Shushkewich: Bedard to be inducted into Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame

Longtime big league left-hander Érik Bédard (Navan, Ont.) has been elected to the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame. Photo: Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame

February 12, 2025

By Tyson Shushkewich

Canadian Baseball Network

From the diamonds of Orleans Little League to the big league stage, southpaw Érik Bédard’s 11-year major-league career has not gone unnoticed, as he will be one of the six inductees this June that will form the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame’s class of 2025.

Bedard will be honoured alongside ex-Toronto Blue Jays slugger Jose Bautista and longtime Women’s National Team star Amanda Asay (Prince George, B.C.) who will be inducted posthumously.

The Canadian ball hall’s Veterans Committee also elected former All-American Girls Professional Baseball League legend Arleene Noga (Ogema, Sask.) and Gerry Snyder, the Montreal city councillor who played a crucial role in bringing Major League Baseball to Canada. Noga and Snyder will also be inducted posthumously.

The 2025 class will be honoured in a ceremony on the Hall of Fame grounds in St. Marys, Ont., on June 7.

Accompanying a friend to a tryout for the Norwalk Community College team, Bédard made the squad as a walk-on and he blossomed on the mound for the NJCAA D3 program. The Baltimore Orioles took notice and selected him in the sixth round of the 1999 draft.

He made his big-league debut early in the 2002 season, a bullpen appearance against the New York Yankees on April 17. His first Major League strikeout? Two-time All-Star Robin Ventura.

Bédard (Navan, Ont.) would be limited to two relief outings with the Orioles that season before being optioned and then undergoing Tommy John surgery, which sidelined him for most of the 2003 season.

He returned to the majors in 2004 and became a mainstay in the Orioles’ rotation for the next three seasons. He was the club’s Opening Day starter in 2007 and proceeded to set a record for most strikeouts in a season for the Orioles with 221. Bédard also set the Orioles’ single-season record for K/9 (10.92) that year.

On February 8, 2008, he was traded to the Seattle Mariners in exchange for five players, two of which were outfielder Adam Jones and pitcher Chris Tillman. His tenure in Seattle was hampered by various injuries, mostly to his pitching shoulder, and was limited to just 46 starts across four years. When healthy, he was dominant – crafting a 3.31 ERA and a 3.85 FIP with a 1.226 WHIP.

At the 2011 trade deadline, Bédard was dealt to the Boston Red Sox. He spent just half a season in the AL East before inking a one-year pact with the Pittsburgh Pirates. Making the opening day start for the Pirates in 2012, Bédard authored a 5.01 ERA through 24 starts that season.

The next two seasons he split time with the Houston Astros, Tampa Bay Rays, and Los Angeles Dodgers before hanging up his cleats midway through the 2015 campaign while rehabbing a back injury in single-A Ranco Cucamonga.

For his career, Bédard made 241 appearances (230 starts) across 11 seasons. He hurled 1,303 2/3 innings – the sixth most by a Canadian-born pitcher in the majors. His 17.37 bWAR ranks him seventh among Canuck hurlers and he produced a 3.99 ERA and 1,246 strikeouts, which is the third-most behind only Fergie Jenkins (Chatham, Ont.) and Ryan Dempster (Gibsons, BC). Among Canadian big league left-handers, he ranks at the top in innings pitched, starts, and strikeouts.

On the international stage, Bédard pitched for Team Canada at the inaugural 2006 World Baseball Classic and made one start against South Africa, holding them scoreless through four innings while registering six strikeouts.