R.I.P. Rheal Cormier

Former Montreal Expos pitcher and Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame inductee Rheal Cormier (Cap-Pele, N.B.) passed away today at the age of 53 after batting pancreatic cancer. Photo: La Presse Archives

March 8, 2021

By Danny Gallagher

Canadian Baseball Network

The Canadian baseball community is reeling today with the news that French Canadian Maritimer and former major-league pitcher Rhéal Cormier has died after a battle with pancreatic cancer.

Cormier, 53, a tough, durable warrior with a rubber arm in either the starting rotation or the bullpen, logged one of the longest tenures in the major leagues for a Canadian with close to 16 years of service.

The Moncton, N.B. native was the son of Ronald and Jeanette Cormier and spent much of his youth in the tiny villages of Saint-André-Leblanc and Cap-Pele, N.B. He was inducted into the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame in 2012.

Cormier had lived in Utah for a number of years but had moved recently to Florida where he became a U.S citizen back in 2004.

Cormier pitched for the Cardinals, Red Sox, Phillies, Expos and Reds in a big-league career that began in 1991 and ended in 2007. He also threw for Canada at the Pan-Am Games in 1987 and both the 1988 and 2008 Olympics -- when he was 41 – and the 2006 World Baseball Classic.

Cormier was 7-10 as a starting pitcher with the Expos in 1996 and appeared in one game with them in 1997. He later developed shoulder problems that would sideline him from major-league play through all of 1998.

“Sad to hear this news. My wife and I were with him and his wife two years ago. We kept in touch through Facebook,’’ said Expos teammate and fellow lefty Jeff Fassero.

"A true professional whose work ethic and devotion to baseball was contagious to everybody who had the pleasure of working with him,'' former Expos bullpen coordinator Pierre Arsenault wrote on Facebook. "I loved my time with him in Montreal. He clearly left his mark on those, who knew him.''

Cormier enjoyed his best season in the majors in 2003 with the Phillies when he compiled an 8-0 record with a puny 1.70 ERA, which was the second-lowest among all relievers and sixth-lowest by any Phillies reliever in the modern era since 1900, according to a Phillies news release announcing his death.

He appeared in 363 games out of the bullpen for Philadelphia -- more than any other southpaw reliever in the Phillies franchise history, except for Tug McGraw. His 84 appearances in 2004 were the most ever by a left-handed Phillies pitcher, second-most among any pitcher and remained the most logged in a season by a Phillie in the last 33 seasons.

Cormier spent the first part of his career in the majors in the starting rotation for various teams but switched to the bullpen exclusively when he joined the Red Sox for a second go-round in 1999.

Cormier was drafted by St. Louis in 1988 from Community College of Rhode Island after he attended Polyvalente Louis J. Robichaud in Moncton. He made his MLB debut Aug. 15, 1991. It was a dazzling debut. He pitched six innings, allowed seven hits and just one earned run.

"We are deeply saddened by the passing of Rheal Cormier,'' said Scott Crawford, the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame's director of operations.

"Not only was he one of the greatest major-league relief pitchers ever to come from Canada but he was a wonderful and charismatic guy who was proud of his Canadian roots and loved his family deeply. That was clear at his induction ceremony in 2012. I can't recall another inductee who had more family in attendance at their ceremony.

"We would like to extend our deepest condolences to his wife Lucienne, son Justin and daughter Morgan at this difficult time.''

What was a widely known story in rural southeastern New Brunswick in the 1980s was that Richard's Market, the biggest grocery store in Cap-Pele, helped Cormier financially when he was starting out as a teenage ball player and gave him a job.

Cormier was known off the diamond for his kindness and philanthropy. During his time with the Expos, he was involved in several school programs in New Brunswick and was also a spokesman for teenage anti-suicide and anti-drug campaigns.

Back in 2008 when Cormier returned home to New Brunswick to play for the Moncton Mets senior team to get ready for the Olympics, he heard that teammate Pat Godin's mother Annette had multiple sclerosis. Cormier walked into Pat's house and dropped an envelope on the kitchen island.

"Open this later. Hope this helps,'' Cormier told Godin. When the envelope was opened, there was $800 in it.

"That's what I will remember Rhéal for,'' Pat Godin said in an interview with this reporter. "He found out about my mom and that there was a fundraiser to get a wheelchair for her. Two days later, he gave me a glove and pair of cleats from the Reds. He wanted me to auction them off for my mom. I asked him if it was okay to help someone else and he said no problem.

"Here's another story. Our games were on Sundays and they began at 7. We're in the dressing room and he's sitting down, not trying to be a big leaguer or a bigger man but he asked an honest question: 'The game starts at 7:05?' I said, 'No, it's 7. You're not in the big leagues anymore, Rheal.' And we had a big laugh over that.

“That summer, it was unbelievable. Poor guy. We bombarded him with questions. The very first batter from PEI he faced took him deep. But you could tell he was in a different league than the rest of us.''

Back in the 1980s, Cormier was indebted to former MLB pitcher and Expos legend Bill Lee when they were teammates in Moncton in the late 1980s.

“Bill had a big influence on Rheal,’’ said Godin, a big influence himself in New Brunswick senior ball for decades. “Here was Bill, a left-hander like Rheal. It was perfect timing for Rheal. It just lined up perfectly for him. Bill had that kind of influence. Rheal wore No. 37 because of Bill.’’

People thought Cormier’s brother Donnie was the better athlete but it turned out that being a southpaw had its advantages for Rheal. Several years later, Cormier left for college in Warwick, Rhode Island, the beginning of a journey that would see him make it to the majors.

Quite an accomplishment for a Maritimer.