Olympic Baseball Blog

olympicbaseball February 15th, 2008

Baseball Canada announced the National Team 24-man roster at the Final Olympic Qualifying Tournament in Taiwan from March 7-15.

Among the 24 players selected by Baseball Canada for the event are five former members of the 2004 Olympic Team who are 2B Stubby Clapp (Windsor, ON), LHP Mike Kusiewicz (Ottawa, ON), OF Adam Stern (London, ON), OF Ryan Radmanovich and OF Jeremy Ware (Guelph, ON). And 17 will be returning from the team that represented Canada at the IBAF World Cup this past November. The roster will be a mix of experience and youth.

“We are very excited about the blend of experience and young rising talent on this roster,” says Greg Hamilton, Director and Head Coach of National Teams. “With an Olympic bid at stake, we anticipate a very competitive tournament and look forward to challenging ourselves against some of the world’s best baseball playing nations.”

The Olympic Qualifier will feature eight countries in a round-robin formatted tournament where the top three teams will earn the final spots for the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing this summer.

Canada will be competing for one of those three spots with Korea, Chinese Taipei, Australia, Mexico, Germany, South Africa and Spain. If Canada qualifies, they will join Cuba, United States, Japan, Netherlands and host China who have already qualified.

Before heading over to Taiwan, the Senior National Team will make its way to Brisbane, Australia from February 24th to March 4th for a training camp and exhibition series against the Australian National Team at their national training complex.

And you can find more detail introduction on Canada roster at Canada Press.

Little-known pitcher Steve Green recorded the final three outs of Canada’s stunning 8-6 win over the United States at the World Baseball Classic in 2006 and the national team will need similar pluck to clinch a berth at the Olympics this summer.

The right-hander from Montreal is among a handful of veterans sprinkled around the young roster announced Friday by Baseball Canada that will play for a spot in Beijing at the final qualifying tournament next month.

Much like they were that memorable March 8 afternoon two years ago in Phoenix, the odds will be stacked against the Canadians at the March 7-15 event in Taiwan.

Three tickets to the Summer Games will be contested by eight countries, five of them talented enough to advance. But Taiwan, South Korea and Mexico are likely to have an edge since their players will be in-season at the time, while Canadians and Australians will be just working their way into game-shape.

Still, as Green points out, the national team has made defying the odds a habit in recent years and there’s no reason to think it won’t happen again.

“That win has stuck with me, beating the Americans was unbelievable,” Green said in an interview. “It’s a do-or-die approach. It’s not like a best out of seven, you can’t let a bad play, a bad at-bat, a bad ump call get you down. You need to get at it and fight for that three hours, that nine innings and never give up.”

Green, 30, will help anchor the back-end of the bullpen along with 24-year-old Cleveland Indians prospect Tim Burton of Ottawa.

Other veterans who will be counted on to guide the kids include folk-hero infielder Stubby Clapp of Windsor, Ont., WBC hero Adam Stern of Port Stanley, Ont., Ryan Radmanovich of Calgary, Jeremy Ware of Guelph, Ont., and Mike Kusiewicz of Ottawa.

Youngsters like Mike Saunders of Victoria, Jimmy VanOstrand of Richmond, B.C., Matt Rogelstad of New Westminster, B.C., and Nick Weglarz of Stevensville, Ont., will be counted on do much of the heavy lifting.

They’ve already been through the international baseball ringer at tournaments like the World Cup and have been absorbed seamlessly into the national team culture.

“Everyone has come to know that Team Canada loves to have fun and I think it really helps because the older guys like Stubby, Radmanovich, they made us feel like part of a team,” said Saunders, a 21-year-old Seattle Mariners outfield prospect. “The younger players don’t get pushed outside the circle. The older guys come around and make sure everyone feels a part of a team. I just love it.”

Of critical importance to the Canadians will be making good use of a pre-tournament trip to Australia for five warm-up games with the Aussies.

Primarily using players affiliated with big-league clubs, the Canadians and Australians aren’t used to playing meaningful games so early in the spring.

Many of Canada’s pitchers have strict limitations on their usage, which complicates things for manager Terry Puhl, while the hitters will still be adjusting to live pitching.

“This whole thing is going to start in Australia,” said Green. “We can’t take those practice games lightly, we’ve got to get on a roll. It’s like in hockey when the team wins a few games at the end of the season and gets on a roll. We’ve got to keep rolling.”

Aside from player readiness, the tournament’s timing — decided on by the hosts and unsuccessfully protested against by Canada and Australia — also hampered the national team’s ability to assemble the country’s best eligible players (anyone not on the 40-man roster of a big-league team can suit up).

But that’s just another hurdle for the team to cope with and will be long forgotten once the games begin.

“I think it’s terrible timing, to tell you the truth,” said Saunders. “But we’ve got to play the cards we were dealt.”

With a trip to the last Olympics to include baseball on the line, there’s no room for distractions or excuses.

As a program, reaching Beijing would offer another shot at the podium after coming agonizingly close to upsetting Cuba and reaching the gold-medal game at the Athens Olympics.

Clapp, Stern, Radmanovich, Ware and Kusiewicz played on that team and would love to return with some hardware this time.

Youngsters like Saunders will get the chance to realize something they’ve imagined for years, wearing the Maple Leaf at the Games.

And for Green, who was supposed to be part of the 2004 team before the Anaheim Angels refused to let him play, he gets a chance to reclaim an experience unfairly denied him.

“The guys still talk about it from four years ago, their eyes light up when they talk about it,” he said. “That’s one of the best experiences they’ve ever had, so I want to share that with the veterans who are like me, on the back end of their career.”

Blow is the Canada 24-man roster, you can also download 2008 Final Olympic Qualifier Roster and Schedule at Baseball Canada website.

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