November 15, 2021

By Bob Elliott

Canadian Baseball Network

There used to be an old saying among veteran scouts:

“Make the majors and you are in the TV League taking coast-to-coast charter flights, but to get there you have to play in the minors ... and you get to see the inside of a bus.”

2B David Glaude signed to play for the Équipe Québec travelling road show in 2021. Due to COVID-19 they opened the season with a 77-day trip in the independent Frontier League. Their longest bus trip was 14 hours, basically a New York-Chicago trek.

Équipe Québec spent 180 hours on the bus this season travelling 20,000 km due to COVID-19 regulations at the border.

“Some of the guys figured out (the distance) at the end of the season,” said Glaude. “We travelled basically half the surface of the earth.”

Glaude says he did not consider quitting — not once — since the team chemistry was “off the charts and we were together 24/7 those first 77 days ... we were together even on off days.”

Glaude’s swing was seldom off. He hit .308 with 27 doubles, two triples, 13 homers and 75 RBIs in 95 games -- his team played 96 -- with an .876 OPS. Glaude (Quebec City, Que.) was voted the Canadian Baseball Network independent league and foreign lands offensive player of the year to take the Murray Zuk award. The honour is named after veteran scout Zuk (Souris, Man.), who retired two years ago after working decades for the San Diego Padres, Cincinnati Reds and Atlanta Braves.

* * *

Glaude had four first-place votes from our nine voters. The 2020 winner, former London Badger Jamie Romak, had two, as did Windsor Selects grad Myles Miller (Windsor, Ont.), while OF Michael Crouse (Port Moody, BC) had one. Leading the way with 26 points (voting was on a 5-3-1 basis) was Glaude followed by Miller with 19. Miller batted .336, with seven homers and 52 RBIs for the independent Pioneer League Boise Hawks.

Romak was next with 18 after hitting .228 with 20 homers and 52 RBIs in his final season before retiring. Crouse, of the Chicago Dogs in the independent American Association, batted .277 with 13 homers and 64 RBIs finishing with seven points. OF Louis-Philippe Pelletier (Montreal, Que.), Glaude’s teammate, had six points after hitting .328 with seven homers and 37 RBIs.

Équipe Québec consisted of key Canucks from the Quebec Capitales roster (Miguel Cienfuegos, Laval, Que.; Connor Panas, Toronto, Ont.; Evan Rutckyj, Windsor, Ont., Andrew Case, St. John, NB and Kyle Thomas, Mississauga, Ont. with additions from Trois-Rivieres (David Gauthier, Mont St. Hillaire, Que. and Raphael Gladu, Trois Rivieres, Que. and Pelletier), one Ottawa Champion (Elliott Curtis, Kitchener, Ont), player-coach Gift Ngoepe from South Africa.

And despite being the lengthy road show, the hot dog/hamburger diet, they still finished first under manager Patrick Scalabrini (Waterford, Que.) with a 50-41 mark to win the Atlantic division. They were three games ahead of the Tri-City ValleyCats and 9 1/2 in front of the New York Boulders.

* * *

Roughly 10 Canadians attended a workout in Trois-Rivières before Équipe Québec headed south. It was on the road from May 14 to July 30 this year. Training camp was staged in three segments: at Joseph L. Bruno Stadium in Troy N.Y., home of Tri-City; at Consol Energy Park Lot in Washington Pa., home of the Washington Wild Things and finally at Sauget, Ill. where the Gateway Grizzlies play.

A 24-man roster was selected from around 32 players who were invited to camp.

Glaude’s best game of the season came when Équipe Québec returned home to Stade Canac on July 30 in Quebec, the same day the Blue Jays returned to Rogers Centre.

“The place was crowded, maybe 3,500 people,” Glaude said. “Louis-Philippe Pelletier led off with a double and I hit a two-run homer to left. The fans went crazy. It was such a special moment. I had a lot of friends and family there.” Quebec scored a 10-8 win in their triumphant return.

The rest of the schedule saw 21 home dates — 10 at Stade Canac in Quebec and 11 in Trois-Rivières at Stade Quillorama — before the playoffs — and 20 more road games.

The worst part of the strange suitcase season for Glaude? Easy to answer. “Post-game meals. I lost weight at the beginning ... but I ate too many hot dogs, two many hambugers.”

What home-cooked meal did he miss the most? “Poutine,” he said with a laugh.

Glaude confessed he is more of a desert man with a sweet tooth and when he had his first home-cooked meal his mom Chantal baked a chocolate cheese cake and cookies. As a warm-up to the cheese cake, he dined on steak.

Players on Équipe Québec didn’t spend nights away from home at the Ritz-Carlton or the Marriott. They stayed at a lot of Comfort Inn, Holiday Inn and Super 8 properties. At the start of the trip they were not allowed to partake in the lobby breakfast and hotel gyms were off limits — not strictly to the travelling ball clubs, but to everyone due to COVID restrictions. When gyms opened, it was not what independent league players are used to ... “usually two treadmills and 20-pound weights,” said Glaude.

After playing for the Canonniers de Québec and coach Jean-Philippe Roy, Glaude played for the Monroe College Mustangs in New Rochelle, N.Y., the fictional home of Dick Van Dyke’s black-and-white TV show starring Mary Tyler Moore. Then, he played three seasons with the Missouri State Western Griffons. His best year was 2016 when he batted .403 with 22 doubles, six triples, 10 homers and 74 RBIs with a .686 OPS in 58 games.

After university he turned to indy ball ... playing one game for Quebec before moving to Trois-Rivieres where he played 62 games in 2017 with seven doubles, three homers, 25 RBIs and a .620 OPS. Then, in 2018 with the Aigles he sported a .257 average and a .728 OPS with 15 doubles, three triples, seven homers and 31 RBIs in 97 games. In 2019, he batted .290 with an .839 OPS as well as 22 doubles, 13 homers and 49 RBIs in 90 games earning Aigles player of the year.

During the 2020 shutdown, he was dealt from Trois-Rivieres to Quebec for INF T.J. White, currently playing for Acereros de Monclova in Mexico. In four seasons of indy ball, he owns a .276 average and a .788 OPS with 71 doubles, five triples, 36 homers and 180 RBIs in 345 games.

Équipe Québec’s toughest bus ride was from Rockland County, N.Y. to Schomberg, Ill. A 14-hour ride through the country side and traffic jams.

“We were supposed to play on a Monday in New York and then Tuesday in the Chicago area, but they cancelled the Monday game and we made it up later,” Glaude said.

Scalabrini said the “toughest part of the grind was simply going from city to city and hotel to hotel every three days without having access to washing machines, home cooked meals etc.”

The team, with bench coach Pierre Arsenault (Montreal, Que.) who formerly scouted and coached for the Florida Marlins and Montreal Expos, pitching coach Matt Rusch, who had managed Trois-Rivières, South Africa’s Gift Ngoepe a player-coach looking after hitting and Jean Grignon-Francke (Quebec, Que.) of baseball operations who booked the hotels and buses, plus skipper Scalabrini -- and sometimes a back-up busie -- toured the US.

They visited Frontier League states like Pennsylvania (Washington), New York state (New York Boulders, Tri-City), Illinois (Windy City ThunderBolts, Joliet Slammers, Southern Illinois Miners, Gateway Grizzlies and Schaumburg), Ohio (Lake Erie), New Jersey (Sussex County Miners and New Jersey Jackals), Kentucky (Florence Y’Alls) and Indiana (Evansville Otters).

Unlike the road warriors known as the Winnipeg Goldeyes, the 34-seat bus did not have sleeper bunks.

“Basically we used only two starters ... Codie Paiva and Michel Cienfuegos, who was a rookie and he was probably our ace,” Glaude said. Cienfuegos (Laval, Que.) went 9-6, with a 3.78 ERA for Equipe Quebec and finished second to Brock Dykxhoorn (Goderich, Ont.) in voting for for the Canadian Baseball Network’s Claude Pelletier award which goes to the top pitcher in indy ball or in foreign lands.

Paiva made 20 starts, Cienfuegos 19 and David Gauthier (Mont St. Hillaire, Que.) 10.

Glaude has not played in the majors but he has faced former major leaguers in Phillippe Aumont (Gatineau, Que.) the ex-Philadelphia Phillie, ex-Atlanta Brave and Seattle Mariner RHP Rob Whalen, now with the Wild Things and former Mariner David Rollins, a Sussex alum.

* * *

The other Canuck hitters … with Equipe Quebec besides Glaude: OF Louis-Philippe Pelletier (Montreal, Que.) .328, 27 doubles, seven triples, seven homers, 37 RBIs, .871 OPS in 90 games ... 1B Connor Panas (Toronto, Ont.) .304, 12 doubles, six triples, seven homers, 47 RBIs, .844 OPS in 70 games ... OF Raphael Gladu (Trois Rivieres, Que.) batted .375 with 14 doubles, three homers, 38 RBIs and a .921 OPS in 41 games ... Elliott Curtis (Kitchener, Ont.) who batted .244, with three doubles, two homers, 13 RBIs and a .681 OPS in 26 games ... Dane Tofteland (Grand Prairie, Alta.) .154, one RBI in seven games.

And on the mound … besides Cienfuegos, the Canucks and their numbers were: Evan Rutckyj (Windsor, Ont.) 3-1, six saves, 0.59 ERA, 13 walks, 34 strikeouts in 31 1/3 innings ... Andrew Case (St. John, NB) 2-0, 2.89 ERA with 10 saves, plus two walks and 18 strikeouts in 20 2/3 innings ... LHP David Gauthier (Mont St. Hillaire, Que.) 3-5, 6.45, with 27 walks and 38 strikeouts in 22 games making 10 starts working 60 innings ... Jared Mortensen (Abbotsford, BC) 2-1, 5.72, nine walks, 22 whiffs in 22 innings making four starts; LHP Vincent Ruel (Cap Rouge, Que.) 0-1, 6.75, eight walks, seven strikeouts in 17 1/3 innings ... Kyle Thomas (Mississauga, Ont.) 1-2, 7.20, six walks, 10 strikeouts in 15 innings ... RHP James Bradwell (North Vancouver, BC) 0-0, 8.10, with nine walks and seven whiffs in 10 innings ... RHP Karl Gelinas (Iberville, Que.) 0-0, 11.42, with one walk, three strikeouts in 8 2/3 innings ... RHP Adam McKillican (Comox, BC) 0-1, 6.42, five walks, seven strikeouts in seven innings ... RHP Eric Hegadoren (Victoria, BC) 0-0, 14.80, walking 10 and striking one nine in 10 1/3 innings ... RHP Lachlan Fontaine (North Vancouver, BC) 0-0, 10.33, walking four, fanning four in 4 1/3 innings.

The first trip of 2022 -- whether a seven-gamer or a 10-games on the road -- will be a piece of cake ... and then it will be home again for momma Chantal’s chocolate cheesecake.

Honour Roll

Independent/Foreign Leagues

Top Offensive Player Of The Year

(Renamed the Murray Zuk award for 2021 season)

2008 — Drew Miller (Medicine Hat, Alta.) Calgary Vipers.

2009 — Pete LaForest (Hull, Que.) Quebec Capitales and Colin Moro (Calgary, Alta.) Calgary Vipers.

2010 - Drew Miller (Medicine Hat, Alta.) Calgary Vipers.

2011 – Matt Rogelstad (Port Moody, BC) Edmonton Capitals.

2012 – Sebastien Boucher (Ottawa, Ont.) Quebec Capitales.

2013 – Jonathan Malo (Laval, Que.) Quebec Capitales.

2014 - Sebastien Boucher (Ottawa, Ont.) Quebec Capitales.

2015 - Jim Adduci (Burnaby, BC) Lotte Giants, Korea.

2016 - Carter Bell, (Courtenay, BC) Joliet Slammers.

2017 - Jamie Romak (London, Ont.) SK Wyverns/triple-A El Paso.

2018 _ Jamie Romak (London, Ont.) SK Wyverns, Korea

2019 _ Jamie Romak (London, Ont.) SK Wyverns, Korea

2020 _ Jamie Romak (London, Ont.) SK Wyverns, Korea

2021 _ David Glaude (Quebec City, Que.) Équipe Québec

(Bold indicates time in the majors)

Top hitters

By province: Ontario 6, Alberta 3, BC 3, Quebec 2.

Hitters and position players

By province: Ontario 9, Quebec 9, BC 5, Alberta 3, Saskatchewan 2.