A Canadian Ball for One and All

Baseball. The international pastime.

Use your imagination. The World Series of 2002--Toronto at Mexico City. The 2012 World Series--Toronto at Tokyo. And 2022--who knows where? Toronto at Havana? Toronto at Moscow? Toronto at Mars? The “World” Series won’t necessarily have to confine itself to this world. For all we know, Jupiter could have AstroTurf.

Canada is in the World Series. This is one small single for man, stretched into a double for mankind.

Never before have Canadians had such a ball in a sport involving a ball. Pucks, yes. Olympics, yes. But today is a day for northern exposure unlike any since Ben Johnson was on loan from Jamaica, and check out some of the men who made it possible--Roberto Alomar and Candy Maldonado (from Puerto Rico), Jose Guzman and Manuel Lee (Dominican Republic) and Devon White (Jamaica), contributors all to Wednesday’s planting of the American League flag.

The Caribbean Canadians, you can call them. Five guys who brought eight hits and strong pitching to Toronto’s 9-2 conquest of Oakland. Five guys who gave us more proof of just how North American this great American pastime really is.

It is easy to forget where an individual’s roots are, even for teammates. Toronto pitcher Jack Morris took a moment from the white wine-spritzing in the victorious clubhouse to say: “Even though everyone on this team is an American living in Canada, this is reason for everyone in Canada to rejoice.”

Everyone? Even in Quebec, where many French-speaking citizens wish to secede from the other Canadian provinces?

Oui , even in Quebec.

Or maybe it’s almost everyone. Maybe there really is someone from Canada, maybe Pierre Trudeau or Boom Boom Geoffrion or Michael J. Fox or Peter Jennings or somebody , who wasn’t bursting with pride Wednesday, someone who wouldn’t give two cents (or three, this being Canada) to watch a World Series game involving one of Canada’s own. But there sure wouldn’t be many.

Here in the SkyDome--true Canadians leave off the “the”--a not-long but vivid dream came true for fans who broke all of baseball’s attendance records. Among them, working at his job serving food in the SkyDome McDonald’s, was a Toronto high school student, Stephan Gregoire, 16, who said:

“This gives me goose bumps, especially with this being Canada’s 125th anniversary. Up here we’re still fighting stereotypes that we all live in igloos.”

Even though there are organizations in baseball that have gone decades longer without a World Series appearance, Toronto has had to endure the reputation of a town and team that should have made it by now. “For the city of Toronto and the people of Canada,” outfielder Joe Carter said, “this has been a long, long time coming.”

Or, at least, it sure did feel like a long time.

Getting to a World Series is never easy. Some never get there. Some go early, but never get back. Cito Gaston, 48, never made it to one as a player; now he is going as manager of the Blue Jays. Dave Winfield, 41, once played at Gaston’s side in the San Diego outfield; after playing in a World Series for the New York Yankees, it has taken Winfield 11 long years to go to another.

On the other hand, consider the case of Randy Knorr, one month shy of his 24th birthday, a catcher from Baldwin Park who did not get to bat once for the Blue Jays in these league playoffs. Randy Knorr is going to the World Series right along with Winfield and everybody else.

So are Mark Eichhorn and Devon White, the former Angels, and you want to talk about taking a roundabout route? Eichhorn was a passenger on a bus this spring that swerved off the road and left other Angels with broken bones. White was a passenger in a Mercedes-Benz that crashed here Tuesday and ended up a crumpled wreck--the car, that is, not Devon, who got to see for himself if a Mercedes bends.

Who else is going? Roberto Alomar and Joe Carter are--and somewhere there must be somebody who can convincingly explain how San Diego could have parted with both of those players in the same transaction. That free-trade agreement with Canada is no excuse for this. Talk about foreign aid.

Who else is going? Jack Morris is--to put a down-payment on a third diamond ring with his third team. Todd Stottlemyre is--with the knowledge that he and his dad, Mel, are one of the rare father-son combinations to be involved in postseason play, the Bagbys, the Trouts and the Boones. Talk about family values.

Who else is going? Ed Sprague is--doing some jewelry shopping of his own, looking for a diamond ring to offset the gold medal that his wife, Kristen Babb-Sprague, won in synchronized swimming at the Barcelona Olympics.

And all of Canada is going--in spirit, if not in the flesh.

“People will now get a chance to see what a first-class country Canada is,” said Carter, whose home run Wednesday sent these people on their way. “These fans sell out every game, and you can’t do anything better to pay them back than to bring them a World Series.”

Carter, Alomar, Winfield, White . . . none of them plays wing, none of them tends goal. What they play is baseball on a rug, not hockey on ice, but they are all yours, Canada, so have some fun. From the States, from the islands, from wherever, they stand on guard for thee.