January 18, 2023

By Bob Elliott

Canadian Baseball Network

A typical day on Kevin Glew’s account shown The Twitter machine ... let’s take Jan. 16.

_ It was 49 years ago, the Montreal Expos hired Duke Snider to serve as a special batting instructor during spring training.

_ It was 12 years ago, the Cincinnati Reds signed Joey Votto (Etobicoke, Ont.) to a three-year, $38-million extension.

_ St. Louis Cardinals pitching legend Dizzy Dean was born on this date in 1910. His 1934 season: in 50 games (33 starts) he had a 30-7 won-loss record, a 2.66 ERA, pitching 311 2/3 innings, working 24 complete games (seven shutouts) and seven saves while winning the NL MVP.

_ Six years ago, the Phillies signed Michael Saunders (Victoria, BC) to a one-year, $9-million contract.

_ Happy 70th Birthday to former Blue Jays LHP Dennis DeBarr, who made 14 relief appearances for the Blue Jays in 1977.

_ Twenty years ago, it was announced that Gary Carter will become the first player to be featured in a Montreal Expos cap on their Cooperstown plaque.

_ It was 22 years ago that former Blue Jay Dave Winfield was elected to Cooperstown.

_ Happy 43rd birthday to the great Albert Pujols.

There you have it: eight tweets about former Expos and Blue Jays, about Hall of Famers and part timers, birthday wishes, a hometown hero in Votto and a beloved Hall of Fame Cardinals right-hander and NBC broadcaster. Plus, Glew wrote his weekly But What Do I Know (BWDIK) column for the Canadian Baseball Network.

We were probably wrong to pick Sunday ... because Glew was answering a couple of hundreds personal messages on Twitter from his readers. (And now come to think of it, we have created more work for him). You see on Saturday Baseball Canada CEO Jason Dickson presented Glew with the third media award. (The Star’s Mike Wilner and Canadian Baseball Network alum Alexis Brudnicki were the first two winners.)

So excuse us if we our bumping into door jams walking about the basement of our palatial basement at Canadian Baseball Network headquarters in Mississauga. Our chest is so stuck out. We were proud of Brudnicki when she won (as well when she was honoured and when hired full time by MLB.com) and we are certainly proud of Glew. Alexis was a writing machine. Very prolific.

Glew wears about about a dozen hats as he sits at his keyboard as the Canadian Baseball Network: editor, writer, researcher and most of all -- fixer. He fixes the mistakes I put into other writers’ copy.

Plus he has his own blog entitled Cooperstowners in Canada.

Plus, he conducts the voting for the Jack Graney ballot presented to the member of the Canadian making contributions through the media. Richard (Downtown) Milo who covered the Expos for 20 years with La Presse Canadienne (Canadian Press) was the most recent winner.

Plus, he probably has as many postings or links to stories on his Facebook page.

Plus he is a member of the Canadian Hall of Fame selection committee after volunteering there for more than 20 years.

How respected is Glew?

Well, before the Baseball Canada banquet Saturday night, Blue Jays president emeritius dispatched a lacky to find Glew, who was upstairs in his room at the Downtown Marriott writing. Why? Paul Beeston wanted to meet him and tell him how much he appreciated his work.

At the banquet he accepted congrats from former Detroit Tiger Dustin Molleken (Regina, Sask.) Toronto Mets’ Ryan McBride (Whitby, Ont.), Sportsnet’s Shi Davidi (Toronto, Ont.), Baseball Writers of America national president, plus Jason Dickson, Greg Hamilton and Adam Morissette of Baseball Canada and former winner Mike Wilner.

He received congratulatory notes online from the esteemed Mr. John Lott, a former Jack Graney winning scribe and Sportsnet’s Jamie Campbell. Another Baseball Canada winner Alexis Brudnicki emailed as did Ruth Kapelus, who tweeted:

“@coopincanada is the best of the best. So deserving. And he has the kindest heart too. Grateful to know him.” /Twitter

Glew also heard from former Expos Joe Siddall (Windsor, Ont.) of Sportsnet, Dick Grapenthin, Mike Gardiner (Sarnia, Ont.), Richard Griffin (Oakville, Ont., formerly Montreal, Que.), ex-Expos P.R. whiz and Toronto Star scribe,

Ex-Jays to pass along congrats included Paul Hodgson (Fredericton, NB), Jeff DeWillis, Bob File and former Jays prospect Joe Young (Fort McMurray, Alta.).

And let’s not forget Calgary Dawgs founding father John Ircandia (Calgary, Alta.) along with former scribe Wayne Scanlon (Ottawa, Ont.) and author Lisa Bowes (Toronto, Ont.), formerly of TSN.

Plus former gold medallist Todd Schell of the 1991 Junior National Team and 1984 Olympian Jim Eliopoulos (Etobicoke, Ont.). As well fellow 1996 Carleton University journalism grads, high school classmates he had not seen in 25 years and either a note or email message from every one of his aunts and uncles and most of his cousins.

The highlight for myself was always watching Canadian wins on the international stage. It never gets old watching the likes of Adam Loewen (Surrey, BC), Adam Stern (London, Ont.) Steve Green (Greenfield Park, Que.) beating Team USA in the initial World Baseball Classic; along with Stubby Clapp (Windsor, Ont.), Shawn Hill (Georgetown, Ont.), Kevin Nicholson (Surrey, BC), Michael Saunders (Victoria, BC), Jimmy Van Ostrand (Vancouver, BC), Scott Richmond (North Vancouver, BC), Andrew Albers (North Battleford, Sask.), Pete Orr (Newmarket, Ont.), Tyler O’Neill (Maple Ridge, BC) and Chris Robinson (Dorchester, Ont.) beating other countries on the international stage.

Never do I tire of watching those highlights and wish that they had all been available on Sportsnet or TSN. In 17 years I think I missed seeing it once.

The Naylor interviews (Josh, Noah and hard-throwing Myles) with Wilner were great.

The best answer was probably when Oakland A’s farmhand Denzel Clarke was asked who was the better athlete? Him or mom, who competed for Canada in the 1984 Olympics. Clarke had the right answer: mom.

There were plenty of highlights on the day of the 17th Baseball Canada fundraiser, but for me it was seeing Glew be honoured, better than videos. It was the No. 1 moment of the banquet.