Joe Siddall

Joseph Todd Siddall

• Bats Left, Throws Right
• Height 6' 1", Weight 197 lb.
• School Central Michigan University
• High School Assumption High School (Windsor)
• Debut July 28, 1993
• Final Game September 26, 1998
• Born October 25, 1967 in Windsor, ON CAN

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Biographical Information

Joe Siddall was a defensive-minded catcher who played for many seasons in the Montreal Expos organization, where he was appreciated for his ability to handle young pitchers. He first came up to the major leagues with the Expos in 1993 and played for them again in 1995. He also played in the majors with the Florida Marlins in 1996 and the Detroit Tigers in 1998. The Tigers were his hometown team, as he had been born and had grown up across the St. Clair River from Detroit, MI, in Windsor, ON.

On September 6, 1993, he was the starting catcher when local boy Denis Boucher started his first game as a member of the Montreal Expos, against the Colorado Rockies. It was the first time since 1883 that a major league team had started an all-Canadian battery, and only the second time since 1900 that a Canadian pitcher had thrown to a compatriot on a major league mound (Eric MacKenzie had caught Ozzie Van Brabant for 1 1/3 innings on April 23, 1955 in what turned out to be MacKenzie's only big league game). In the game, Siddall hit his first career extra-base hit, a double off Steve Reed that tied the game at 3-all in the 8th. There was a third Canadian in the Expos' starting line-up that day, RF Larry Walker, for another first. He caught Boucher again for two more of his starts that season. This is still the only instance since 1900 of an all-Canadian battery to start a game, although Eric Gagné did pitch a couple of times to Russell Martin with the 2006 Los Angeles Dodgers, and Chris Leroux pitched to Martin once in 2013.

Siddall caught Greg A. Harris' swith-pitching effort against the Cincinnati Reds on September 28, 1995.

A couple of decades after his retirement as a player, Siddall became an analyst on Toronto Blue Jays television broadcasts, sharing duties with Buck Martinez with Dan Shulman as the play-by-play broadcaster, and on Blue Jays Central with Jamie Campbell. He also worked on radio broadcasts with Jerry Howarth and Ben Wagner.

Further Reading

• Bill Young: "Three Canadians in Expos' Starting Lineup; September 6, 1993: Montreal Expos 4, Colorado Rockies 3 At Olympic Stadium", in Norm King, ed.: Au jeu/Play Ball: The 50 Greatest Games in the History of the Montreal Expos, SABR, Phoenix, AZ, 2016, pp. 90-92. ISBN 978-1-943816-15-6