Éric Gagné, who retired nine years ago, is trying to make a return with Team Canada in the World Baseball Classic…
I’ll just let that sit for a moment. For those of you who don’t know, Gagné played 10 years in the Majors with the Boston Red Sox, Texas Rangers, Milwaukee Brewers, but mainly with the Los Angeles Dodgers. The 2003 Cy Young Award winner and three-time all-star is attempting to make a return to professional baseball. Gagné is with the Dodgers at Camelback Ranch in Phoenix, Arizona, as an instructor, however, he has been throwing in the bullpen to warm up for the WBC. He has recently been clocked at 93-95 miles per hour. Could “Gagné” mean “gagner” (French for “to win”) for Team Canada? He held a strong 3.77 ERA, struck out 718 batters, and only gave up 76 home runs during his 10 year career, but can he survive with similar status until possibly March 22? He struck out six and allowed one run on two hits and no walks in five innings with the Ottawa Champions, but that’s a very small amount of time with a sub-minor league level team. While the former Trolley-Dodger has expressed how amazing he feels, currently, one can also compare him to the many minor league prospects and veterans attempting a comeback throughout the ages who felt the same way, but were never heard from again. He’s now putting himself in a select group of ballplayers who had careers and tried to be a star on one final team, yet he’s most likely going to end up in the far more select group who had mediocre careers and still persisted at making a return even though the game rejected them multiple times prior. He may end up being remembered alongside Jimmy Rollins and Bret Saberhagen; players who went from honorable mentions in a team’s success to being a comedic side note in a feeble, lesser, and different team’s ventures. These feel good, end of a career, one-day contract stories are fondly remembered and reminisced about at the end of the season, yet Gagné and Canada’s chance gagner (again, French for “to win”) will surely merely come to be a simple flavor of the month. Vont-Canada gagne? Je ne sais pas, mais ce n’est pas. Jesse A. Cook February 28, 2017 “Canada Va ‘Gagné’”
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