Longtime Toronto Sun Columnist Elliott Honored

Revue de presse

Alexis Brudnicki, BaseballAmerica.com, 11 février 2015

While he will tell you that all he did was watch the game—covering the Expos and Blue Jays since 1978—that doesn’t even come close to describing the impact Bob Elliott has had on baseball north of the border.

That was most recently recognized by his election to the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame, into which he will be inducted in June.

“He’s as true a Canadian as you could expect,” Blue Jays consultant Howard Starkman said. “Although he covered the Blue Jays and the Expos and Major League Baseball, he’s taken a deep interest in baseball in Canada. He developed that passion doing a little coaching, but he was really good at spreading the gospel … and he was able to use his pulpit of being at the Sun to push baseball in Canada.”

Elliott became the first Canadian to receive the J.G. Taylor Spink Award at the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 2012, and he already has a spot in the Canadian Hall as the Jack Graney Award winner in 2010.

Lefthander Jeff Francis, who’s pitched for the Rockies, Reds, Royals, Athletics and Yankees in a 10-year career, started following Elliott’s work when he first landed on Elliott’s Canadian draft list. Now the southpaw from Vancouver continues to keep an eye on the game in Canada through Elliott and the website he started years ago to highlight Canucks on the diamond, the Canadian Baseball Network.

“It’s because of him that I do follow other Canadian players,” Francis said. “He’s the authority on the issue. If something is happening in Canada that relates to baseball, if he’s not writing about it, it’s probably not newsworthy. If he is, you know that it’s a big deal. He’s the authority on Canadian baseball news. There have been people I’ve met, too, just around baseball who aren’t even Canadian and they know Bob and follow and like Bob.”

Toronto Star columnist Richard Griffin has known Elliott since their days together with the Montreal Expos. Griffin led the Expos’ PR department and Elliott was getting his start in the majors. Over the years, Griffin has seen how big a difference his friend and colleague has made for so many young players, and is appreciative for his passion and contributions to the sport.

“For a while, I would get nervous when he would go to the back of the press box and get on his phone because I thought he was getting a scoop,” Griffin said. “Then I realized he was talking to some parent in Canada somewhere about their son’s future in baseball and what he should do. That’s where Bob spends most of his spare time, and that’s a contribution that nobody else could possibly keep up with.

“It’s the passion for making Canadian baseball as prominent as possible that led to Canadian Baseball Network and led to him being in two Halls of Fame. I smile whenever I see him take a call, or come back and ask, ‘What do you think of this situation?’ It’s always about a young player, and he’s always trying to make it better for young kids playing baseball moving forward.”

Also being inducted into the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame are former Blue Jays Carlos Delgado, Matt Stairs and Corey Koskie, and longtime Expos skipper Felipe Alou.

“I’ve had some very wonderful honors the previous few years,” Elliott said. “As a writer, I don’t think my uniform from the Kingscourt Little League Pirates in Kingston or myself belong with these guys—these guys could play. I saw all four play. I’m humbled. I feel like that one thing on Sesame Street that doesn’t belong with the others.”

Revue de presse publiée par Jacques Lanciault.