by Barry Stagg
April 1996
BASEBALL WIPES AWAY THE FROZEN SNOW
Canada's national past time in April is getting rid of the snow and the mud and the frozen tundra of winter and getting on with the growing season. To help in that worthwhile endeavour, two baseball teams in Montreal and Toronto are putting on their finest opening day regalia and heading out to do battle with the Yankee predators in the rest of the Major League Baseball jungle.
Downhomer predictions for the 1996 season are as follows:
Montreal Expos will have one of the best pitching staffs in the National League. Despite a low payroll and virtual scorn from most of the Canadian national sports media, the Expos have a vastly better pitching staff then the Blue Jays and the team has a chance to challenge the Atlanta Braves for the eastern division pennant. Jeff Fassero, with a new arbitration based contract, will be the ace of the staff followed by Latin fireballers Pedro Martinez and Carlos Perez. The fourth man on the pitching staff will be the most popular. That pitcher is left-hander Rheal Cormier who hails from New Brunswick and who is already the star of Expos spring training.
Cormier is a lefty who came up in the St. Louis Cardinal organization but who wound up with the Boston Red Sox last year. Cormier came over in the Wilfredo Cordero trade. Rheal is a media star as well as a solid mound performer with a chance to win fifteen games for the team.
Expos' star-crossed prospect Cliff Floyd will come into his own this year. Floyd nearly had his career ended last year when he suffered a broken wrist in a collision at first base. He recovered enough to get back into the line up for a few feeble at bats late last season but he is only now recovering fully from his injury. The Expos have put Floyd back in the outfield to ensure that Floyd confines his future collisions to that between bat and ball. This six foot four, two hundred and thirty-five pound speedster has a chance to be an all-around star in the Barry Bonds tradition. This is his year to come through. Cliff has paid the price in injuries and now at the age of twenty-three it may be now or never.
The Blue Jays are much deeper in the proverbial pickle than are the Expos. The Jays have frittered away most of their farm system in trades that brought them their World Series rings. The pitching staff is cobbled together from the likes of veteran holdovers Juan Guzman and Pat Hentgen. Veteran Erik Hanson is over from the Red Sox and after that it is a virtual crap shoot. Young minor leaguers and re-treads Frank Viola and Danny Cox are the unappetizing choosings for manager Cito Gaston.
Gaston may see his own image in the sad spectacle of the firing of Leafs' coach Pat Burns in March. Both were saddled with overpaid and brat-like stars and Burns has already fallen victim to trying to coach decent performances out of a pack of high-strung prima donnas. Cito can see the shadow moving his way.
Joe Carter is still around from the glory days and with a bit of offensive output from John Olerud and some firepower from young sluggers Carlos Delgado and Shawn Green, the team might be able to outslug a few teams in the American League East.
For the Blue Jays this should be a fairly enjoyable year for the serious fan. Many of the fair weather "trendoids" are staying away from the Skydome and this augurs well for the real fans who actually enjoy a good baseball game. The Jays are going to go through a period where they once again must build up their solid fan base. That will not be hard in Toronto as long as the team is competitive and the malingerers can be kept out of the lineup.
There is virtually no chance of an all Canadian World Series this year but the competition for the affection of Canadian fans is much more even in 1996 then it has been for years. The Jays had eclipsed the Expos in fan appreciation but with a strong Expos line up and the ever steady hand of manager Felipe Alou, the Expos may recover their past seat at the top of the hill in Canadian baseball.
Until next month, be proud, be prosperous.