5 former Pirates in the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame

Hockey will always be Canada’s game. There’s no denying its popularity over sports like baseball, which the country also has a rich history in, dating back to the early 19th century. Before he broke the color barrier with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947, Jackie Robinson played in Montreal for the Royals of the International League, as did Roberto Clemente. “The Great One” was originally a prospect in the Dodgers' system before the Pirates claimed him in the 1954 Rule 5 Draft, living up to their moniker.  

Not long after the Royals folded, Montreal was awarded an expansion franchise in the National League, beginning play as the Expos in 1969. The Toronto Blue Jays came to be less than a decade later, and effectively became Canada’s team. This reality further intensified after the Expos left Quebec and became the most recent iteration of the Washington Nationals in 2005.

A few all-time greats, Fergie Jenkins and Larry Walker, hail from the Great White North, and have been inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame. Perhaps their contemporaries Freddie Freeman and Joey Votto will join them one day.  

More recently, Team Canada won gold in the baseball competitions at the Pan American Games in 2011 and 2015, both coming from victories over the USA. There has been some controversy lately between the two neighbors, in the political arena and on the ice with the 4 Nations Face-Off.

Canada has its own baseball hall of fame, located in St. Mary’s, a small town in southwestern Ontario. Over the years, several notable Pirates players have earned that prestigious, but oft-overlooked, honor, and been forever immortalized by their home nation.  

5 Pittsburgh Pirates in the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame

Jason Bay

Bay was the face of the franchise in the 2000s, an undeniably low point in Pirates history in terms of results and morale. Many fans still likely wear his jersey to PNC Park, though. Bay grew up in Trail, British Columbia. He first attended North Idaho College, then transferred to Gonzaga and was later drafted by the Expos all the way in the 22nd round of the 2000 MLB Draft. He bounced around a bit before settling down in Pittsburgh, moving from Montreal to the Mets to the Padres, finally coming over in the Brian Giles trade along with Óliver Pérez. It was with the Pirates that he emerged as one of the game's better-hitting left fielders.  

Bay was a borderline star that went overlooked in the later steroid era. In 2004, his first full season in the majors, he broke out and took home the NL Rookie of the Year Award for his efforts, the first and only player to do so in Pirates history until Paul Skenes did the very same in 2024. Bay was with Pittsburgh from ‘03 to ‘08, sandwiched between trades from San Diego and to Boston. His best year in a Pirates uniform came in 2005, where he hit .306 with 32 home runs and 101 RBI with an OPS+ of 150, earning him 5.7 bWAR. Bay was an All-Star for the first time that year. He participated in the Home Run Derby at Comerica Park, and was the only member of the field not to launch a single long ball.  

Bay was dealt to the Red Sox in the three-team trade with the Dodgers that sent Manny Ramírez to Los Angeles. In return, the Pirates received Craig Hansen and Brandon Moss from Boston and Andy LaRoche and Bryan Morris from the Dodgers. Needless to say, things didn’t work out on the Pirates’ end, though Moss had some good years with the Athletics later on. Bay had a great 2009 season with the Sox, easily his best campaign away from the Pirates. He posted a career-high 36 home runs and 119 RBI, though his average dipped quite a bit at .267 when compared to his impressive ‘05 campaign. Still, he won the Silver Slugger and finished seventh in AL MVP voting. Boston finished second in the AL East that year with 95 wins, then got swept by the Angels in the Division Series.  

Bay constantly battled injuries late in his career. He signed a four-year, $66 million deal with the Mets the following offseason that didn’t exactly go according to plan. Numerous stints on the disabled list prevented him from living up to his full potential, ultimately resulting in an early release from New York after the 2012 season. Bay then signed a one-year deal with the Mariners, the major league team closest to his hometown of Trail, BC.

He managed only 68 games with Seattle, clearly no longer the player he once was. As a result, Bay announced his retirement the following year. He would later be inducted into the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame in 2019. Bay won the Tip O’Neill (not to be confused with the former Speaker of the House of the same name) Award three times, given to the best Canadian baseball player each year.