Rhéal Cormier
- Type: Athlete
- Sport(s): Baseball
- Year: 2024
Rhéal Cormier, from Moncton New Brunswick, had two distinct major-league careers. Through most of the 1990s he was a middle-of-the-rotation starter for the St. Louis Cardinals and Montreal Expos. After Tommy John surgery, however, he reinvented himself as a successful late-inning, short stint, relief pitcher for the Boston Red Sox, Philadelphia Phillies, and Cincinnati Reds.
Rhéal Paul Cormier was born on April 23, 1967, in Moncton and died far too soon on March 8, 2021. Former teammate Dan Plesac tweeted: “One of my all-time favorite teammates. He made everyone he played with better.”
Rhéal’s father was a truck driver, making his living hauling logs or lobsters; his mother worked bagging lobsters in the local seafood plant, while also raising the children. There was little money to spare. Cormier once explained that he, and his brother, Donnie, did not play hockey as kids, as one might expect of boys growing up in Canada, because the equipment was too costly. Instead, they both turned to baseball, honing their skills throwing rocks at various objects they could find.
Rhéal was discovered by Art Pontarelli, a major-league scout who ran a baseball clinic in Moncton, where he found Rhéal, a self-conscious little lefty (he threw and batted left-handed) who was one of the few French speakers on the Moncton squad. Rhéal was never really comfortable on that Moncton team. “I didn’t think they wanted me there,” he later said. Pontarelli eventually coached the Moncton team to a championship in a national tournament for teenagers, with Cormier as the star pitcher.
College years: With Rhéal at CCRI (Rhode Island) in 1988, and with his brother Donnie playing second base, CCRI went to the Junior College World Series for the first time, finishing third. Also in 1988, Cormier was a member of the Canadian Olympic Baseball Team. Baseball was a demonstration sport in that year’s Games in South Korea, defeating the powerful USA team.
Pro baseball: hard luck and injuries unfortunately defined a very promising career, but initially Cormier advanced rapidly through the Cardinals farm system. In 1989 he went 12-7 with a 2.23 ERA with the St. Petersburg Cardinals. With Double-A Arkansas in 1990 his record on a poor team was an equally poor 5-12, 5.04, but he impressed the Cardinal management with his control and strikeout/walk ratio. At the end of the 1990 season, he was promoted to the Triple-A Louisville Cardinals, going 1-1, 2.25 in four starts. The performance was good enough to earn him a prospect label and an invitation to spring training
Pro career: Cormier made his major league debut on August 15, 1991. He was the St. Louis Cardinals’ starting pitcher against the New York going six innings, giving up one earned run and striking out two. He pitched for St. Louis through the 1994 season. On April 9, 1995, St. Louis traded Cormier to the Boston Red Sox. In Boston, Cormier split time as a starter and a reliever. He had a 4.07ERA in 1995.
The Red Sox then traded Cormier to the Montreal Expos. He only played in one game for the Expos in 1997, suffering an injury on April 5, 1997, in a game against Colorado That injury required Tommy John surgery, and he transitioned to the bullpen for the remainder of his career beginning in 1999.
In 1998, he signed as a free agent with the Cleveland Indians, and began the year in the minors before shoulder problems ended his season. He would pitch in the majors for another 8 years with Boston and Philadelphia, with the latter, including his best years in pro baseball; he retired in 2007. His won/lost record was 71-64 in 683 games played, with an ERA of 4.07, along with 108 saves and 118 holds, a remarkable record given the impact of injuries and illnesses. One wonders what might have been? He pitched 1222 innings, striking out 760 with a 1.28 WHIP. As a pitcher Rhéal was a very good batter with a .188 average in 228 appearances … in the top 50 among pitchers all-time with over 225 ‘at bats’.
A very good baseball player and an even greater person.