Legendary baseball Swiss Army knife Bill MacKenzie turns 70

Bill MacKenzie when he was named managed of the Ottawa Fat Cats of the Intercounty League.

By: Danny Gallagher

Canadian Baseball Network

I can’t tell you exactly the year I was in Bill MacKenzie’s kitchen in Ottawa, helping him get supper ready.

I would like to say it was the late 1980s or early 1990s. Not sure but anyway, I’m peeling a potato and all of a sudden, MacKenzie grabs the potato and knife from me and starts peeling it the way he thought it should be peeled. He never said a word. He saw that I was peeling off too much of the spud.

Like he called a spade a spade as a scout, he could peel a potato.

This baseball-wise man turns 70 July 27, lives in Brockville, Ont. with his wife Donna and looks back fondly at a life that took him all over North America and the world as a player, executive, scout or as a Team Canada coach.

I first ran across MacKenzie in late 1978 when I lobbied him and fellow Baseball Canada executive Paul Lavigne to have the South Korean national team play an exhibition game in 1979 in Sudbury, Ont. against the Nickel Region Senior Baseball League all-stars as part of a cross-Canada tour.

By late 1978, I had left Sudbury for the Ottawa Journal but while I was in Ottawa in early 1979, MacKenzie and Lavigne informed me that Sudbury was placed on the South Korean tour. I even went back and played in the game played before several thousand fans.

Another story: in 1984, I invited MacKenzie, a Team Canada coach to come to Sudbury, where I was based again, to conduct a tryout camp for Team Canada prospects. He came up and the plan was to recommend one prospect for a camp held later that year. We put a number of teenagers through drills and he picked a lanky pitcher by the name of Rick Kilganon, who never went anywhere in the game, but it was all a memorable experience.

Another story: in the late summer of 1989, I invited MacKenzie to be part of a two-pronged event on the same day in the Upper Ottawa Valley involving the 20th anniversary of the Douglas Expos winning the South Renfrew Senior Baseball League championship.

I was a member of that team and I organized a reunion that involved both a pick-up game in the afternoon at the diamond in Douglas and then a party at night at the Best Western Inn in Renfrew with MacKenzie as the guest speaker.

So I arranged to meet MacKenzie in Renfrew and as we drove north out of that town, he suggested we had to drop into Butson’s tavern on the outskirts of town on Highway 17 for a Blue or two. I agreed, although it meant we would be late for the game. All in fun in the name of friendship. MacKenzie was the pitcher for one side in the game, I was the pitcher for the other side.

MacKenzie spent a total of 14 years in the Expos’ organization in multi-faceted roles, seven years in the employ of Baseball Canada as a national senior team coach and technical director and eight years as a scout for the Colorado Rockies.

Not to be forgotten, MacKenzie was a former Expos’ minor-league player and a former Expos’ minor-league coach.

“I was with the Expos two different times for seven years each. I was with Baseball Canada for seven years. I don’t know if that was lucky or unlucky,’’ MacKenie said. “Then I was with the Rockies for more than seven years, eight to be exact.’’

MacKenzie was born in Pictou, N.S. but made his way at a young age to Sarnia, Ont. where he started playing baseball. The Detroit Tigers, especially birddog scout Harry Moore gave the catching prospect a lot of looks when he played at St. Clair County Community College in Port Huron, Mich. near Sarnia.

Those looks were enough to prompt the Tigers, after much persistence by Moore, to sign MacKenzie to a contract in 1966.

“Harry kept recommending me to the Tigers,’’ MacKenzie said.

The Tigers put him on a bus in Port Huron and sent him to Lakeland, Fla. for seasoning. The trip was 22 hours long to Tiger Town. He would go on to play in such exotic locales as Statesville, N.C, Lakeland, Erie, Pa. and Dubuque, Iowa. One of his roommates he recalls with some amusement was John D’Auria, who had returned from a stint in Vietnam and was never the same.

“I drank a few pitchers of beer and ate some pizza with John,’’ MacKenzie said. “He was funny.’’

During spring training in 1969, the first for the Expos, the Montreal organization was looking for bodies so the Tigers sent MacKenzie’s contract to the Expos.

Even though the Expos had killer B’s behind the plate in John Bateman, John Boccabella and Ron Brand,  MacKenzie was happy to be with Montreal.

“You being a Canadian, you have a good opportunity,’’ somebody with the Expos told him.

MacKenzie is part of a piece of interesting Expos’ trivia that I didn’t know about until I sat down with him in Brockville and stuck a tape recorder in front of him.

“Ernie McAnally and I formed the first battery in a regular-season game for the Expos’ organization in their first season of operation in 1969,’’ MacKenzie revealed with a lot of satisfaction. “Ernie was the pitcher, I was the catcher. I even got a hit. Joe Mook hit the foul pole in that game for us and the place went nuts.

“That year, the Expos only had one minor-league affiliate and that was the one in West Palm Beach, Fla. Then the next day, the major-league club played its first game in New York. How’s that for trivia?’’

West Palm Beach Expos owner Freddy Whitacre, who respects MacKenzie like he is a son all these years later, brought up an interesting tale when I talked to him a few days ago.

“Bill had a shoebox full of baseball cards, including Pete Rose cards, and he gave them to my son Michael,’’ Whitacre said.

Unfortunately, MacKenzie’s tenure with the Expos was literally shattered when he was bowled over at the plate by a Lakeland runner halfway through the 1969 season. One of the runner’s shoulders rammed into MacKenzie’s right shoulder.

MacKenzie spent part of a day in a hospital recovering and tried to return weeks later but found he had no juice on the balls throwing to second base.

“I could throw batting practice for an hour but I had nothing on the ball to second,’’ MacKenzie said.

So what did Mackenzie do? He returned to the Tigers’ system and spent three seasons as a minor-league coach, including time with the likes of Jim Leyland, Bill Lajoie, Lance Nichols, Max Lanier and Stubby Overmire. Following the 1972 season, MacKenzie was let go but it wasn’t long afterward that he called Expos scouting director Mel Didier, seeking employment.

“Bill was multi-gifted,’’ Didier said on the phone from his Phoenix home. “We used him in multiple situations, in various places, in the office, as a technical instructor, as a manager, as a coach, as a scout. He had a good way about him with young players. He was a true, solid coach, especially in catching.

“People respected him. He had a knack for pointing out things that other people didn't see. He called a spade a spade. He was a reliable person who I feel was a big part of the Expos the first few years of their existence,’’ Didier, 89, said.

As part of his multi-tasking duties, MacKenzie worked often with Paul Shubin out of the Expos’ office on the mezzazine level at the Dominion Square building in downtown Montreal and later at Olympic Stadium. In unison, the two would produce three organizational programs on franchise news once a month.

One of those catchers MacKenzie taught was the late, great Gary Carter and he also tutored catchers Barry Foote and Bobby Ramos. Some of the prospects he found or recommended to the Expos were Tim Raines, David Palmer, Larry Walker and Matt Stairs. He also coached future Expos in Raines, Carter, Foote, Andre Dawson, Larry Parrish, Warren Cromartie, Dale Murray, Jerry White and Tony Scott.

“When Gary Carter was elected into Cooperstown, he mentioned me in his speech. I went online and pulled up his speech to see what he said,’’ MacKenzie said. “When I was teaching him how to catch in Cocoa Beach, Fla., his work ethic was second to none. He kept me in the rain and dark, working him out.’’

As the 1970s came to a close, the people running Baseball Canada began bugging MacKenzie off and on to join its organization out of Ottawa on River Road in Vanier. He called his father for advice and the elder MacKenzie said, “Do what is best for you.’’

So Mackenzie moved from Montreal to Ottawa and became technical director and head coach of Canada’s national senior team. MacKenzie jumped head-first into the job, established coaching certification courses and developed coaching manuals when he wasn’t coaching the national team.

“I didn’t know any of the players so I didn’t know what I was getting into but I realized it was a golden opportunity to develop the program,’’ Mackenzie said. “When I took over, Canada was ranked 11th in the world in men’s baseball and when I left, we were fourth.’’

MacKenzie was barely into his tenure in 1978 with the national team when the contingent headed to Italy for the amateur World Series tournament. Mackenzie also guided Canada at the 1979 Pan American Games in San Juan, Puerto Rico and the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, where baseball was a demonstration sport. Canada went 1-2 in L.A., upsetting hotshot Japan in the process. The Olympic club roster included Stairs, who signed with the Expos five years later.

One day, Expos executive Jim Fanning just so happened to call MacKenzie out of the blue.

“Bill, just calling to see how things are going in Ottawa,’’ Fanning said.

"Oh, Jim, not very good,’’ MacKenzie replied.

MacKenzie let it be known he’d like to work for the Expos again so Fanning arranged for GM Murray Cook to call MacKenzie. Cook promptly said, “Bill, get your ass to Montreal and we’ll have lunch.’’

It wasn’t long before MacKenzie was back with the Expos and to facilitate the move, Cook said he could stay in Ottawa and work out of there. He was in charge of Canada, upstate New York, Vermont, Maine and New Hampshire, mostly during the reign of scouting director Gary Hughes. He remained with the Expos until near the end of the 1993 season when he was fired by Hughes’ successor Kevin Malone.

MacKenzie hooked on shortly thereafter and his coverage included all of Canada and upstate New York. He was responsible for pro coverage of the New York Mets’ organization and six International League teams under Pat Daugherty, a former Expos’ alumnus, going back to the 1970s.

One of MacKenzie’s most notable signings for Colorado came in 1994 when he inked left-handed pitcher Mike Kusiewicz, a Montreal native, who pitched for the Ottawa-Nepean 

Canadians under manager Don Campbell.

One of Kusiewicz’s best seasons in the minors came in 1995 when at age 18, he led the class-A South Atlantic League with a 2.94 ERA, going 8-4 in 21 starts at Asheville.

Three years later, he was 14-7 with the Rockies’ Double-A team in New Haven, Conn.. He was never able to duplicate that season and injuries throttled his possible ascent to the majors. 

Kusiewicz pitched 10 years in the minors in the Rockies, Blue Jays, Red Sox, A's and Brewers systems before pitching independent ball, along with representing Canada internationally. 

In the same 1994 draft, MacKenzie selected right-hander Brent Crowther from B.C.’s Simon Fraser University. Crowther and Kusiewicz combined for 23 wins and seven losses in 1995, Crowther going a combined 15-10 with a 2.66 ERA at class-A Salem, Va. and Asheville, N.C..

When Rockies GM Bob Gebhard was fired in 2003, MacKenzie was gone, too, as part of a wholesale shake-up. Seven years later, MacKenzie managed the Ottawa Fat Cats, a senior team in Ontario’s Intercounty league, for one season.

Along the way, MacKenzie was also a consultant to two manufacturers of baseball bats, including the Original Sam Bat Company founded by Sam Holman. In fact, it was MacKenzie, who recommended to Holman one day over beers at the Mayflower Pub in Ottawa that he produce a bat that would not break easily. Today, Sam Bat produces bats for 120 big-league players out of a manufacturing facility in Carleton Place, although Holman is just a consultant.

Upstairs in a room at MacKenzie’s Brockville home are a number of Expos’ and Rockies’ jerseys hung on the wall with MacKenzie 23 on the backs. Downstairs in another display room are framed jerseys of two of his favourite Dodgers’ icons with no names: No. 42, the other 24.

“Ok, 42 is Jackie Robinson and 24 is Johnny Roseboro?’’ I asked MacKenzie.

“No, Walter Alston.’’

On an opposite wall is a cherished autographed photo of Roseboro, the Dodgers’ catching great, MacKenzie’s hero. Safe to say you know what team was MacKenzie’s favourite growing up and still is, especially the Brooklyn version. He never did get to work for the Dodgers along the way but what he did with other teams and Team Canada is what counts.

“Bill was a very good baseball man. He was one of the finest scouts and minor-league instructors that the Expos had when we were assembling the team that became the 1994 club,’’ Hughes said.

“Bill richly deserves induction into the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame,’’ Didier said.

Many other people agree. The nomination process has begun.

MacKenzie knew his way around a diamond, he had the eloquence and communication skills to deal with the personnel surrounding him, he knew a prospect when he saw one and he still knows how to peel a potato.

Happy Birthday, Bill.