June 30, 2020

By J.P. Antonacci

Canadian Baseball Network

Phil Devey, a kid from small town Quebec, was one phone call away from living out his childhood dream of playing in the major leagues.

And he wasn’t happy.

After six years bouncing around the minors and independent baseball, including two stints in triple-A, Devey’s enthusiasm for the dog-eat-dog reality of professional sports had waned.

“There are situations where you end up rooting against your teammates because you want to get called up before they do,” Devey said. “The enjoyment started to go away. It became more about me than us.”

Then he got a call that would revive his love for the game. On the line was Baseball Canada, asking how quickly he could get to Athens, Greece.

He was about to become an Olympian.

The start of the 2004 season betrayed no hint of what was to come. The left-hander was pitching for the Pensacola Pelicans of the independent Central Baseball League, and the major leagues seemed further away than ever.

Devey’s prospects improved in June when Seattle signed him to a minor-league deal. The 27-year-old was settled in at double-A San Antonio when Baseball Canada asked if he could rush to join the team.

He leapt at the chance to wear the Maple Leaf on his cap again.

“It was amazing,” said Devey, who had pitched in the Olympic qualifiers in Panama the previous year and – after a whirlwind trip from Texas to Greece – now found himself walking into a packed stadium as part of the opening ceremonies of the 2004 Summer Games.

As fans cheered, anthems played and millions of people tuned in, he appeared on live TV while talking to his parents on his cell phone and rubbed shoulders with fellow Olympians from around the world.

Being a late addition to the roster, Devey didn’t see game action until later in the round robin tournament. In his sole start, he held Australia – the eventual silver medal winners – scoreless over six innings in an 11-0 Sunday afternoon victory that was broadcast nationally in Canada.

“It seems like everyone I’d ever known got to watch the game,” Devey said.

Playing for Canada and with teammates who were all striving for victory together was just the lift he needed. He said the Olympics reminded him of happy years at the University of Southwestern Louisiana in Lafayette, pitching for the Ragin’ Cajuns under coach Tony Robichaux.

“With Team Canada, that college feeling was back,” said Devey. “Everybody was playing for each other and their country. That in itself elevated your game, because you did not want to disappoint them.”

Led by manager Ernie Whitt and a who’s who of national team mainstays – including Pete Orr, Stubby Clapp, and Adam Stern in the field and Paul Spoljaric, Mike Johnson, and Chris Begg on the mound – the Canadians went 5-2 in the round robin tournament.

“We just gelled together,” Devey said. “We loved playing for our country, and the love of the game came back to me.”

In the semifinals, Canada’s chance to play for gold was snatched away by a strong wind that pushed what would have been Kevin Nicholson’s game-tying three-run homer back onto the warning track in the top of the ninth.

“I still to this day have not watched that game,” Devey said of the heartbreaking 8-5 loss to Cuba. “It was the most crushing defeat I’d ever been a part of.”

The demoralized Canucks lost a blowout bronze medal game to Japan, leaving Athens with a fourth-place finish and a big “what if?” that veterans of that team still talk about today.

It wasn’t the ending Devey and his teammates had scripted, but for “pure enjoyment,” he said nothing beat the Olympics.

“it was just so much fun and such a great experience,” he said.

“I’m just forever thankful to Team Canada for giving me that opportunity. It was the best gift I could have gotten in my baseball career. I’d do anything to be able to go back and compete with those guys.”

SOMETHING BIGGER THAN HIMSELF

Devey’s journey to the Olympics started on a Little League diamond in Lachute, Que. With a population of 13,000, Lachute is about 60 kilometres and a world away from Quebec’s baseball capital, Montreal.

“It’s a battle to try and get noticed,” Devey said. “Being from a small town, you don’t have the exposure you wished you had. You have to grind your way through it and prove people wrong.”

It didn’t help that young Phil wasn’t exactly built like an athlete.

“Physically, I’m not imposing. It’d be easier to convince people I’m a CPA than a baseball player,” he said with a laugh.

The Devey family’s front yard became Phil’s pitching mound, where the left-hander spent hours playing catch with his father, pretending to be Atlanta hurlers Tom Glavine and Greg Maddux.

“Even though I was an Expos fan,” Devey laughed.

His pitching prowess earned him a spot in the Quebec Elite League and later the provincial team.

“I had success with it,” Devey said. “The more success I had, the more confidence I gained.”

He graduated college with his confidence at an all-time high. After making the team as a walk-on, he set Louisiana school records and made a name for himself in the Sun Belt conference, earning the Outstanding Pitcher award with the Wareham Gateman of the Cape Cod Baseball League, a collegiate showcase where many future draft picks show their stuff.

The Los Angeles Dodgers liked what they saw, drafting the 22-year-old in the fifth round of the 1999 MLB Draft.

Devey bounced around the Dodgers system from 1999 to 2003, making it to triple-A Las Vegas in three consecutive seasons. Among his minor-league exploits, he squared off against Justin Verlander and fanned Albert Pujols, and appeared in the Arizona Fall League.

As fun as those experiences were, Devey said, “something’s missing and you don’t know what it is.”

It turned out that what he needed was to again play for something bigger than himself.

“My college years and the time I got to play for Team Canada were the highlights of my baseball career,” said Devey, who still keeps in touch with many of his fellow Olympians.

“Just good guys, good people, good Canadians,” he said. “Every Canadian I’ve every played with or against, it’s like meeting up with your brother. There’s an instant kinship.”

Devey missed that kinship when he left the international stage and returned to the professional ranks. After starting the 2005 season at spring training with the Red Sox, he split the year between Boston and Philadelphia’s double-A affiliates before calling it a career at 28.

In all, Devey had a 29-39 record in 172 minor-league games, posting a 4.33 ERA and 1.41 WHIP in 652 1/3 innings.

He made 90 starts, saved three games, gave up 716 hits, and struck out 446 against 206 walks.

And for two memorable weeks, he was an Olympian.

Devey spent his off-seasons in his collegiate hometown of Lafayette, and it was to Cajun country that he returned to raise a family and start a second career in real estate as the owner of his own brokerage.

Looking back, he appreciates how the ups and downs of his baseball career prepared him for life as a business owner and father.

“There’s daily occurrences that don’t go your way, and it’s how you overcome it and continue to grow,” he said. “Life is stressful. Playing baseball is nothing in the grand scheme of things.”

Devey never made it to the major leagues, but he says he’s not bitter. On the contrary, by reaching triple-A and playing for his country, he said he exceeded everyone’s expectations, including his own.

“There’s no reason for me to regret it. The circumstances never got me there. I did everything I could,” he said.

“Anything I needed to get out of baseball, I got. (Getting to the majors) would have helped my bank account, but the lessons that I got were still the same, and I’m grateful to have played the game.”