July 25, 2024

By Kevin Glew

Canadian Baseball Network

When Matt Stairs walked to the plate to face Los Angeles Dodgers closer Jonathan Broxton for the Philadelphia Phillies with two outs in the eighth inning of Game 4 of the 2008 National League Championship Series, his heart rate was the same as it always is.

He was calm and focused, even though the game was tied 5-5 and there were more than 50,000 fans at Dodger Stadium cheering against him.

“My heart rate was the same,” recalled Stairs. “People that know me know I’m very down to earth, low key. My heartbeat never changes.”

In that at bat, Stairs can recall everything being in slow motion.

“I didn’t hear anything,” said Stairs. “My heart rate was as low as ever. I knew Broxton was good, but I knew he missed his spots sometimes. And I was very fortunate that he threw a 3-1 fastball into my zone and I hit the snot out of it.”

That home run deep into the right field bleachers catapulted the Phillies to a 7-5 lead and a Game 4 victory, and the Dodgers never recovered in the series.

Stairs hasn’t had to buy a beer in Philadelphia since.

To the Fredericton, N.B., native, however, that at bat was just another opportunity to do something he loved to do – hit.

And it’s very clear when you sit down and talk to Stairs that he loves to discuss hitting and is passionate about teaching it.

“Hitting is easy. It’s getting the hits that’s hard,” Stairs shared with a smile. “I tell people the only thing you can control when you step in the batter’s box is your approach. That’s it.”

With that kind of wisdom, who better for the Okotoks Dawgs to have as a guest instructor for a youth hitting camp that took place at Seaman Stadium last Friday?

The sold-out camp, organized by Dawgs program advisor John Milton, drew 92 kids from the area and was part of Stairs’ third trip in as many years to Okotoks to take part in the Western Canadian Baseball League All-Star Game festivities.

Stairs marvels at the Okotoks Dawgs facilities, which include three beautiful ball fields, the state-of-the-art Duvernay Fieldhouse and the Ircandia Outdoor Training Centre.

“The people, the program, the facilities are all remarkable,” said Stairs. “I love coming out here and getting a chance to see the ball fields and some really talented players. Seaman Stadium is beautiful.”

That’s high praise coming from the well-travelled slugger who played 19 seasons with 13 different major league teams. During that time, he belted 265 home runs (third most by a Canadian) and a major league record 23 pinch-hit homers.

But his road to the big leagues certainly didn’t begin in state-of-the-art facilities like those in Okotoks. His route started when he was coaxed out of his hometown of Fredericton, N.B., to play at the National Baseball Institute (NBI) in Vancouver, B.C. in 1986. At the time, it was considered the elite baseball program in Canada.

They practiced at Nat Bailey Stadium in Vancouver, but rarely played there.

“We travelled the West Coast and played games against John Olerud and those guys at Washington State and down to California. We drove up and down the coast. That’s where we played,” said Stairs. “It (the NBI) was just a chance to go to school and get a chance to play more baseball. But it was night and day compared to the Dawgs’ program. I wouldn’t even consider putting it in the same bracket as this program. It’s not even close.”

But his time at the NBI helped him hone his skills against greater competition and among the best players in the country. Stairs would play for Canada at the 1988 Olympics and the following January, he was signed as an amateur free agent by the Montreal Expos.

He was thrilled to sign with the Expos, but he’d play just 19 games with them in 1992 and 1993 before a stint in Japan and then having his contract sold to the Boston Red Sox in February 1994.

He batted .261 in 39 games for the Red Sox in 1995 prior to inking a deal with the Oakland A’s that December.

And it was in Alberta with the A’s triple-A Edmonton Trappers in 1996 that Stairs made a change to his batting stance that altered the course of his career. He remembers being on a road trip with the Trappers in Tuscon, Ariz., when he decided to open up his stance.

“It was a nice, relaxed stance,” said Stairs, “and I think I ended up hitting three or four home runs that series. That was a key adjustment, because back then I couldn’t have bought French fries with my batting average. I think I was hitting .150 and then all of a sudden my swing path became stronger. I learned how to pull the baseball better because of the open stance. And I just took off.”

Over the next four seasons with the big-league A’s, Stairs belted 27, 26, 38 and 21 home runs respectively. In 1998 and 1999, he became the first Canadian to have back-to-back 25-home run, 100-RBI seasons.

Stairs has fond memories of playing in Oakland with Mark McGwire, Jose Canseco and Rickey Henderson.

“Even though we didn’t win in Oakland, Billy Beane and Sandy Alderson gave me a chance,” said Stairs. “They brought me in. I was their type of guy – high on-base percentage and I got a chance to play every day for three years. So, I owe a lot in my career to them. They gave me an opportunity when no one else did and I took advantage of it and had four or five really good years in Oakland.”

After parts of five seasons with the A’s, Stairs was traded to the Chicago Cubs on November 20, 2020. Over the next decade he continued to be a highly coveted slugger and he developed into one of the greatest pinch-hitters in major league history. He enjoyed tenures with the Cubs, Milwaukee Brewers, Pittsburgh Pirates, Kansas City Royals, Texas Rangers, Detroit Tigers, Toronto Blue Jays, Phillies, San Diego Padres and Washington Nationals.

“Everywhere I went I had fun,” said Stairs, “because it was the big leagues. I was the same guy from the first game I played in Montreal where I’d like to go out with the guys and have a few pops after the game that I was 19 years later in Washington. So, I enjoyed my ride. It was just one fun, long-assed roller coaster.”

Not surprisingly, one of his most memorable stops was in Toronto. In 2007, Stairs became one of the Blue Jays’ most popular players when he batted .289 and belted 21 home runs and topped the team with a .917 OPS in just 357 at bats.

“With the Expos, I was young and naive and I was up and down and up and down, but when I went to Toronto on Opening Day and stepped on to the field, I was like, ‘This is cool,’” recalled Stairs. “There’s something about seeing your name on the scoreboard with that Canadian flag hanging near it.”

At the end of August in his second season with the Blue Jays, he was dealt to the Phillies where he became a folk hero and won a World Series ring. He’d spend one more campaign with the Phillies before finishing his big league career with single seasons with the Padres and Nationals.

As noted earlier, along the way, he became one of the greatest pinch-hitters in major league history. He still owns the big league record for most pinch-hit home runs with 23.

“For me, even early on in my career, when I was asked to pinch-hit, it didn’t bother me,” said Stairs. “There were some guys where the manager would say, ‘Hey, grab a bat.’ And they would say, ‘No, I’m on my day off.’ I would always say yes. Hey, I’d play 162 games and get 162 at bats. I would love that . . . I wanted to pinch-hit. I would love facing Mariano Rivera, even though he used to break my thumbs on me every time. I wanted that opportunity.”

After hanging up his big league playing spikes in 2011, Stairs coached high school hockey and became a studio analyst on Red Sox NESN broadcasts in 2012 and then moved on to the Phillies’ TV broadcast crew in 2014. He also served as the hitting coach for the Phillies in 2017 and the Padres in 2018. He says he’d consider another big league hitting coach position if the opportunity came along.

For now though, he is content working as technical director of the Fredericton Minor Baseball Association, a position that entails going to a practice every night and offering advice to coaches.

“On the weekends, I’m probably at the ballparks eight or nine hours a day watching games,” said Stairs. “Some days, I’ll sit in my car and watch a whole practice and take notes and call the coach up the next day.”

Stairs is also very happy to be back living in his home province with his wife, Lisa, three daughters, Nicole, Alicia and Chandler and his two grandkids who affectionately call him “Wampa.”

But he is still a hero in Philadelphia.

He is regularly asked to come back to the city where he never has to pay for a beer. And at promotional events in Philadelphia, he is often asked to relive his legendary pinch-hit home run off Broxton. The easygoing Maritimer is happy to oblige, and he no doubt recounts that historic at bat with his heart rate as low and steady as ever.

“I have no regrets about my time in baseball. I played clean. I kept my nose clean. I never got into any trouble. I played the game hard and had a lot of respect for my peers,” said Stairs. “And I think I had a very successful career for a guy that was never supposed to get above A-ball.”

***

More of Matt Stairs’ thoughts:

On Joey Votto’s attempted comeback with the Blue Jays:

“Hats off, man. As a player, you’ll know when it is time to retire. I knew when I retired in 2011 . . . that I was done. I knew it was time. He hasn’t got there yet. I think if he makes it up to Toronto even if it’s just for one game, he can say he had a chance to play for his hometown . . . And for a Canadian to play for a Canadian team, it’s an honour, it really is. I loved my time in Toronto. I had a blast. I really did . . . Hopefully Joey gets an opportunity to don the uniform.”

On showboating, bat flips, modern baseball:

On showboating (or pimping) a home run:

“I made a mistake in spring training with the Milwaukee Brewers [in 2002.] I hit a ball to right and I thought I hit a home run and I jogged. I didn’t flip my bat and comb my hair and come to first, but I jogged to first and the guy caught it up against the wall. [Brewers manager] Davey Lopes tore me a new one. And from that day on, I never jogged, not even on balls where I popped up to the infield. I always went as hard as I could.”

On bat flips:

“Why is it so important to flip a bat and show up the pitcher on the other team and why is it so important when you punch somebody out to yell and point at them? . . . I don’t get it. Fans like it. Fans do like it. Do ex-players like it? No, it’s embarrassing. I’m old school. You won’t find anyone more old school than me. And I honestly believe that if I had a guy that was flipping the bat [on one of his teams], I would expect a pitcher to put one right in his ribs.”

On today’s major league games:

“I’m just old school. There are a lot of things I don’t like about baseball [today],” said Stairs. “I put my time in for 19 seasons and people are going to ask me if I like baseball the way it is now? No, I don’t. I’m old school. I like seeing catchers get taken out at home plate and I like sliding at second base to break up a double play.”

On all of the information being fed to hitters today (analytics, etc.):

When Stairs was a major league hitting coach, many of his players had their own hitting guru in the off-season, which was fine with him. He just wishes the communication was better between the player, the player’s off-season hitting guru and him.

“There are too many hitting coaches. There are too many different styles of hitting. There are too many things that are getting into ears,” said Stairs.

“Hitters, we’re not very smart because we take all that stuff in and I think it confuses us more. And by no means am I saying that hitting coaches in the big leagues are doing it wrong. It’s just a tough situation to be a hitting coach. Trust me, I got fired in San Diego because we didn’t have the talent. It wasn’t what I did. I asked them what I did and they said, ‘Well, if we had different players, it would be a different situation.’”

On what makes a good hitting coach to him:

“I had hitting coaches who were so passionate they would get right into my stance – like Mickey Brantley in Toronto. I would call Mickey a year later when I wasn’t with the Blue Jays and I would talk to him because he put me in a different stance in Toronto . . . He put me into a stance where I was wider with less movement. I was hitting balls farther than I ever did in spring training . . . I would call him and I could hear him getting out of his chair and getting into my stance and going through it. That’s the kind of hitting coach I want.”

On his love for hockey:

Stairs just retired from coaching hockey after 20 years of doing it.

“I had 20 years of coaching high school hockey, seven of those in Maine and 13 in New Brunswick and I just took up indoor golf,” he said. “Indoor golf is a lot easier, walking three feet to hit a golf ball and I haven’t lost a ball yet playing.”

He remains a huge hockey fan and in the winter, you’ll likely find him glued to his TV watching Connor McDavid or his beloved Montreal Canadiens.

“I’m a hockey freak,” said Stairs. “I’m a Canadian, man. I’m supposed to be a hockey guy. You hate on the Bruins. You laugh at the Maple Leafs and you struggle with your Canadiens. I’m a diehard Habs fan.”