TORONTO, CANADA – JUNE 11: Ace the mascot of the Toronto Blue Jays waves a large Blue Jays flag bearing the team logo during MLB game action against the Baltimore Orioles on June 11, 2016 at Rogers Centre in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. (Photo by Tom Szczerbowski/Getty Images) *** Local Caption ***
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The Toronto Blue Jays have taken a disappointing step back this season after winning the American League pennant last year.
As the team has struggled to recapture its momentum despite the addition of several win-now veterans over the winter, it’s becoming more likely that the front office will trade away expiring contracts at the upcoming deadline, effectively waving the white flag on the campaign.
But even if the Blue Jays do sell, they won’t be giving up on contention for long. The franchise has been a perennial contender for years, though one of their first-ever household stars evidently feels that having played north of the border has been a challenge to his legacy.
Toronto Blue Jays’ Legendary Starter Points To Canada For Harsh Disappointment
Few pitchers defined the Blue Jays’ rise from expansion franchise to big-market contender quite like Dave Stieb. Throughout the early and mid-1980s, the hard-throwing right-hander established himself as one of baseball’s premier starters, anchoring Toronto’s rotation while consistently finishing among the American League’s elite.
Despite compiling numbers that compare favorably with many Hall of Fame pitchers, though, Stieb has long remained on the outside looking in when it came to Cy Young Awards during his career and now he remains shutout of Cooperstown.
“Stieb, in Toronto over the weekend for the Blue Jays’ celebration of the 1992 and 1993 World Series champions, remains the franchise leader in almost every major pitching category,” Gregor Chisholm reported this month for the Toronto Star. “He’s also one of the best in baseball history to never win a Cy Young Award and be excluded from the Hall of Fame… He’s well aware of where his numbers rank compared to others from a similar era, and he’s still pissed about the lack of respect.”
More than three decades after his prime, those omissions still clearly bother the seven-time Blue Jays All-Star, who offered an explanation for the slights.
“I feel like I’ve been slighted, and the cruel thing about it is that I think it’s because I played in Canada, which is ridiculous,” Stieb said during the recent visit to the Rogers Centre, per Chisholm. “But that’s how we were looked at back then, those baseball writers didn’t want to give anybody that played in Canada an award.”
Numbers Back Up Toronto Blue Jays Legend’s Claim That Canada Is Snubbed
The statistical case for Stieb to be inducted into the Hall of Fame remains compelling. During the first half of the 1980s, few pitchers matched his combination of durability and dominance.
“From 1980 to 1985, Stieb led all pitchers in Baseball Reference WAR (38.6) and innings pitched (1,524.2), was second in complete games (77) and shutouts (19) and seventh in strikeouts (890) and wins (87),” Zach Worden noted for Sportsnet. “In those six seasons, he was also named to five American League All-Star Teams and finished top-10 in Cy Young voting three times.”
Those accomplishments came at a time when Toronto was largely seen as a baseball upstart, which might have impacted the individual honors that Stieb won during his career, and in turn hurt his Hall of Fame case later on.
Whether his comments ultimately influence Hall of Fame discussions remains uncertain. But decades after his final season with the Blue Jays, Stieb clearly believes his accomplishments deserved greater recognition — and that playing in Canada prevented him from receiving it when it mattered most.
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