Elliott: 1st Canadian drafted, signed: Trembecky, Robitaille, Thomson or?

University of Portland LHP Steve Wilson (Vancouver, BC) was the highest pick to sign in 1985. Bob Trembecky (Drumheller, Alta.) of the University of Denver was the first Canadian selected but the pick was disallowed, as Canadians were not eligible for the draft in 1968.

By Allan Simpson and Bob Elliott

Canadian Baseball Network

The first Canadian major leaguer was always a moving target.

From 1B Bill Phillips with the 1879 Cleveland Blues in the National League to 3B Mike Brannock of the 1871 Chicago White Stockings of the National Association to 2B Tom Smith with the 1875 Brooklyn Atlantics in the NA.

Forget Phillips (Saint John, NB), Brannock, who turned out to be from Douglas. Mass. and Smith (Guelph, Ont.), for historian William Humber has nailed down No. 1 and soon you will be able to read all about it.

The first Canadian big leaguer was OF-INF Bob Addy who broke in with the 1871 Rockford Forest Citys. The tentative title of Humber’s latest book will be “Bob Addy and Baseball’s Missing Chapter”

Humber’s book examines Addy (Port Hope, Ont.) as well as the game’s eventual adoption of the New York Rules by 1860. Canadians were involved alongside Americans. An oversight on the part of Americans is the location of the first international game. US-based historians were befuddled by its 1860 location in Clifton Ont., which was re-named Niagara Falls, Ont. in the 1880s.

Addy got into the third game ever played in the National Association in 1871 and later was a member of the Chicago White Stockings, the National League’s first pennant winning team in 1876.

Now, who was the first Canadian ever drafted?

Also a moving target.

The first Canadian selected in the draft? Bob Trembecky (Drumheller, Alta.) from the University of Denver was chosen in the 15th round in 1968. At the time, Canadians were not eligible for the draft, so his selection was subsequently voided by the commissioner’s office.

Trembecky was a two-sport star at Denver, both on the diamond and on the ice.

Denver won the NCAA hockey title in 1968. He then would come home in the summers and play ball for Calgary in the Alberta Major League, and in 1967 was the league batting champion and home run leader. He later went on to play for the Spokane Jets/Flyers of the Western International Hockey League for seven seasons from 1970-77 and led one of those Spokane teams to an Allan Cup title. He subsequently returned to Drumheller and worked in the Alberta Prison System before dying of pancreatic cancer in 2014.

Trembecky was the first, but his selection was voided, so it can’t be him.

Two years later, INF Jim Chapman (Victoria, BC) was drafted in the third round from Columbia Basin Junior College by the California Angels. His selection was also subsequently voided because it was an invalid selection. The Montreal Expos did sign Chapman and he played four seasons with the double-A Quebec Carnavals, class-A West Palm Beach Expos, triple-A Peninsula Whips and class-A Victoria Mussels.

RHP Kirk McCaskill (Kapuskasing, Ont.), was taken by the California Angels in the fourth round in 1982 from the University of Vermont. He was born in Kapuskasing, but was only there briefly.

His father Ted McCaskill played centre for the Kitchener Canucks, Paisley Pirates and Kapuskasing G.M.’s, before moving on to minor pro in the Eastern League with the Nashville Dixie Flyers. the Central League with the Memphis South Stars, the NHL with the Minnesota North Stars, the Western League with the Vancouver Canucks. Phoenix Roadrunners and Los Angeles Sharks as well as the North American League with the Broome County Dusters.

So, let us rephrase the question, who was the first Canadian native drafted who signed?

Canadians (and other foreign players) attending US colleges became subject to the draft in 1985 in response to Juan Nieves, a pitcher from Puerto Rico who was attending a Connecticut prep school. He was signed by the Milwaukee Brewers in 1983 to a bonus of $110,000 after an intense bidding war among big-league clubs for his services.

Foreign players were not subject to that draft at the time, even those attending school in the US, and the so-called Nieves rule went into effect in time for the ’85 draft. By 1989, all Puerto Ricans became subject to the draft and by 1991, all Canadians became eligible.

In the January draft of 1985, the California Angels selected OF-1B Martin Robitaille (St. Foy, Que.) from Cochise Community College in the sixth round. So was he the first?

Well, he didn’t sign. The Montreal Expos selected 3B Luc Berube (Charlesbourg, Que.) in the seventh round of the January draft from Cochise. Robitaille signed with Expos later and Berube was drafted by the New York Yankees in the third round of the 1986 January draft and signed.

The third pick that January -- seventh rounder Michael House (Victoria, BC) chosen by the Blue Jays from Bellevue (Wash.) Community College and eighth rounder OF Scott Maxwell (Calgary, Alta.) also from Cochise were drafted but didn’t sign.

Now in June there were six Canadians attending US colleges drafted in June. All signed. University of Portland LHP Steve Wilson (Vancouver, BC) was the highest pick, going in the fourth round to the Texas Rangers. Also drafted/signed that year were RHP Matt Maysey (Hamilton, Ont.) who was attending High School in Houston, who went in the seventh round to the San Diego Padres; Cal State Fullerton OF-1B Kevin Reimer (Enderby, BC), son of Gerry Reimer, who spent 10 years in the minors and won a batting title, an 11th-round pick of the Rangers; Miami RHP Alain Patenaude (Quebec City, Que.), drafted in the 13th round by the Detroit Tigers; Cochise Community College RHP Martin Hall (Victoria, BC), drafted in the 28th round by the Oakland A’s and Kansas C Rob Thomson (Sarnia, Ont.), drafted in the 32nd round by the Tigers.

So Wilson was first?

Well, if you want to get technical about it, Wilson was the first Canadian to ever be drafted and signed. Yet he signed with the Rangers on June 7, 1985. But Thomson also signed the same day, one day ahead of Reimer and two days before Hall. Patenaude signed June 26.

So the first Canadian drafted and signed is a tie: LHP Steve Wilson, who pitched parts of six seasons with the Los Angeles Dodgers, Chicago Cubs and Rangers. He was 13-18 with a 4.40 ERA, walking 130 and striking out 252 in 345 1/3 innings. He is now a scout with the Dodgers.

Thomson won five World Series rings as a coach with the New York Yankees, has re-joined manager Joe Girardi with the Philadelphia Phillies and was inducted into the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame at St. Marys, Ont.