ST. MARYS, Ont. – Former big-league sluggers Carlos Delgado, Corey Koskie and Matt Stairs will be inducted into the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame this spring along with longtime Montreal Expos manager Felipe Alou and sportswriter Bob Elliott.
The induction ceremony is set for June 13.
“Each of our 2015 inductees has made significant contributions to the history of baseball in our country and they continue to be great ambassadors for the game,” Hall of Fame director of operations Scott Crawford said in a release. “We’re proud and excited to celebrate their careers in St. Marys this June.”
Delgado became a regular with the Toronto Blue Jays in 1996 and went on to set several franchise records over the next nine seasons. He had eight straight 30-homer campaigns with Toronto and finished second in American League MVP voting in 2003.
He’s the team’s all-time leader in home runs (336), RBIs (1,058), doubles (343), runs (889), total bases (2,786), slugging percentage (.556), extra-base hits (690) and walks (827). He was added to the Blue Jays’ Level of Excellence in 2013.
Delgado, who also played for the Florida Marlins and New York Mets, finished his 17-year career with 473 home runs and 1,512 RBIs.
“I’m very honoured and humbled to be selected into the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame,” said Delgado. “This is unbelievable news. I always say that you do not play the game for the awards, but if at the end of the day you get that recognition from your fans and peers, it means a lot. And this is extra special to me because of the relationship that I have with the Toronto Blue Jays and their fans all across Canada.”
Koskie, a native of Anola, Man., was named to the Topps 1999 All-Star Rookie team after an impressive debut season with the Minnesota Twins. He had a breakout season in 2001 when he became the only third baseman in American League history to record at least 100 runs, 25 homers, 100 RBIs and 25 stolen bases in a season.
Koskie helped Minnesota reach the playoffs from 2002 through 2004. He also had brief stints with the Blue Jays and Milwaukee Brewers over his nine-year big-league career and played for Canada in the 2006 and 2009 World Baseball Classics.
Stairs, a native of Saint John, N.B., hit 265 homers over 19 seasons in the major leagues. He started his career with the Montreal Expos, spent parts of two seasons in Toronto and made several appearances on the national team.
Alou was part of the Expos organization as a player, instructor or manager for 27 of its 36 years of existence. The three-time all-star had 2,101 career hits and moved into the coaching ranks in 1976 after an 18-year playing career.
He became the first Dominican manager in major league history when the Expos named him skipper in May 1992. Alou spent parts of 10 seasons as Expos manager and was named National League manager of the year in 1994.
Alou later worked as a bench coach with the Detroit Tigers and served as manager of the San Francisco Giants from 2003 to 2006. He has worked as a special assistant to Giants general manager Brian Sabean since 2007.
Elliott, a native of Kingston, Ont., was a regular in the Expos’ press box until joining the Toronto Sun as the Blue Jays beat writer in 1987. In 2010, Elliott was honoured with the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame’s Jack Graney Award and he became the first Canadian recipient of the National Baseball Hall of Fame’s J.G. Taylor Spink Award in 2012.
Elliott, now the Toronto Sun’s baseball columnist, has also penned three books and is the founder of the Canadian Baseball Network website, which tracks the top Canadian draft candidates, college players and minor-league players.
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