Description
2015 Hall of Famer.
Comes with a letter of authenticity.
Born in Saint John, N.B., and grew up and lived in Fredericton, N.B.,?in 1968, Stairs was hoping to become a professional hockey player until he sustained a serious knee injury in high school. When he recovered, he decided to focus on baseball and he honed his skills at the National Baseball Institute in Surrey, B.C. and with Canada?s junior national team. In 1988, he competed for Canada in the Olympics and hit .362 at the Baseball World Cup and was named the tournament?s top shortstop.
His international success helped convince the Expos to sign him as a free agent in 1989. After parts of four seasons in the minors, the stocky Maritimer made his big league debut with the Expos on May 29, 1992. Over the next four seasons, he split time between Triple-A, the Expos, the Chunichi Dragons of the Japan Central League and the Boston Red Sox, before inking a deal with the Oakland A?s on December 1, 1995.
After belting 10 home runs in 61 games with the A?s in 1996, Stairs walloped 27 homers and posted a .386 on-base percentage the next campaign. He followed that up with 26 and 38 home runs in 1998 and 1999 respectively and drove in more than 100 runs in both of those seasons to become the first Canadian to register back-to-back 25-home run, 100-RBI campaigns.
Au cours des 11 saisons suivantes, Stairs a porté les couleurs de dix équipes différentes, dont les Blue Jays de Toronto pour les campagnes 2007 et 2008. C’est à ce moment qu’il est devenu l’un des meilleurs frappeurs d’urgence des Majeures. Dans ce rôle, il a frappé un record de 23 circuits. Son circuit le plus mémorable, en tant que frappeur suppléant, est survenu en huitième manche du quatrième match de la série de championnat de la Ligue nationale de 2008, avec deux retraits au tableau. Son circuit de deux points, contre le releveur #1 des Dodgers de Los Angeles Jonathan Broxton, plaçait les Phillies en avance dans le match et leur permettait de prendre les devants dans la série. Les Phillies allaient plus tard gagner la Série mondiale.
In all, Stairs? career spanned 19 big league seasons (the most by any Canadian position player) and he hit 265 homers, the second-most by a Canadian (Larry Walker hit 383). He also ranks second all-time amongst Canadians in games (1,895) and walks (717) and third in RBI (899) and doubles (294) and is just one of four Canadians (along with Shawn Hill, Denis Boucher and Rob Ducey) to play for both the Expos and Blue Jays. He also suited up for Canada at the 2006 and 2009 World Baseball Classics.
C’est sans surprise qu’il a été élu au Panthéon des sports du Nouveau-Brunswick en 2012. Depuis sa retraite, il a été analyste aux matchs des Red Sox de Boston et pour les Phillies en 2015 et 2016. Il est présentement l’instructeur des frappeurs des Phillies. Il poursuit son implication communautaire, organisant un tournoi de golf annuel au profit de l’association du baseball mineur de Fredericton et de la SPCA. Il fait également du bénévolat en tant qu’entraîneur de baseball et de hockey.
