It was more than a year ago that Rheal Cormier, the 15-year major league veteran from New Brunswick, saw the end of his career flashing in a radar-gun readout.
He'd just been granted his release from the Atlanta Braves after suffering an injury to his throwing shoulder. His arm hurt and he thought he would surely need surgery. And even if the operation wasn't career-ending, what kind of a career could be resurrected by a reliever with a fastball last clocked doing 83 m.p.h. en route to kingdom come.
Cormier, who'd thrown 93 m.p.h. in his prime, didn't pitch all of last summer, and perhaps he was perceived as past-due damaged goods by the 30 major-league teams that neglected to offer him a contract this past spring.
But when Baseball Canada dangled the idea of a 20th anniversary Olympic appearance – Cormier, after all, had been on the Canadian squad in 1988, when baseball was a demonstration sport – the lefty was intrigued enough to spend this summer conducting one last search for his form.
His rehab assignment was a senior-league team in his native province. And somewhere in the process of pitching 30-some innings for the Moncton Mets, Cormier says his arm rounded into an unexpected renaissance. At 41, he is once again the purveyor of a 90 m.p.h. fastball.
"The velocity's back to where it was, which kind of puts me into hesitation, `Where is this coming from?'" said Cormier yesterday as the Canadian squad prepared for tomorrow's Olympic opener against China. "I try to work out as much as I can (but) it's just one of those things where it's kind of surprising."
It's a welcome surprise for the Canadians, who will count relief pitching as their strength at these Games. Four years after a fourth-place finish in Athens, familiar names still dot the Canadian roster, including Stubby Clapp and Peter Orr. And while the Blue Jays' call-up of starting pitcher Scott Richmond put a dent in the national staff, a short-format tournament like this one is an unpredictable beast. And pitching isn't necessarily the chief concern of manager Terry Puhl.
"We have to score runs," Puhl said. "If you hit, you're gonna play. Because I think our pitching is going to be enough."
Speaking to Puhl, one gets the sense that some of Canada's players, the usual mish-mash of mostly minor leaguers, are excited beyond words.
"These guys are going to be so wired, they'll be swinging at pitches when it's 20 feet out of (the pitcher's) hand," said Puhl. "I'm trying to get them calmed down. That's a major issue."
Cormier certainly qualifies as a calming influence. And there are those who believe a man with his experience could find big-league work after these Games.
"There's not a lot of lefties with that kind of experience still throwing (90 miles an hour)," said Denis Boucher, the former major league pitcher who is Canada's pitching coach.
Cormier said he'd welcome a return to the majors. But he's also making plans for life after the game. He's building a house in Park City, Utah, where he plans to move with his wife and two teenaged children from their current base in Florida. Cormier's kids are snowboarding enthusiasts and he said he misses four seasons and snow. But before he settles in for winter, he's giving the autumn of his career one more chance.
"Whatever (comes) after this is fine, and if it's the end of the road, that's great," he said. "I can't complain. I've had a great run, and at the same time, if there's more beyond this ..."