June 23, 2024

By J.P. Antonacci

Canadian Baseball Network

Rod Heisler saw his photo hanging inside the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum and did a double-take.

“What’s that guy doing there?” Heisler remembers thinking.

It was induction day in St. Marys, and despite wearing the maple leaf in international competition more times than any other Canadian ballplayer, Heisler still could not believe he was about join former Blue Jays Russell Martin, Jimmy Key, and the rest of the class of 2024.

“It’s overwhelming for me to be inducted along with these folks, at the same time as Buck is being honoured. It’s a thrill,” Heisler said, referring to Jack Graney Award winner Buck Martinez.

“I think it’s an honour that an amateur player is inducted along with some of the stars of Major League Baseball.”

The left-handed pitcher was an international star in his own right, taking the hill for Team Canada at a record 14 international tournaments, including baseball’s inaugural appearance at the Olympic Games in 1984.

Between his debut as a 23-year-old at the 1978 Amateur World Series and his swan song in the 1988 Baseball World Cup, Heisler also pitched for Canada at three Pan Am Games, three Intercontinental Cups, the 1986 Pacific Cup, and two more Amateur World Series.

He was on the roster for the 1988 Olympics but did not play due to injury. That same year, Heisler received a Government of Canada Merit Award for his contribution to international sport.

And yet, Heisler’s kids say getting their father to tell stories of his globe-trotting career can be like pulling teeth.

“I love coming to events like this, because I learn so much more about my dad than I’ve ever known. He’s such a humble guy,” said Jake Heisler, one of the four Heisler children and their partners who made the trip with Heisler and his wife, Lorie, from Moose Jaw, Sask., for the induction ceremony on June 15.

Jake Heisler will pull out old photo albums and rummage through boxes of trophies and awards to get his dad talking. He remembers finding a plaque declaring Heisler a tournament all-star and assuming it was from a local tournament in Moose Jaw.

Instead, Heisler matter-of-factly explained to his son that he got the plaque for being named the top left-handed pitcher at the 1982 Amateur World Series in Korea, where he compiled a 3-0 record on the strength of a 2.35 earned run average.

Canada finished fifth in that tournament with a 5-4 record, meaning Heisler started and won one-third of Canada’s games.

“How do I have to work this hard to learn how cool you are?” a laughing Jake Heisler said of his reaction to that jaw-dropping news.

‘We could’ve played with anybody’

A two-sport star at Bemidji State University in Minnesota, Heisler assumed his sporting future, if he had one, would be on the ice.

“I never thought of baseball as something I could play professionally. I thought hockey was what I wanted to do,” he said.

For years, he played baseball with Team Canada in the spring and made a little money playing professional hockey in Germany in the winter.

“The whole idea of just being able to go back and forth and play, I was very, very lucky,” he said, crediting his parents, Leo and Nancy, for their support.

“They were the cornerstone of allowing me to play two games until I was 30 years old. I owe everything to them.”

With his family cheering him on, Heisler travelled the world, squaring off against the best ballplayers on the international stage, like renowned Cuban slugger Lourdes Gurriel Sr.

“Cuba was a battle,” Heisler said. “They were the best team in the world, and they put the best guys together.”

But the most heated rivalry was with the Americans.

“They were the nemesis,” Heisler said.

“We’d always battle them and battle them. And then we started beating them.”

Heisler was “hammered” by the slugging Yanks in a few outings, he recalled, but the turning point was a 1981 exhibition game in Vancouver before the Intercontinental Cup in Edmonton.

With Heisler on the hill, the Canucks at last vanquished the U.S.

“4-2,” Heisler said, smiling.

“Not that I remember scores and all that stuff. But sometimes things stand out. And that game was incredible. That was incredible for the guys.”

There were a few tussles between the white lines when Heisler played for Team Canada, and he admits to sending the occasional message via a fastball up and in.

“I go with the adage that I was always a wild pitcher,” he winked.

“We played the game hard, and the other teams played the game hard. We respected everybody else in the world that we played against, and I think all those teams respected us. Because they knew, ‘If we’re not ready, those Canadians can beat us at any time.’ And we did.”

While stressing “every team was special,” Heisler admits a sentimental fondness for the ’84 Olympic team.

When speaking of that tournament in Los Angeles, where baseball was introduced as a demonstration sport, he doesn’t mention that he started Canada’s first game, or that he spun 10 1/3 innings of two-run ball against Nicaragua, in a game Canada eventually lost 4-3 in 12 innings.

Instead, Heisler talks about his teammates.

“There was a good, solid group of core players that had already played (together) three or four years. And when we got to the Olympics, we were playing our best baseball,” he said.

“We were joined by a group of young kids, of which three made it to the major leagues. One is a major league manager right now [Rob Thomson]. And four of them played pro ball.

“When we put the team together, we were good. We had a couple of setbacks, but boy, we could’ve played with anybody in the world.”

Things started to click for Team Canada at a pre-Olympic tournament in Holland.

“We beat the U.S. We beat Cuba,” Heisler said. “It was fun to play with that calibre of player.”

He remembers 19-year-old future MLB pitcher Mike Gardiner (Sarnia, Ont.) and 21-year-old future MLB manager Rob Thomson (Corunna, Ont.) teaming up to beat Japan in Olympic round-robin play.

“We didn’t know how good these kids were,” Heisler said of the young battery.

Many of Canada’s first baseball Olympians have stayed in touch, with daily texts on a group chat and periodic reunions arranged by Thomson when he was a bench coach with the New York Yankees, and now as Phillies manager.

“I could talk about him for a long time,” Heisler said admiringly of Thomson. “He is so accommodating. He took care of us, and we had wonderful days there.”

Heisler has his fingers crossed for another reunion this September, when the Phillies are in Toronto, to mark 40 years since the Olympics.

A few hours before taking to the podium to give his induction speech, Heisler admitted to feeling some nerves. Not because he had to speak in public. He was afraid of accidentally overlooking anyone, and said he was tempted to list every teammate he ever had on the national team.

“We grew up and played ball together for 30 years,” Heisler said.

“If I start mentioning one or two, then I gotta mention three or four. And if I mention them, I gotta mention a hundred more.

“I don’t want to leave somebody out who’s been very special.”

‘He loves the game’

Lorie Heisler said her husband cherished his playing days but was eager to start the next stage of his life.

“He was so happy to come back and be back in Moose Jaw,” she said.

“I remember all the buddies would say, ‘Oh man, he’s got the best life. He’s going all around the world.’ And he would turn around and say, ‘Yeah, but you guys are settled, you’ve got a home, you’ve got families.’

“He’s just that guy. He’s very humble, very quiet. You’d never know, at all, that this man is as accomplished as he is.”

Lorie was unsurprised to hear that her husband’s former Olympic teammates credit him as a leader and mentor.

“He’s always been very well respected in anything he’s ever played,” she said.

“He’s always been a leader in the family, and I’m sure on the field he would have been as well. Everybody looks up to him. And we’re all very proud to be part of his family.”

After his sporting career wound down, Heisler taught high school and coached baseball at multiple levels in Saskatchewan, including a few years coaching his son, Jake.

“I was terrible at throwing, because he could catch anything. So I never had to learn to aim,” Jake chuckled.

“And I was really good at batting because I had an Olympic pitcher teaching me.”

Jake Heisler said his father never pushed baseball onto his kids, but set a good example with his passion for the sport.

“He lets everyone explore the things they love,” Jake said. “And I think that’s what took him so far. He loves the game.”