Windsor's 'Captain Canada

Windsor's 'Captain Canada' enshrined in Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame

Stubby Clapp played in 2 Olympic Games and helped Canada win bronze at the 1999 Pan Am Games

From Windsor’s floodlit baseball diamonds to the bright lights of the major leagues, Stubby Clapp never stopped swinging for the fences.

Now, the local baseball legend can add another accolade to his accomplished professional career: Canadian Baseball Hall of Famer.

Clapp was inducted into the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame, located in St. Marys, Ont., on Saturday, alongside five others who helped elevate the game in Canada.

Growing up in Windsor’s Remington Park neighbourhood, Clapp played little league in the city, and was eventually selected in the 1996 MLB draft by the St. Louis Cardinals, according to a release from the hall of fame.

The current first base and infield coach for the Cardinals credits his Windsor upbringing for fueling his major league aspirations.

“It’s very blue collar… Nothing’s handed to you [in Windsor],” Clapp told CBC News. “You have to earn what you get there. And I think that helped shape who I was. You know, that's what you're brought up with.”

Clapp spent most of his 11 year playing career within the Cardinals organization, eventually earning a call up to the major leagues for 23 games in 2001.

For his childhood friends, it was always clear that a career in sports was in the cards for Clapp, though it wasn’t always clear just how far he'd go.

“He was a small guy, very tenacious. So you would think that ‘okay, yeah, he’s good. But is he major league good?’” recalled childhood friend Joel Ferasol. “And lo and behold, here we are. He’s not only major league good, but he’s hall of fame good.”

Ferasol, alongside Sanja Srdanov, grew up with Clapp, with all three attending elementary and high school together. Both childhood friends attended the induction ceremony over the weekend.

“He always had this fight to him to keep going,” Srdanov said. “And then you say, 'wow, it’s the Olympics. Like holy cow.'”

The Windsor slugger joined the national team, earning the nickname “Captain Canada.”

At the 1999 Pan Am Games, Clapp was central to Canada’s bronze medal run, driving the winning run in extra innings to beat a more talented Team USA during round-robin play. Clapp followed up that performance with appearances in the 2004 and 2008 Olympic Games.

He later went on to coach Team Canada at the 2015 Pan Am Games, and the 2013 and 2026 World Baseball Classic tournaments.

Remington Park's 'Captain Canada'

With a career that took the local slugger across North America and onto the world stage, Ferasol says his childhood friend put the Windsor neighbourhood he grew up in “on the map.”

“I was born and raised in Windsor. I lived in Remington Park my whole life, went to Gilmore Elementary School,” Clapp said. “Getting to see those familiar faces and being so grateful that they came up and supported me, that was special.”

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The fact that he included the south Windsor neighborhood in his induction speech was enough to make the local hero’s childhood friends well up — after all, the man they’ve known since elementary school is now immortalized on his own hall of fame plaque.

“I went up to Halloween, and I hung out at his house and his stupid yellow BMX he used to ride around all the time. And now here he is playing for Team Canada,” Ferasol said.

“You can’t help but feel pride, and feel, in some small way, like a part of it. It was awesome.”

Liam Baker is a journalist for CBC Ottawa. He also reports and produces stories for CBC Windsor, and on Inuit Nunangat for CBC Nunavut. Previously, he's reported for CBC Yukon, CBC Thunder Bay, and CBC Toronto's Enterprise unit. You can reach him at liam.baker@cbc.ca