daniel Joseph Staub, known as “Rusty” because of his rust-colored hair, known as “Le Grande Orange” because of his orange-colored hair! How many guys have a nick-name for their nick-name? Rusty was really a fine player, and I didn’t realize until I just “checked him out” that he came in 5th in the AL MVP balloting in ’78 as a DH for Detroit with 121 rbi’s. Impressive.
I recall Rheal Cormier more because of the “French-ness” of his name…first and last names. And because he was a southpaw. I don’t guess he’s anyway related to Lance Cormier, who is a 31 year old righty relief pitcher who was with the Dodgers last year? Kind of odd that from 2004 through 2007, there were two relief pitchers in the NL named Cormier.
Hey, it’s a winter…it’s a slow news day…you gotta come up with stuff like this, right?!
Lance is a faux french from Louisiana.
Johnson City con’t find money to improve Howard Johnson Stadium, but that is not a problem in Moncton. Here is a slide show of the just completed rebuild of Kiwanis Park, home of the Moncton Mets.
http://monctonmetsbaseball.com/monctonmets/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=65&Itemid=77
From stl.today, bios on the early minor league camp invitees:
Read more: http://www.stltoday.com/sports/baseball/professional/birdland/goold-a-field-guide-to-cardinals-early-camp/article_c3004322-51c0-11e1-84b7-001a4bcf6878.html#ixzz1ljTza6DW
bb, it is preferred to not post articles in their entirety but instead link to them, so I removed the content. Hope you understand.
As Rheal would say, c’est la vie.
I was glad to read that McClellan is now in Jupiter, and that Yadi and Lance Lynn look well conditioned. Lance looked kinda soft last year.
Yes, I commented on Lynn looking noticeably trimmer when I posted the audio of his interview from Winter Warm-Up last month (subscriber content). He has always been a big guy and at 6-foot-5, you kind of expect it.
For the next six weeks or so, we will be inundated with stories about so-and-so “being in the best shape of his career.” If he ends up struggling, the tune will change later to “he lost too much weight and became worn down.” Book it!
However, he received assurances from the front office last week that he could leave St. Louis without fear of being dealt upon walking into camp.
Read more: http://www.stltoday.com/sports/baseball/professional/cardinal-beat/cardinals-beginning-to-gather/article_2c5e70f8-51be-11e1-9823-0019bb30f31a.html#ixzz1lkAFVTIN
What a probing question ……………………… isn’t that up to the buyers? …………. Looks like JS is testing some of WC’s theories …………….
The best news I get from this is that Molina came to camp a week early on his own. If he is upset about Albert, which would be understandable if true, it doesn’t seem to be affecting his approach to his job.
Did Yadi say anything about not negotiating during the season, like Albert? Albert set the deadline as the day he showed up at Roger Dean. Feb. 16 I believe. Someone will have to ask him.
Strauss is down there already. I would imagine he will be on it.
He is showing himself to many folks. Is his agent hovering? Just have a feeling he is on the offensive.
It is sensible for him to be his best this season. He did need to trim down a bit, not that he was turning into his brother Jose. Maybe his elapsed time to first will pick up, to demonstrate his youthful wheels. I would expect his caught steeling rate to return to normal levels as well.
I know that early on in his career, I was impressed by how quickly he always got down behind first to back up the throw on every infield grounder. Not sure how well he’s done with that lately.
He’s had some knee problems in recent years.
Reggie Cleveland was probably the greatest Cards player from Canada.
What about Larry Walker?
Larry was mostly an Expo and Rockie. He took a pre-retirement bow with the Cards.
Stubby Clapp!
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Stubby-Clapp-Bobble-Head-Memphis-Redbirds-Giveaway-/380407296315?pt=Vintage_Sports_Memorabilia&hash=item58920ab13b