On Canada Day 2026, let us remember that since 1962, our neighbors to the north have given (or at least loaned) the New York Mets a dozen of their countrymen, sending them south from their home and native land to play baseball for the likes of us. Therefore, we salute:
Ray Daviault — who pitched in the Mets’ very first home game at the Polo Grounds;
Ken MacKenzie — who posted the only winning record for the Original Mets;
Tim Harkness — who belted a 14th-inning walkoff grand slam to defeat the Cubs in 1963;
Ron Taylor — who saved 13 games for the 1969 World Champion Mets;
Brian Ostrosser — who briefly filled in at shortstop for Buddy Harrelson during the prelude to the Mets’ pennant run of 1973;
Jason Bay — who ran into walls as a Met left fielder, only because he couldn’t run through them
Mike Nickeas — who used the custom R.A. Dickey knuckleball mitt behind the plate when Josh Thole needed a breather;
Jim Henderson — who followed in the no-relation tradition of Met Hendersons Steve, Ken, and Rickey;
Rob Zastryzny — who waited patiently through roster roll call for a spell during 2022;
Zach Pop — who is better known to us in the northeastern United States as Zach Soda;
Jonah Tong — who remains talented and eager to show it again soon;
and Jared Young — who is the Mets’ incumbent first baseman, partly on merit, partly because there’s not really anybody else on hand to be that.
Canada, in the form of its lone existing Major League Baseball team, also gave the New York Mets a whuppin’ on Canada Day 2026, a 9-3 decision in favor of the Toronto Blue Jays at Rogers Centre. The Jays gave it to Freddy Peralta in particular, but in the spirit of North American brotherhood, they gave it to us all.
Let us forget that.
