Despite not having a baseball team at his high school and only playing about 12 games a year as a teen, Dave McKay evolved into a big league prospect. After receiving scholarships from Columbia Basin Junior College and Creighton University, the determined Canadian signed with the Minnesota Twins on June 20, 1971.
After being called up by the Twins in August 1975, he homered in his first big league at bat (the only Canadian to do so). McKay would spend another partial season with the Twins, before being selected by the Toronto Blue Jays in the 1976 expansion draft. The switch-hitting infielder was the only Canadian on the field in the Jays’ first game on April 7, 1977. Despite the snow falling at Exhibition Stadium, McKay had two hits and drove in the winning run in a 9-5 victory over the Chicago White Sox.
McKay’s playing career would finish with three seasons in Oakland, before accepting a coaching position with the A’s. When Tony La Russa was named the A’s manager in 1986, McKay was retained as a coach.
He worked on La Russa’s staff for more than two decades, and moved with the renowned skipper to the St. Louis Cardinals in 1996. One of the game’s hardest working coaches, McKay owns three World Series rings, securing one in 1989 with Oakland and two with St. Louis (2006, 2011).
After LaRussa retired, McKay served as the first base coach with the Chicago Cubs in 2012 and 2013 and was named to the same post with the Arizona Diamondbacks in 2014.
Career Major League Statistics
| G | AB | R | H | D | T | HR | RBI | TB | BB | SO | SB | OBP | SLG | AVG |
| 645 | 1928 | 191 | 441 | 70 | 15 | 21 | 170 | 604 | 86 | 337 | 20 | .266 | .313 | .229 |
For season by season MLB statistics click HERE.
