Corey Koskie says the toughest part of the last two years was the parade of doctors who ignored the nagging nausea he felt and assured him he was fully healed from the concussion that knocked him out of Baseball in the summer of 2006.
Now symptom-free, Koskie is back in the game and this weekend he'll face major-league competition for the first time in 31 months when he suits up for team Canada in the World Baseball Classic. He enters the tournament a week after signing a minor-league deal with the Chicago Cubs, but doesn't see the event - which starts Saturday at the Rogers Centre - as a test of his readiness to return to the majors.
Instead, the 36-year-old third baseman said he's happy just to be able to represent his country.
"I didn't play in this tournament just to prove to Major League Baseball that I was healthy," said Koskie, who played 97 games with the Blue Jays in 2005. "Just to be in this situation is a blessing."
Koskie met up with the rest of Team Canada's players and coaches yesterday in Dunedin as the squad prepared for today's exhibition game against the Jays.
Scott Richmond, a Jays pitching prospect and North Vancouver, B.C. native, will start for the national team but beyond him, pitching could pose problems for Canada.
Long term, the team lacks proven winners in its starting rotation. Cubs all-star Ryan Dempster skipped the tournament, while Chicago wouldn't release his teammate, Rich Harden, who has a long history of arm injuries.
And short term, manager Ernie Whitt isn't sure he has enough arms to last through this week's trio of exhibition games.
"Our biggest challenge is that we have 27 innings to cover with 13 pitchers," he said. "If you do the math, it just doesn't add up."
But to counterbalance a pitching staff that, on paper, seems thin, Whitt acknowledged he has a surplus of big bats, including former American League MVP Justin Morneau (.300, 129 RBIs in 2008) and left fielder Jason Bay (31 HRs).
Whitt even said he would probably move Bay to over to centre field if it will help the team score more runs.
"It's a position that he's not used to playing, but we want to get the best offensive team out there in the beginning," he said.
And Koskie, a backup at third base on the team's initial depth chart, will probably play sooner as a designated hitter.
Though he hasn't played a live game since July 5, 2006, Koskie said he's fully recovered and completely comfortable with the dangers of high-level play.
"Life is full of risks and I'd be lying if I said I didn't think about it," he said. "But now that my concussion symptoms are gone I'm going to be active."
Canada defeated the U.S. in the 2006 WBC, but a loss to Mexico prevented it from advancing.
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