Martin and Saunders poised to make history as a Canadian duo

By: David Matchett

Canadian Baseball Network

As the Blue Jays get ready for an exciting September pennant run Russell Martin and Michael Saunders are poised to make history themselves; they are a handful of games away from being the first set of Canadian-born teammates to appear together in 100 games since John A. Macdonald was Prime Minister.

According to Baseball-Refence.com there have been 187 instances of a Canadian-born player appearing in 100 or more major league games in a season and Brett Lawrie is a week away from making it 188. Forty-three players have accomplished the feat with Larry Walker leading the way with 13 such seasons, followed closely by Matt Stairs with a dozen and Jeff Heath and Russell Martin at 10 (including 2016).

While a Canadian appearing in 100 games in a season isn’t all that rare, Canadian-born teammates turning the trick has only happened four times: Canadian Baseball Hall of Famers George Wood and Arthur Irwin did it for the Philadelphia Quakers (now Phillies) each year from 1886 through 1888 and Martin and Saunders have done so this year. No other team has had two Canadians each appear in as many as 90 games in a season.

In 1886 Wood played in 106 games and Irwin 101 in a 119-game season, but they only saw action in the same game 89 times, then Wood played 113 games and Irwin 100 in a 128-game season in 1887 with 92 games together. The Quakers played 131 games in 1888 with Wood appearing in 105 and Irwin 124 and on exactly 100 occasions they were on the field at the same time. This was the first and still only time that this has happened.

(There may have been one more outing that would bring the total to 101 games and records are contradictory on how to treat that match. On May 5 Philadelphia beat Pittsburgh 4-3 and Irwin and Wood were both in the starting lineup. If this game is included Wood would have 106 games played in the season and Irwin 125, matching Baseball-Reference.com totals, however, the Philadelphia win (and Pittsburgh loss) was not included in the league standings.  Regardless, Wood and Irwin reached the century mark in 1888, whether it was 100 or 101 games.)

Corey Koskie and Justin Morneau may spring to mind as Canadian teammates who could have also accomplished this feat but their careers in Minnesota had only a brief overlap. Koskie debuted in 1998 and played in at least 100 games each year from 1999 to 2004. Morneau first came up to the big leagues in 2003 and he has appeared in at least 100 games 8 times, but in the 2 seasons in which he was Koskie’s teammate he only played in 40 and 74 games respectively.

It should be noted that this review so far deals only with Canadian-born players; others who were born aboard but considered themselves Canadian also had seasons with 100 or more games played: Mark Teahen (5 seasons), Jimmy Archer (3), Kevin Reimer (3) and Reno Bertoia (1). Archer, Reimer and Bertoia never teamed up with a Canadian-born player in their 100-game seasons but in 2005 Teahen and Matt Stairs were regulars in the Kansas City lineup.

Teahen played in 130 games and Stairs 127 and they played together 110 times. Teahen was born in California but his father was from St. Mary’s, Ontario and before the 2009 World Baseball Classic he became a naturalized citizen and donned the maple leaf.  Mark Teahen is today a Canadian citizen but he hadn’t yet taken the oath in 2005 so his accomplishment and addition to this list, although noteworthy, is somewhat retroactive.

Through September 1 Martin has appeared in 110 games and Saunders 116, but because of the occasional rest day or R.A. Dickey start they have only appeared in the same box score 96 times.  Barring injury, they should appear together at least 4 more times this season and match Wood and Irwin’s 128-year-old mark of Canadian-born teammates playing in the same game 100 times in a season.