Canuck Olympians pay it forward to skipper Mackenzie
C Larry Downes, left, and INF Tom Nelson, of the 1984 Team Canada Olympic team, flank manager Eric Mackenzie. The players surprised Mackenzie with a ring, commemorating the team’s trip to Los Angeles. The idea for rings came up at a reunion which included New York Yankees teammate Robbie Thomson at the Rogers Centre. Photo: Tyler Kula/Sarnia Observer.
Aug. 14, 2016
By Tyler Kula
Sarnia Observer
Eric Mackenzie won’t soon forget standing at home plate in Dodger Stadium and hearing the Canadian National Anthem sung in front of tens of thousands of people.
“You can’t forget that,” he said. “It sticks with you forever.”
It was 1984 at baseball’s return to the Olympics – albeit as a demonstration event – in Los Angeles, and Mackenzie was skipper for Team Canada.
The team would finish fifth – losing twice before besting the eventual gold-medal-winning team from Japan 6-4.
“It’s a once-in-a-lifetime chance” said Mackenzie, reflecting Sunday alongside family in Corunna.
“This is the Olympics and all the games were sellouts. It was a great time.”
Much as the memory sticks with the Glendon, Alta. native and long-time Lambton County resident, he’ll have something else now by which to remember the experience.
Two of his former players – catcher Larry Downes, and second-baseman Tom Nelson – came in for a visit Sunday, gifting him a golden commemorative ring.
Teammates ordered platinum versions after a recent reunion in Toronto in May, where 19 from the original 25-man roster met up for dinner and drinks, took in a baseball game and watched batting practice with the Yankees.
Yankees bench coach Rob Thomson, a Corunna native, was also a catcher for the Canadian Olympic side 32 years ago, so the Blue Jays/New York series in late May made sense for the when and where, said Downes.
He floated the idea to get rings and about a dozen players got on board.
“We all kind of secretly said, the last day, ‘Let’s get one for Eric,’” he said.
Decorated with the country’s name, the Olympic rings and the Canadian flag, the ring also has ‘TC’ for Team Canada – though the logo bears a striking resemblance to the alternate for Major League Baseball’s Minneapolis franchise.
“That’s what we wore,” said Nelson, about the emblem.
“Don’t tell the Minnesota Twins that,” Downes said.
The team has been called a trailblazer for Canadian baseball, with three of the players – including pitcher and Sarnia native Mike Gardiner – having gone on to six-season stints in the majors.
Many other Canadians have since followed in their footsteps.
Downes and Nelson recalled Mackenzie, as a manager, as being a quiet, guiding force in the dugout.
“The Olympics can be quite overwhelming when you’re there,” said Nelson. “He was the guy that just kind of (said), ‘Hey, take it easy guys. It’s just another game; go out and play.”
His wry sense of humour was also appreciated, Downes said, recalling a time when a player nearly crashed while driving the team in British Columbia, clipping the mirror of another car in the opposite lane.
“Everybody is sitting there in silence, and Eric says, ‘If you guys smell something, I’m sitting in it.’
“That totally broke everybody up,” he said. “That was the kind of guy he was, he’d say one or two things a day that would just keep you laughing.”
Baseball hasn’t been played at the Olympics since 2008 in Beijing, but is set to make its return in 2020.